Memories (from the future) chapter 2

[Willy_for_Boobies]

Now here is the room for the chapter 2 of this nice and interesting story ;-))

and here is the link to: Chapter 1

.. and If you want to know more about, click the following links:


A quick primer on the Amazonian Imperial military or AIDOF
Characters of Import in Chapter 1

[Sylviekat]

Thanks Willie, Cath and others anyway the start of chapter 2

Mademoiselle Parker, SAN: 2628-2630
Fleet Training: Unlike the Salon, fleet training was all business and very intense. The Fleet Training Center is a huge complex that is in orbit around Avonia Prime. There were several hundred Kaydettes and thousands more enlisted fresh out of their primary training. Wendy and I were assigned to the AISA Montessori, Elementary Fleet Training Vessel 16, under the command of Kommandette Sally Burton.

The Montessori was nothing more than a converted Soro class transport ship that was a stellar classroom. Her permanent crew consisted of eighteen Officettes, two ordained officettes and 26 Senior PERS. Her training detachment consisted of thirty Kaydettes, 60 junior PERS and 240 Junior Enlisted. We were divided into five watches. Ship’s mistress and her executive along with the COB and Chief Bo ‘son formed the command element. The chief Engineer and her two senior mates accounted for the permanent Engineering staff, Sister Nurse Superior Wilcox and Sister Nurse Alexander along with two Apothecaries handled the medical and spiritual needs, while the rest of the permanent party formed the training cadre.

The Montessori had trainees for the 8th, 13th and 20th Starfleets. Two watches were assigned for the trainees from the 8th and another one and half for the 20th. The 13th had one full and the other half watch. Wendy and I were both assigned to the half watch, or the 5th Watch. Majourette Rita Johnson was the matriarch for 5th Watch. Two Lewtenettes Kimberly Dennis, and Laura Sternmeyer aided her. We had Sarjenette Upper Class Ursula Travis, (5th cousin to Wendy) as the Watch Chief. She was assisted by three Sarjenettes; Chief Gunner’s Mate Gloria Walker, Chief Engineer’s Mate Stephanie Marshal; and Chief Boson’s Mate Urmidio Vort (a Wandii from the Alien Auxiliary). The SPERS along with the two Lewtenettes (Miss Sternmeyer for Navigation, and Miss Dennis for other Bridge Operations) were the primary instructors as we learned the ins and outs of the ship.
The trainees of 5th watch which, included six Kaydettes, 12 Junior PERS (Junior Sarjenettes); and 48 rookies that were fresh from primary formed the rest of our watch. We were likewise divided into three divisions. Each division had two Kaydettes, four JPERS, and 12 Junior Enlisted. Wendy and I were both in 2nd division. And to continue each division was divided into two shifts (port and starboard), each led by one Kaydette and two JPERS with 8 ratings. The last sub-division was, the enlisted were finally separated into Fore and Aft sections led by a Junior Sarjenette and four enlisted that were naturally in two pairs.
Ok I had Starboard Shift, and so the rest of my shift looked like this: Fore Section: Junior Sarjenette Tamara Andrews, Rookies, Amy Hunt; Beverly Waters, Cindy Ichorne, and Paulette Dambroux. Aft Section: Junior Sarjenette Lisa Hollister and Rookies Foxy Girl (A reptilian Alien called a Ssuperliss), Uvoki Vort, and Quihn Mai Ling, and Gracie Lou Geirson. The Kaydettes were bunked in Officette Company, and I shared my quarters with Wendy. 5th Watch was berthed between decks H and K, and 2nd Division in the after frames of deck J. So my gals had bunks on the starboard side of Deck J between Frames 15 and 30. The fore section had Frames 15 to 20 and the aft section 21 to 28 (29 and 30 was the lavatory). After reporting in and being directed to our respective bunks to store our baggage, we were still in Shore dress which with the boots made walking around the ship a bit cumbersome.

“Ok Fifth Watch I am Majourette Johnson, I am the Matriarch for this watch, we will spend six cycles together which coupled with your Kaydette cruise will complete your training and certification as a Officette in SAN. To aid me with your training I have Miss Dennis and Miss Sternmeyer. They will be your evaluators along with me. For general evaluation I have 1st Division, Miss Dennis has 2nd Division and Miss Sternmeyer has 3rd. However in our respective specialties we have the primary evaluation. Miss Sternmeyer will teach you Navigation and rudimentary Astrogation, and Miss Dennis will get you fully acquainted with the Bridge and all of the fun things there. My specialty is with the offensive and defensive systems of this tub, otherwise called weapons. Miss Perkins, the matriarch of 4th Watch will teach you the fine arts of engineering, and I will teach her Kaydettes Weapons. Likewise Miss Rothchild, the matriarch of 3rd Watch, Miss Ebhert, 2nd, and Miss Justin, 1st watch will instruct you in the following areas respectively, ship board operations, damage control, and naval tactics. Ms. Burton, as well as Ms. Jenkins, the Executive, and Ms. Nelson our chief Engineer might have a thing or two to show you as well. Our training rotation is as follows 1st Cycle: ship familiarity and Bridge Ops and Navigation. Followed by Weapons, the 2nd Cycle. 3rd Cycle you will be with Miss Perkins, and 4th Cycle with Miss Ebhert and Miss Rothchild. 5th Cycle will be with Miss Justin and then back with me to combine everything you have learned. Finally 6th cycle we evaluate you on what you have learned, and we will assign you to your specialty and first assignment. Any questions? Ok good, Ladies take charge of your respective divisions, 1st section follow me, dismissed.”

Miss Dennis motioned for Wendy and me to follow her to her quarters, upon entering she closed the door and sat down on her bunk. It seemed the she shared the bunk with Miss Sternmeyer who left her group in the wardroom.

“As you can see Laurie got the short straw, so she will do her formal introduction now and wait for the informal introductions.” She said with a sly grin. “Ok first the formal stuff, since you two gals are my Kaydettes for 2nd Division I will let you know that I am stern but fair, our purpose is to train you to be Officettes in SAN and at the same time determine where in SAN you belong. Each section has its duties and may lead to a command of your own but some paths are quicker than others, but no matter if you get Services or Bridge Command do your duty to the best of your ability and serve the Empress proudly.”
We both nodded as she continued “Now Wendy and Cynthia, you two are both from Sally Ride correct?”
Again we nodded yes almost in unison “Ah good, were you paired, no wait names too far apart same circle?”
“No Ma’am Wendy said”
“ Oh drat, well I guess we will make up for lost time, and Wendy when we are not on duty it’s Kim, got that, same for you Cyndi.”
“Yes Ma’am er Kim….”
“Your quarters are adjacent to mine and Laurie’s, and across from her girls, so that makes things convenient. Consider you two a pair, and likewise partnered with Laurie and me.”
Wendy looked over at me and smiled, my return expression was on the bashful side
“I see by your expressions you understand. So let’s get comfy and know one another better” Kim said while unfastening Wendy’s jumper….

After several hours of intense informal counseling, we washed up and changed into the uniform which, we would spend 80% of our waking time in for the whole training rotation: Shipboard Duty dress: This was a blue polo shirt with rank insignia on each collar, a black skort with high friction sandals. In combat conditions we would wear a skintight vacuum suit instead, but for daily wear the ship board duty dress was the name of the game. Enlisted wore their rank insignia on the right sleeve, all certified personnel had their specialty either as a pin or embroidered logo over the left breast with the name tape on the right. As trainees we only had the nametape. Before departing Kim’s quarters she told us that we should each meet our shift, as although we will be learning the duties of an Officette, it will be OJT with the new JPERS and rookies. She told us that typically each shift is assigned to the same ship or vessel for the shake down and certification cruise. We kissed her good bye, and it was more than a friendly kiss and I went to go find the girls of Starboard 2-5.

[Sylviekat]

Ok this next little section we meet for the first time Miss Parker's troops so to speak and also a bit more into Imperial society as whole to include the place aliens (non humans) hold within the Empire and the military. The Empire may be sexists but they are not xenophobes by a long shot.

My first Command: As Officette in charge or Mistress of Starboard-2-5 I was held accountable for the actions and welfare of 10 souls. Not an overwhelming number but still daunting considering in Salon although we were nominally responsible for the party or circle or even the sorority the cadre would step in if something bad was about to happen. Not so here, if Miss Johnson or Kim or Laurie had to step in, or even worse one of the SPERS, there would be serious negative repercussion to the guilty parties.
Since my gals were all on Deck J, and Wendy already got to the after galley, I decided that the largest area for a impromptu meeting was the Lavatory. I have never met any of my charges except in the most formal manner as we all stood at parade in the shuttle hanger bay. Since I wasn’t quite sure which Sarjenette was senior, or where exactly frame 29 J was, I asked the first permanent party member I could find. It turned out to be Sarjenette Vort.
“Um excuse me Sarjenette?” I asked the tall black furred canine looking alien.

“Yes, oh yes Ma’am how can I be of assistance, by the way Miss Parker, you really should call me Chief, the others of your kind are especially particular about these things.” She smiled showing off rows and rows and rows of sharp teeth, her naked rat-like tail swishing behind her modified uniform.

“Right, thank you Chief Vort or is it Urmidio?”

“Chief Vort will do, as I am the only Vort of that rank aboard at this time, however we have two Junior Sarjenettes and eight rookie Vorts so that might be a bit confusing.”

“Er are you all related or something” I asked lamely, never having seen a Wandii before.

With that Chief Vort laughed, or more like barked with extreme mirth, her tail wagging furiously, this drew the attention of Sarjenette Travis.

“What’s all the racket, oh Urmi, what are you laughing about?, this trainee do something she shouldn’t have done?” She said ignoring me for the moment.

“No Chief, she asked why we have so many Vorts, by the way have you met Miss Parker?”

“Oh no I have not had the pleasure, hmm welcome aboard Ma’am.” She said while tossing a very causal salute, What watch and section are you?”

I returned a crisper salute and said “2nd of the 5th, Chief..”

“Ah, you are one of my young ladies, very good, hey Urmi which of you drew 2nd?”
“That would be Chief Engineer’s Mate Marshal.”

“Ah right Iron Bun’s herself, word of advice Miss Parker, our illustrious Engineering assistant instructor can be quite ruthless on her evaluations. Now Urmi please enlighten the young Miss Parker why the Montessori is crawling with so many Vorts. Ma’am, nice meeting you.” She said throwing another salute and headed aft.

“Well you see Ma’am I am a Wandii, and well we come in three types, Val, Valmant and Vort. Vals and Valmants are restricted to very select roles in AIDOF as they happen to be the males of my species, Vorts are the females, and so we have the same rights as any female in the Empire, however the Vals and Valmants do have more rights than your own species of male, but we are here to serve AIDOF not to discuss the social institutions of Her Imperial Majesty. Wandii have two, maybe three names, the first name is the common name, the 2nd name is the honor name, if awarded, and the third is the gender name. In my case I have a common and gender name only, so my name is Urmidio Vort. I believe you have a Rookie by the name of Uvoki Vort in your section, it would best to call her Rookie Vort unless there are two than you should say Rookie Uvoki Vort, is there anything else I can help you with?” The tall alien SPER said now more seriously.

“Yes Chief, could you tell me where frame 29 J is?”

“Ah right, ok we are located at frame 16 E, frame 29 J is five decks down and 15 frames aft, if I am not mistaken that is a lavatory, if you need to use one there is one at 18 E, two hatches down.”

“Oh no that is close to the berths of my shift, and looks like the best place for a meeting with the whole shift, since another shift mistress has the galley.”

“I see ok, well then, Miss Parker the best way is to head back to 8 E take the lift down to J deck and from there make your way aft to frame 12. There take the ladder down to K deck and make your way to the other ladder at frame 32 and go up to J, then head forward to frame 29.” The Chief rattled off the confusing directions almost faster than I could record them in my data pad.

“Why can’t I go directly to frame 29 from J deck?” I asked her.

“Well you could but between frame 12 to 14 is the main weapon’s control and except during general quarters rally passage through there is restricted, you could do it, but cycling through the triple airlocks would take more time and trouble than it is worth. If you have nothing further Ma’am I need to be on my way.”

“Right thanks Chief, that was a big help.” She saluted and walked off forward towards the Nanny Locker, or where the SPERS reside.

Following her directions I made it down to frame 29 with little trouble. I was walking towards the lavatory when the hatch in front opened and I nearly banged into a girl about a year or two older than me she had a single heart on her sleeve. She quickly looked at my sleeve and noticed nothing on it, but failed to look at my collar. “Hey you! Watch where you are going, I thought I said stow your gear first, but I guess you thought you could use the lavatory, don’t they tell you silly sods anything at Primary anymore?”

Taken aback by her tone, I stammered a bit, and then regained my composure. “Er sorry Junior Sarjenette McAndrews, having never attended Primary, I would not know, but at the Salon they did teach me a few things about respect and curtsey….”

“Junior Sarjenette McAndrews then looked up and noticed the twin orange V’s and snapped to attention and saluted, she then shouted “Attention Officette on Deck!”

“Ah much better, you are Port shift right?”

“Er yes Ma’am…”

“Good then I can overlook this incident and not report you to Miss Travis, carry on Sarjenette McAndrews.” She saluted did an about turn and headed back towards frame 14.

I waited a bit then calmly strolled into the berthing area, on both sides port and starboard the rookies and junior sarjenettes were lined up at attention. “Port shift carry on Miss Travis will be down shortly, Starboard shift fall out and report to the lavatory, bring a data pad and stylus. Fall Out!” The orderly lines dispersed as young girls darted to their lockers to find the data pads, I noticed several were still in their shore duty dress. About five minutes later all ten of my girls were in the lavatory sitting down on the cool floor.
“Right just like you, this is my first assignment, and like you I am learning what we all need to do to function in SAN. I am Miss Parker and have the honor of being Starboard Shift’s Mistress. Have you divided into fore and aft sections? Oh good, so Junior Sarjenettes Andrews and Hollister have their responsibilities. Just to give you a heads up, for the first week or so we will be familiarizing ourselves with the basics of the Montessori, then we will leave port and conduct some basic drills. The first stage for us is bridge operations, then we move to gunnery, then engineering, then damage control and ship functions. I have no clue what area I want to specialize in, and I am sure many of you are in the same boat, however we are blessed to have two veterans amongst us so listen to your Section supervisors and to the Chiefs and we will all have productive training rotation. Sarjenettes Andrews Hollister stand fast, the rest of you return to your duties, oh and by the way Shipboard is the uniform of the day, dismissed!”

Waiting for the 8 rookies to leave. I sat down next to the two JPERS. “Ok so tell me your take of the girls and your own experiences please.”

It turned out that Andrews was rated for engineering and plans on returning there when she gets her senior rating certification. Hollister is bridge certified, helm and sensors, she wants to transfer to gunnery if possible. In the brief time they had with the Rookies, Andrews thinks that Waters and Ichorne are her best girls, and Dambroux might be a bit of a problem. She has no opinion one way or the other on Hunt, as she seems to be very shy and keeps to herself as much as possible. Ichorne has expressed a desire to be a helmsgal, while both Waters and Dambroux want anything but services. Hunt isn’t sure maybe engineering. For Hollister’s group, she told me that Gierson seems to be a xenophobe and wants nothing to do with Foxy Girl or Vort, as for the two aliens both seem very competent and professional, although Foxy Girl is not overly friendly. Ling is the enigma for Aft section. As for career aspirations, Foxy wants gunnery or weapons division, Vort is fascinated with communications or navigation, and Gierson wants to fix things, she says mechanics run in her family. Ling has no preference. So based on their highly informal reports it looks like Gierson, Dambroux need to be watched, while Hunt and Ling need to be challenged, Ichrone and Waters look like potential leaders, while the alien duo have the possibility of being most technically competent. I thanked them and told them that Starboard 2-5 was to report to the visual navigation bridge for our first class at 1900 hours.

[Sylviekat]

Time to close out the training part of the story and reunite some young ladies.

---

Miss Dennis led the assembly on the bridge, the orientation took about two hours, and we were shown all the duty stations that were on the bridge or more importantly the visual navigation bridge. The difference between the VNB and the other bridge called the Battle Direction Center (BDC) is that the VNB is used for non-combat operations, while the BDC is where the ship or vessel is fought. Docking procedures are conducted on the VNB. On all Imperial ships the VNB is at the top of the superstructure.
The VNB has stations for helm, communications, sensors and navigation. On the Montessori each station had three seats so the trainees can work on the same problem at the same time. We watched Miss Dennis and Chief Hanson (from 4th Watch) go through the motions. Hollister was asked to simulate leaving our mooring and plot a course for the other side of the station. She performed admirably, while she was going through the exercise I noticed that Ichrone was looking over her shoulder with much interest. Miss Dennis noticed as well. She went to skipper’s chair and picked up the intercom and talked briefly with someone soon after we heard a voice.

“BDC control to VNB plot solution and make ship ready for short term transit.”

Miss Dennis replied “Aye Ma’am plot solution and make ship ready for short term transit. Chief Hanson on the ISC please announces make ship ready for transit, permanent crew to stations.”

“Aye Ma’am on ISC, make ship ready for transit, permanent crew to stations. NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS, MAKE SHIP READY CONDITION ANGEL, PERMANENT CREW TO STATIONS.”

With that a single bell rang and Miss Dennis sat at the skipper’s station. Chief Hanson took a seat at the helm control station. Soon afterward Ms. Jenkins and Chief Mirkio (a small reddish rodent alien called a Tikus, from 2nd watch) came up. Chief Mirkio took a station at the sensors, while Ms. Jenkins just found an extra seat as an observer; she hastily waved off the call to attention.

“Miss Dennis you have the con, however put three of your trainees in position.”

“Aye Ma’am, Miss Parker, come up here and observe, Junior Mate Hollister take primary helm next to Chief Hanson, Trainee Ichrone take the secondary helm, on second thought, Ichrone Primary helm, Hollister, primary sensors. Miss Parker, who are your next two best bridge people?” Miss Dennis asked me (no first names when on duty)

“Ma’am those would be Trainees Vort and Waters.” “Right Trainee Vort, you are on primary communications, Trainee Waters primary navigation.” “Junior Mate Andrews, I know you are a boiler monkey but take lead over navigation. Right that leaves you four, Ling, secondary helm, Foxy Girl, secondary sensors, Dambroux secondary navigation, and Gierson secondary communication.”

“Er Ma’am I request a different assignment…” The bigoted trainee said stated taking on airs not really appropriate for a Trainee fresh from primary.

“What Gierson?” Miss Dennis asked a bit taken aback at the request.

“Ma’am I request that I not be placed by that thing….”

“Oh you do, do you? Request denied, and for your lack of respect to a fellow crewmate you have KP this entire week for all meals, all watches, and you can’t be late for any assigned classes, now get your chauvinistic ass over there before I drop kick it in the nearest airlock!”

“Miss Parker!” She nearly screamed at me

“Yes Ma’am?”

“Were you aware of this trainee’s views regarding our AAF trainees and crew?”

“Yes Ma’am but I didn’t know how serious they were Junior Mate Hollister did inform me of the potential problem.”

“Right very good, I can’t wait until she meets Chief Killer with Large Guns.”

“Ok Miss Parker upon receipt of navigational data from the BDC, I want you to take us out at ½ MMH (Megameters per Hour or 1000 KPH), then make a loop of the station, I will bring her back into the dock.”

“Aye Ma’am, Waters confirm data with BDC and transmit to con.” I said taking control of the ship,

“Aye Ma’am, BDC confirms course 279 bearing 12, level bubble, speed ½ MMH.”

“Roger that, Hollister any traffic in pattern?”

“No Ma’am scope is clear.”

“Right, Miss Dennis, Ma’am, our pattern is clear, and course locked in for departure of dock, permission to engage at ½ MMH?”

Miss Dennis said “Wait one, Chief Hanson do you concur that course is locked in as stated?”
“Aye Ma’am, I concur that course is locked in as stated by Miss Parker.”

“Very good, Chief Mirkio do you concur that scope is clear?”

“Aye, scope is clear honorable Mademoiselle Lewtenettte, we are clear for departure.”

“Roger that, BDC this is VNB we have course lock and scope is clear for first leg… Aye BDC, proceed with evolution, VNB out.” Miss Dennis then turned toward me and smiled as she said “Miss Parker take us out if you please.”

At this point I was really nervous and was starting to perspire. “Any time unless you think we should all suit up in case you drive this tub into the dock.” Kim said with smirk.
“Ichrone set speed to ½ MMS and course 279 bearing 12, level bubble.”

“Aye Ma’am course and speed set to 279 bearing 12, level bubble ½ MMH.”

“Take us out Ichrone.” I told the also nervous Trainee

“Miss Parker, permission to undo mooring clamps?” asked Chief Hanson

“Er, right, yes Chief, go ahead remove clamps.”

“Aye Aye Ma’am, Clamps removed, ok now Ichrone you may take us out.” We felt the ship shudder briefly as the clamps were released and then ever so slowly the ship moved away from the dock accelerating until we reached the speed of one half a megameter per hour or about 500 kph.

Miss Dennis then turned in the command chair and looked at me and the rest of the group “Very good Miss Parker, in fact very good Starboard 2-5. Ok now, secondary chairs take over and Miss Parker I want our second leg, course and heading.”

“Aye Ma’am Second chairs take over, Dambroux get data from BDC for second leg, Foxy let us know if something is out there we might want to avoid, and Ling the controls are all yours.”

“Ma’am BDC has transmitted the second leg, Course 090 bearing 68, up 12 degrees, speed 3 MMH.”

“Roger that, Helm plot course 090 bearing 68, up 12 degrees, speed 3 MMH”

“Sensors any contacts on new course and bearing?”

“Noosss Misssss Par ger, sscope isss clear.” Foxy said in a heavily accented voice

“Right Ok Ling lock course and speed and head us over to new bearing.” Ling just sat there staring at the controls, until Chief Hanson showed her what to do, once she punched in the data on elevation and speed the ship lurched a bit as went from the near idle speed of ½ MMH to a safe port speed of 3 MMH (3000 kph or 1000 Imperial miles Per hour).
Miss Dennis then directed the next leg “Very good, get next leg data, and time to execute, to do this Leads take over, as imputing data prior to execution is tricky.”

We watched how the lead at each station gathered the information needed, at the helm Chief Hanson plotted the new course and speed (100, bearing 180, minus 16 degrees, present speed) but did not execute until we were at the designated point. Chief Mirkio stated that there was some traffic to the starboard but the were well clear of our new heading and course. At about this time FTC control signaled us.

AISA MONTESSORI BE ADVISED AISS DAGGER IS ON PRIORTY DISPATCH

“ Roger that FTC Control, Montessori confirms, we have Dagger on scope.”

ROGER MONTESSORI FTC OUT

“Ok girls, look out to starboard and well will pass within about 13 klicks from the AISS Dagger, she is battle cruiser and nearly five times the size of us.”

We looked out and saw a large ship coming almost at a right angle to us, and even at this distance I could tell she was big, I heard about battle cruisers and dreadnoughts but never imagined seeing one so soon. Looking across the vastness of space, and seeing that beautiful ship, I knew I would command something like that, I just knew it, however I also knew I was missing something important at the moment as well.

“Miss Parker!”

“Er yes Ma’am…” I said with a start.

“If you are quite through daydreaming let’s get back to the task at hand, the 3rd and 4th legs are for your girls, I want the primary team to handle leg 3 and the secondary team leg 4. “

“Aye Ma’am, right primary chairs get ready to plot our third leg, secondary prepare for leg 4, ok let’s move people.”

Leg’s 3 and 4, were uneventful and through this little exercise It became quite obvious which of the Rookies were bridge staff material and which were not. Miss Dennis and Ms. Jenkins debriefed me, saying that I did a wonderful job for a first time out. And although I still had to go through the rest of the stations, both of them were fairly certain which department I was destined. After that first day the rest of Elementary Fleet training was a piece of cake. Even my problem children managed to pass without any recycle. Wendy found herself a nice home in the weapons division, and we both hated SS&M or Ship’s Services and Maintenance.

At the end of the 6th cycle everyone was certified in their primary department.
Junior Mate Hollister was just too good a sensor tech to transfer to gunnery and so she was certified a Sensor Mate. Junior Mate Andrews did well at navigation but as we found out during our cycle in engineering that was where she excelled and easily got her certification as an Engineering Mate. As for the rookies, well four were no longer rookies by the end of the rotation. Troopie Ichrone became a certified helmsgal, Troopie Waters turned out to be really good at gunnery and navigation, but since good navigators are harder to find, she was rated as navigation tech.
Troopie Vort did not get communications but rather found a new love, environmental and life support, so she went into SS&M as certified Environmental tech, (both Wendy and I thought that AIDOF was missing out keeping even our female aliens from the officette ranks, as Uvoki would make a fine environmental engineer, as was proved when she received a direct commission upon integration in 2655.) And the last Troopie was the surprise of the entire rotation Quihn Mai Ling. It turned out she totally stank on the bridge but wow what a skilled artisan, she was rated both in electronics and damage control. She ended up with the dual rating so she could be posted in either the DC teams or SS&M.
Dambroux did not get SS&M she ended up with a rating in shuttle operations, as a landing control tech. Foxy and Gierson were both busted for fighting amongst themselves, with Gierson needing a eight day stay in the infirmary, this is the reason Foxy was denied promotion to Troopie. However as was hinted on that first day she did extremely well in gunnery, and got three ratings, as a missile tech, gunnery tech and torpedo tech. Any gunnery division will be quite happy with her on the team, if she can learn to control her temper. Gierson turned out to not be boast when she said she could fix things, and like Ling she got two ratings one in DC and the other in maintenance. At the request of the Chief Boson she was given maintenance as her primary. This left little shy mousy Rookie Hunt. We never did get her to speak much, and her stint in communications was a total washout, but once she got near the big machines in engineering she proved her worth. By far one of the smartest of the trainees, she almost seemed to become one with anything mechanical. She received ratings in normal engineering; reactor control and FTL drive systems. Ms. Nelson wanted to promote her but her interpersonal skills were so substandard, that she would just have to wait until the full year rather than get a midyear promotion. (Even to this day Master Engineering Chief Amy Hunt still is as shy as one can be, and be a Kommand Sarjent aboard a Rhondra class super dreadnought).
After we received our ratings or certifications we were given our posting. As was suggested back on day one, all of 2nd Section was posted on the same ship, the AISS Golgotha, a Neptune class medium cruiser for the shakedown cruise. She was due to dock at Avonia in three days to pick up replacement personnel (us).

3rd Interlude: While waiting for the arrival of the Golgotha, Wendy and I got billeted in the transient officette quarters. Although still Kaydettes, we had bright silver fleet insignia and for me the sextant of command, and Wendy the crossed missiles of weapons.

We also talked with some of the other Kaydettes from 5th Watch, two were going to be stationed on the Illustrious a huge carrier that just got back from the fighting around Zeta, it turned out to be another defeat, for the girls in pink, but the sacrifice the ground forces gave halted any further expansion. The worst news was that Lady Nicole Volkberg was among the casualties, and was not known if she would survive.
Wendy and I were in the mess at Avonia Naval base when we heard a group of girls laughing, and bragging about their latest exercise. They had to be Aerobabes, talking about loops and getting on the bogy’s six. Wendy wanted to ignore them but I thought I heard a familiar voice. Looking up from my ice tea, I saw Barbara, she was with three other Aerobabes, and the bright gold wings of fighter command were quite noticeable. I motioned to Wendy to take a look. She did and let out a gasp.

“Oh my it’s Barbara Foster and Rianne and Melissa, hey, Sally Ride! Over here!”

“Looking around to see who was shouting Rianne L’Tour noticed Wendy first.

“Oh my word, hey girls its Wendy and Cynthia, let’s go meet them.”

“Sure, how about it Terry, over there are two of our Salon buddies, granted they were not as fortunate to wear purple, but they are good people.”

“I’d say, Barbie, you and Cynthia were very close right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say were, if you she wants to keep things going…”

“You go girl, mustn’t keep the love birds separated” They walked over, and we were introduced to Terry Bernard, She and Melissa had slightly different wings. Turned out they were not pilots but Weapon systems operators, Terry was with Barbara and Rianne and Melissa formed another team. Barbara came over and kissed me fully on the lips, and then we embraced holding each other closely. Wendy and Terry had slightly jealous looks.

“Um Barb, it’s nice to see you; and you too Rianne, Melissa, what brings you here?”

“Oh we are waiting transport to the Illustrious; we are assigned to its Sheena-Cat group. It sounds like her aerospace wing took a pounding, so she is being outfitted exclusively with Sheena-cats and Warriors, no more Amazons and Sheenas, how about you?”
“Oh we are both billeted on the Golgotha I believe we are your main escort. Although from what I have heard she carries some Amazons as well.”
“Well, Cyn if you ask me, or any of us, the Amazon is old news, now with the Sheena-cat we have firepower and speed, we saw the prototype of the new Tempest attack fighter, I think our squadron is slated for those at the end of the next cruise. So what do those pretty badges mean anyway?”

“Oh we both have our fleet certification badge, and then I am in the command division while Wendy is in the weapons division.”

“Er command, so you are like the boss or something?”

“Oh heaven’s no, I am on the bridge or BDC er Battle Direction Center watch staff, my department flies the ship, kinda like you, while Wendy fights the ship kinda like Terry.”
“Ah right so perfect, so what is good to eat here, besides my favorite Parker house roll?” She said with a wink.

[Sylviekat]

The Empire is dominated by the Amazonians but regular Terran Humans and the product improved Homo Superior genetic modification are common as well. The Empire also has several non-human species counted among the citizen-subjects of Her Imperial Majesty. The three most common are the Wandii, Ssuperliss and the Tikus.
WANDII (HUNDMENSCH)
The Wandii, a canine like marsupial race, were one of the first alien races to make contact with mankind. Their race is remarkably adaptable to whatever the predominant culture is. Although highly intelligent, the race is not known for its leadership dynamics. The Wandii will find a system of government and culture to suit their needs, and as long no overt abuse is inflicted will be very loyal. It is not uncommon for two separate groups of Wandii to be seen on opposite sides of a human sprung conflict.
ASCENSION AGE: 16
HOME WORLD: SHEBA (WANDILI ROMAGA)
Average Height: 5’8” / 6’8” / 5’4”
Average Weight: 320 / 440 / 240
Sexual Dimorphism: Yes (male lower standing: Val, male higher standing: Valmant,
Female: Vort)
Hair: Color: Brown, Black, Tan or combinations:
Length: 1 to 2 inch thick body hairs located everywhere except on the tail
Skin: Color: Val: Pink, Valmant: Red: Vort: Black
Eye: Color: Brown or Black
Physiology: Endothermic Marsupial Mammalian: The Wandii are bipedal mammals that seemed to have evolved from a type of predatory marsupial . Their features are very much like a bipedal Rottweiller crossed with an opossum. This fearsome visage has a tendency to make other races uncomfortable, especially when the Wandii is happy and grinning. The opossum traits being a long naked tail, rows of very sharp pointy teeth, and the pouch. The hind legs are clawed, but the forelimbs end in five opposable digits, three fingers and two thumbs. Female Wandii give birth to one to two offspring, the gestation period is 2 weeks followed by a 6-month incubation period in the pouch.

TIKUS (RATTLINGS)
The Tikus are a rodent-based species. They have developed a very formal culture complete with a caste system. Since contact with humans, the Tikus have adopted the ways of ancient oriental cultures, mainly Japanese. They found that these cultures and the old Tikus family system had much in common. While contact is permitted outside one’s caste (including marriage), it is impossible for a Tikus to ever leave his or her caste.
ASCENSION AGE: 7
HOME WORLD: NEW KYOTO (TIKUSKA): Imperial Tikus hail from the system of Geisha
Average Height: 4’4’ / 4’
Average Weight: 100 / 65
Sexual Dimorphism: YES (Oran (male) / Way (Female)
Hair: Color: White (Mystic), Black (Labor), Brown (Warrior), Red (Noble) tones (based on caste)
Length: Short dense fur, all areas have at least minimal coverage
Skin: Color: White to Pink
Eye: Color: Pink
Physiology: Bipedal, snub tailed rodents. The Tikus are descendent from a rat-like rodent, however any other similarities to the common mouse end there. The female gives live birth to twins after a 48-month gestation, where the young are able to fend for themselves.
SPECIAL: Roll 1d6 to determine Caste, 1-Labor Caste, 2-5 Warrior Caste, 6-Noble Caste
Racial Advantage / Disadvantage chart

SSPURLISS (CROCKMEN)
The Sspurliss were part of the Gerda League. They gained notoriety in the battle of Terra Nuevo, when the Sspurliss troops ate the human prisoners, under their care. After the defeat of the Gerda League, the Sspurliss found employment in legal enforcement and other like professions. When the old Federation, Collapsed, the Sspurliss all went back to their Homeworld. Ssplaaand was soon rediscovered, and became part of the old Amazon Empire. Renamed Sparta, in honor of the Sspurliss’s great martial prowess, the Empire fully accepted the Sspurliss in the ranks of the ever-enlarging Alien Reserve Auxiliary. The Sspurliss have accepted Imperial rule, and can be found in increasing number in the Imperial military, or as part of some type of government job. The most notable have found a niche in the Imperial Militant Police, or as imperial Magistrates.
ASCENSION AGE: 15
HOME WORLD: SPARTA (SSPLAAAND)
Average Height: 7’6” / 7’ 2”
Average Weight: 1000 / 850
Sexual Dimorphism: Yes (Sslark: male / Ssmaall: female)
Hair: NONE
Skin: Scales: Color: Various Shades of Green or Brown, may be iridescent, some Sslmaal’s have turquoise or other shades of blue as highlights.
Eye: Color: Black
Physiology: Exothermic Bipedal Reptilian, similar to Terran Crocodiles. Oviparous, female lays a clutch of about 12 eggs, usually 1/3 survives. The rest are eaten by the first borne. The limbs have been designed so that the Sspurliss can walk in a bipedal motion, they are very good swimmers, and spend as much time as possible in the water. Due to their forked tongue, the Sspurliss find Galactic to be troublesome, they have a tendency to hiss and extend all S sounds and swallow R’s and G’s are as K’s.

[Sylviekat]

Ok next part, Welcome to the Imperial Navy, Miss Parker, fun and games of training are over.

The place of the Skull: Two days later the Illustrious docked and Barbara and company reported for duty. Since I was off duty I accompanied her in civilian attire. I did not feel like being confused for one of the ship’s company, although the big carrier was impressive, a huge ungainly box with wing-like appendages that were at present empty but each could hold a corvette. I watched Barbara board and then saw the ship depart, for the assembly area.
Scuttlebutt said that the Illustrious group was heading immediately out to Goddard. The newly appointed Lady Baroness Catherine Volkberg (it pays to be a royal) is the task force regent. So she traded pink for gray for the next offensive, well liberation of the systems beyond Goddard. Her sister seems to be recovering but she is still completely out of commission, but she got a 2nd heart.

The next day the Golgotha arrived, she had some minor battle damage and the first things off loaded were the eighteen flag draped coffins. I guess that is why the whole division is assigned to the Golgotha, as we are the replacements. The marquee stated that new personnel were to report at 1300, which gave us a few hours to kill.
Wendy and I were finishing up packing our personal baggage when two ladies wearing dark green suits and small arms knocked on our door. “Yes?” Wendy said getting to the door first

“Er Miss Parker, Miss Travis?”

“Yes, Sarjenette (the one talking had three consecutive hearts on her sleeve) that is us can we help you?” I chimed in from behind Wendy

“Yes Ma’am you are ordered to report to the Golgotha ASAP, the departure has been accelerated, and bring one bag only, your other baggage will be shipped to the forward support base.”

“Uh ok can you tell me what happened?”

“Not at this time, but it is a full fleet scramble and Golgotha is the goalkeeper for the Illustrious.”

“Right, hey Wendy grab your kit and let’s move!” We hustled from the barracks to the dock, unlike the departure of the Illustrious nobody out of uniform without AIDOF ID got anywhere near the ships.

The two guards at the boarding tube ran our ID through her scanner and saluted. “Ok Ma’am you are clear to board.”

We went through the boarding tube where on the far end the OOD (Officette of the Deck) met us she was a Lewtenette. “Kaydette Cynthia Parker and Kaydette Wendy Travis request permission to board”, we both said in unison.

“Right, knock that schoolgirl shit out, Parker report to the VNB, Travis take her bag as well as your own and report to O country it is on Deck E. Luckily for us the enlisted replacements were all billeted together now move it we are closing the hatch.” The LT paused and then connected the bridge “Ma’am this is Ellis we have our two wayward Kaydettes, Parker is on her way to the VNB.. Roger that, ok seal this hatch and retract the boarding tube. Signal Avonia Dock that we are preparing to slip our moorings.”

Shocked the abruptness of the welcome I headed as fast as I could (in shore dress, which did not have the high friction soles on my boots) to the VNB. When the lift door opened to the deck, I noticed the bridge was fully manned.

“Ah Miss Parker, sorry for the rush but we have to clear the port area, I am Ms. Greer, the Executive, please take the Helm control station, you are replacing Lewtenette Sanchez, as Watch One, Helm Control Officette.”

“Aye Ma’am!” I walked over to the helm station and this was my first time noticing that others were in shore dress and even one person in civilian clothing. Ms. Greer was even in Formal dress.

Helmsgal Ichrone was sitting in the second helm station; a Helm’s Mate (Junior Sarjentte) had the primary station. The departure was similar to the departure of the Montessori on that first day of fleet training, but except there was no delay and the navigation team on the VNB only confirmed with the BDC rather than wait for them to send the data. Also as soon as we cleared the outer marker of the port area, we were ordered to accelerate from 3 MMH to 18 MMH.
“Ma’am we are in the lane to the jump coordinates.” I announced once we reached the lane beacon.

“Ah roger Miss Parker, set course and bearing and increase speed to 30 MMH, the Illustrious just jumped and only has a light destroyer for escort, we will catch up with her at Finch.”

“Aye, Ichrone you heard her, set speed to 30 MMH, sensors anything out there?”

“Ah no Miss Parker, your lane is clear to the jump point.” Replied the Sensors Officette

“Roger that, Navigation ETA to Jump point?”

“30 minutes present speed and bearing, Ma’am”

I noticed that there was no officette at the navigation terminal. This is the also the first time that I noticed the Ms. Greer was wearing the 3 pointed emblem of a Kaptain rather than four points of a Kommandette. Looking around I also saw the starboard bulkhead looked rough and had a slightly different color to it. Ms Greer caught my eye and gave me a pained look, and nod saying I will know more in the future.

“Very good Miss. Parker, I see Ms. Burton was not mistaken about you. Ok Miss Francis you have the con, of course we will be turning over control to the BDC shortly.”

With that Kaptain Greer left the bridge leaving me and a Lewtenette Francis (she was supervising the sensors) and the enlisted on the VNB.

“Miss Parker?” Miss Francis queried.

“Yes Ma’am…”

“ I can handle things once we transfer control, why don’t you and the others who are out of uniform go and change but hurry back, as our watch is still on for six hours.”

“Yes Ma’am thank you Ma’am.” I then waited for the announcement that said the BDC had control of the ship.

BDC TO VNB REQUEST TRANSFER OF CON TO BDC

“Roger that BDC, VNB will transfer control of the con,… controls transferred BDC you have control of the ship.” Miss Francis told the main bridge.

ROGER VNB, BDC HAS CONTROL OF THE SHIP, BDC OUT. I then waited for Lewtenette Francis’s nod and with the four others not in Ship board dress, hurried down to our respective quarters. I found Wendy still unpacking when I got down.

“So they give you the tour or what?”
“Actually I am on duty but got permission to change to ship board duty, you know how hard it is to move in the low g areas in these boots?”

“I can imagine, so what do they have you doing?”

“I am VNB helm control, 1st Watch, you?”

“Gun Mistress K battery. So technically 2nd Watch, as you know 1st Watch runs the ship, 2nd Watch fights the ship, and 3rd Watch supports the ship.”

“Right well see you when I get off, or during 3rd Watch.” I said after hastily donning my shipboard uniform. I also brought up my emergency Vacuum suit, in its pouch.

“Do you think you need that?” Wendy asked looking at the sealed bundle

“Hopefully not, but it looks like something tore a huge chunk out of the VNB during the last cruise, I have a feeling that is why I am on 1st Watch.”

“Right, uh how fast are we moving?”

“Close to 30, we will be jumping in about 10 minutes.”

“Oh goodie, well you best hurry up if you are still on watch.”

I went back to the VNB which was now a very calm place since the ship was being controlled by the much more massive BDC down in the center of the ship. I took this time to look out the expansive view screens and surveyed the parts of the ship I could see from the heights of the VNB. The Golgotha is a Neptune class escort cruiser, meaning that it does not pack any really massive weapons but is bristling with guns and missiles of medium and small size. These ships are not offensive weapons but defensive, the main mission is to protect high value assets such as the Illustrious. Neptunes have heavy shields and armor plate, in fact the shield generators are the same ones carried by the huge Dianna class battle cruisers. They may not be able to dish out a crippling blow, but they can take a huge amount of punishment, and although not the fastest ships, they can hoof it when needed. Traveling at 30 MMH we were nearly red lining the reactors.

About eight minutes into my day dream the ISC chimed and then stated JUMP TRANSIT IN FIVE MINUTES, SET SHIP TO CONDITON ZULU FOR JUMP TRANSIT.
Condition Zulu was the highest level of readiness, all bulk heads sealed, this was normal for combat and for jumping. Since I was standing up I went and sealed the hatch and then went to my seat and buckled in. Miss Francis was sitting in the Command chair and keyed in the command to close the shutters.

ALL SECTIONS REPORT STATUS TO BDC WHEN CONDITION ZULU IS ACHIEVED.

“BDC this is VNB we are secured at condition Zulu.”

A few minutes passed, as the BDC watch officette got the status from all of sections. CONDITION ZULU SET, JUMP TRANSIT IN 5, 4, 3, FTL DRIVE ON LINE, 2, 1, JUMP.

After the transit the rest of the watch was routine. 2nd Watch was led by a Majourette and another Kaydette, but she went to the Sensors area, a Chief Helm’s Mate was the senior for Helm Control. “Ma’am I am here to relieve you, you are relieved.”

“I stand relieved, we are on steady course, BDC has control.”

“Aye, I confirm, Ma’am (this was directed to the Majourette) 2nd Watch has relieved 1st Watch.”
I followed Miss Francis down to the ward room where she motioned me to take a seat and have a cup of tea.

“As you can see Miss Parker, we are short handed, during the last cruise we took a Quazar Torpedo in the VNB, damn thing did not go off, but it shredded the bulkhead and killed or maimed half of the Watch. Kaptain Greer was our OPS officette when the Executive bought it along with Lewtenettes Sanchez and Perkins; she was Navigation. Kaydette Miller, our Commo, was seriously injured, and I was badly injured but treated on the voyage home. So unless the Executive or another of the senior staff are taking over, such as during docking or port ops, you and I are it as Officettes go for 1st watch. Your friend the gunnery officette is taking over for a battery that was hammered, the same goes for the enlisted replacements. I would not be surprised if that young Helmsgal Ichrone makes Junior Mate before the end of this cruise. Of course if we take any more casualties then she may get OJT to Mate and avoid going back to Fleet until much later. That has happened in the past, especially after Frankreich and Orion.”

“Where did Golgotha get hit?”

“Oh we were on the tertiary sector of the Zeta campaign, the Dianna we were escorting did not get seriously mauled but taking five quasars did a number on the old Skull, even if three of them were duds. By the way welcome to the sacrifices of the fleet, we take a licking so the big gals can still be a ticking.”

“Do you know anything of the rest of the group?”

“Yeah well the Illustrious and old Skull form the center, we have two destroyers, one of those fast Tyche’s and an old Poseidon, wish it was one of those new Venus class instead, they are our little sister, the Tyche is with the Illustrious now, also we have three frigates and two corvettes and fleet tender, the tender and corvettes though are slow and might not hook up until we are almost to Goddard, Damn Corp bastards won’t give us a break. So are you and Miss Travis close?” She asked not quite sugestively

“Well not really, I still have a thing for my other half from the Salon.”

“Ah yes, one of those, and where is she?”

“Well last I saw her was boarding the Illustrious…”

“Oh what division is she?”

“I am not sure they are called that, she’s an Aerobabe, pilot of a Sheena-Cat.”

“Well, not to sound morbid or anything but you do know why so many Salon grads get to wear purple, right?”

“I know, but it is the branch of her choice, like I got the branch, and division of my choice.”

“I agree, Engineering might be where all the brains go, and Weapons gets the glory of the kill, but Command gets the braid, and stars. Well nice meeting you Miss Parker, we will be seeing a lot of each other, since I am the section head for 1st Watch, go and get your kit stowed and I will see you at 0800.”

I stood up and saluted and walked back to my quarters, where Wendy’s stuff as well as mine was all stowed, she was on duty probably seeing how badly understaffed her battery is. I headed to the lavatory, took a quick shower and then went to bed, my eyes were shut as soon as they touched the pillow.

[Willy_for_Boobies]

Well written story, nice developed. ;-))
.Very good, how you introduce and expand in between this universe in niice convenient chunks.  ;-))
.. a loong time to read ;-))
... but i like it ;-))
.... please post more ;-))

[Sylviekat]

Chapter 2 continues. Cynthia has a guest and more discussion on the workings of a star ship and the fleet in general. This is the calm before the storm. Or in other words the shit is about to hit the fan.

An Illustrious rendezvous: We linked up with the Illustrious and the Licorice which was the Tyche escorting her. The rest of the group was not on station. I found that being a watch officette on the VNB can be quite dull during routine operations. I spent most of my time off duty acquainting myself with the ship, including looking around the small hanger bay, the Golgotha is supposed to have a full complement of Amazon fighters but her group was badly mauled in the last action, so she only has four fighters operational, we use them to scout before and after jump transits, as anything else would put the crew at high risk for little gain.
Of course with the link up we have incorporated our flight with the aerogroup from the Illustrious. We picked up the Famous, a Saturn class light cruiser and she has been temporarily attached to our group, since those ships are very fast we have her on point, with the Tyche taking the trail and us and the big Illy in the center. According to a communication from the Octopus, one of the two frigates, she and her sister Orangutan will be on station in two days. We expect the Butterfly will there the next day, and then Zamboni, the Tender and Radiant and Rooster, the two corvettes will be sometime after that. The Eros was redirected to another area, but will be replaced by an Oracle class corvette Salsa and Vulcan class Frigate, Bride the trade of an antique destroyer for two smaller but much newer ships is well worth it.
The day of the linkup with the two Aphrodite frigates (O class) I was on watch in the VNB. Miss Francis, first name Tamara, although we were not intimate she still insisted on using first names when no other senior officette was present; was called away to consult with her counterpart on the BDC, and several of the enlisted were doing training or otherwise engaged, the deck was nearly deserted.
Troopie Ichrone and one Senior Commo Mate, Sarjenette Lower Class Yolanda Marquez were the only other two souls. One bad thing about being in maneuver control was that that station had to be manned at all times, in case the BDC doesn’t see a visual hazard and we have to get out of the way in a hurry. Anyway SCM Marquez and HG Ichrone were busy playing a game of “battleship” on their respective terminals and I was reading the log entry from the previous watch. Needless to say it was rather dull, like this one was quickly heading to become. I think I was dozing when a loud beep screeched throughout the compartment.

“Huh, what, Marquez report!” I said a bit too harshly.

“Er Ma’am proximity alarm; we have a high speed object approaching port side 200 degree bearing.” SCM Marquez said

“Right, signal BDC advise them of the situation.”

“Aye Ma’am, course is on an intercept if we don’t bear away soon.”

“Roger, VNB to BDC”

BDC HERE GO AHEAD VNB

“We have a high speed intercept that will collide if its aspect does not change.”

AH ROGER DO YOU HAVE VISUAL

“Negative just what the sensors have.”

WE HAVE IT, MAINTAINING CONTROL IN BDC, GOOD WORK UP THERE, BDC OUT

“Well you heard her, they have the situation well in hand, continue with your duties girls.” I said while getting back to looking at the ship’s log.

The next couple hours were back to the routine, but then a minor change happened, the daily shuttle from Illustrious arrived.

MISS PARKER REPORT TO BDC,

“Aye Ma’am…SM Marquez you have the watch.”

“Aye Ma’am I have the watch.” The junior non com said taking over the compartment.

With that I took the lift all the way down to E deck, and then took the aft amidships lift down to I deck.

The lift opened to a small compartment with two hatches, one had two armed guards from the NAIL (Naval Assault Infantry Legion), and this was the one for the BDC.

“Halt, ID card and state your purpose Ma’am.”

“er I was summoned down here by the BDCO.”

“Right, wait one…ok Ma’am you are cleared.”

I walked into the BDC for the first time since my arrival on the Golgotha.

“Ah Miss Parker.” stated the executive Ms. Greer. Who now was wearing the insignia of a Kommandette, although her promotion is only a brevet until it is cleared by AIDOF command. “Welcome to the BDC, since you are the only watch qualified Officette not really doing anything important at the moment, and who is on duty; we have a special assignment for you.” She said with a wink.

“Yes Ma’am.” I said, knowing that almost anything would be more interesting than babysitting a nearly deserted compartment.

“Good, very good, the weekly mail run just departed Illustrious, I want you to go to the hanger deck and receive the mail courier and escort her back to the BDC if any priority dispatches are carried.”

“Yes Ma’am, is there anything else?”

“Oh just be at the courier’s disposal until we have the outgoing mail ready.”

“Aye Ma’am” I said and then about turned and existed the august company of the BDC. I then went to the other hatch and took a ladder down to J deck, and found my way to the hanger area. Since I did not know which bay the shuttle was going to land at, I asked the deck Officette. She told me with a grin, that shuttles land at the shuttle pad. I said I knew that but this was the mail courier from Illustrious.
She then stated “Oh”, and looked at the flight control log and said that the courier just landed port tube. I thanked her then started walking towards the airlock that led to the port landing area. I stood there and waited for the courier to cycle through and take off her bulky helmet and flight support gear. She was holding a sealed attaché and heavy laser pistol strapped in a shoulder holster. I was still looking at the rather serious fire power and not noticing anything else, or what she was saying.
“er what?”

“I asked Permission to come aboard Ma’am, you lunk, or has it been that long silly you forgot how to speak?” I then shook my head to clear the cobwebs, and noticed that the courier was also a Kaydette, but more importantly it was Barbara.

“Oh yes permission granted Miss Foster.” I said with a grin,

“What are you doing playing shuttle pilot?” I asked

“Bite your tongue, heathen, I am not a trash hauler, geeze give someone the light blue and they think they know everything.”

“By the way you SAN gals certainly know how to dress.”

“Well it’s sexy and practical, since the ship is at a constant 75 degrees, no need to wear heavy clothing unless duty specific. How have you been?”

“Oh fine, just fine Cyn, now let’s get the official part done, which by the way the dispatches are delivered by fighter, well two seat fighters with the WSO staying home to make up the room for the dispatches, my squadron has this cycle and well it finally got to my turn. So what have you been up too?”

“Well nothing much mostly babysitting the VNB, you?”

“Ah flying routine patrols, mostly CAP shit, oh Combat Aerospace Patrol, playing guard dog for the big Illy. What is the VNB?”

“Oh the Visual Navigation Bridge, what we use for fine maneuvering like docking, out here in deep space mostly a redundant back up to the BDC or Battle Direction Center, the main bridge, where we are going, you have your ID with you right?”

“Of course, shall we?”

“OK.” We walked down and retraced my steps back to the BDC, the guards asked to see both of our ID’s and demanded that Barbara check her side arm prior to entry. She complied, and then cycled through the hatch. Ms. Greer took the dispatch case, and inputted the code, opened it up, quickly perused through the data pads, noticing several required a reply prior to Miss Foster’s return, put them back in the case and said “Ok Miss Parker, I need to sign and endorse several of these, a few even need her Ladyship’s, so go and show Miss Foster around the ship, but we will call you on ISC when the dispatches are ready.”

“Aye Ma’am ok, Miss Foster, if you will follow me.”
After we got out of the BDC and existed to the main deck (E), Barbara turned abruptly and stated, “Miss Foster? Oh so that’s how it is going to be?”

“Er no Barb, but since we are not formally partnered, yet (I added), I can’t use any other name when on duty and in front of superiors, you know how it is right?”

“Well not really as my squadron is very informal, even the old Cow uses our first names.”

“Oh ok, well we aren’t so informal here in SAN, it’s Miss, this or Ms that, even in the same pay grade. Any way I am sure you have seen much the same on the Illustrious, but we call this level broad way, it has lifts to all decks, including the lifts that lead to restricted ones in engineering. My quarters are on D deck, right next to the lavatory and a DC locker. However we are going up to AA deck or the VNB, the highest enclosed part of the ship.”

When we boarded the lift to the VNB, Barbara leaned over and embraced me, and we started kissing, in fact we both forgot ourselves and were fully into the kiss that we did not realize the door to the lift was opened.

“Umm excuse me ladies?” startled, I quickly pulled away and looked into the VNB, Miss Francis was there along the usual suspects.

“Err, I stammered…”

“Oh never mind, I know you were escorting the courier, but I don’t think Ms. Greer had that quite in mind.”

“Oh um Tamara, I mean Miss Francis, this is Miss Foster, er Barbara…”

“Right so you are the girl of Cynthia’s dreams, I can see why, so Sheen-Cats if I am not mistaken, how do you like them Miss Foster, or may I call you Barbara?”

“Um Ma’am…” Barbara started to reply back but was cut off

“Tamara will do, we are all equals well close enough at least, well come on get out of the lift, so someone else can use dang thing.” We spent the next few minutes talking to Tamara and Barbara was looking around, although she did not have the awe struck look like many visitors.

“You know Cyn one of these days I have to get you in the back seat of Wyld Thang, my fighter. The view away from all of the big ships is totally radical. Of course Smartypants would object to being left behind again.”

“Who is Smarty pants?” I asked confused by the Aerobabe lingo.

“Oh she’s my Wizzo, oh you know Kaydette Bernard?”

“Oh right, by the way I think Wendy likes her.”

“Duh you think, I saw last week’s mail, speaking of which you lunk, why haven’t you written?”

“Been busy, Well, why haven’t you?”

“Touché, how’s this we write every week, or maybe get some air time on the public comms.”

“I don’t know tying..”

“Miss Parker consider that an order, you will continue to correspond with your better half, not sure if she is lovelier, but definitely has more common sense it seems even if she is an aerobabe.” interjected Tamera,

“Er ok, can’t disobey an order.” I feebly tried to sound like it was a burden.

“And one more order, reacquaint yourself right, spend the rest of the time before Miss Foster must return in your quarters, or better yet mine.”

“Yes Ma’am we both said with a grin.”

After rushing down the lift to Miss Francis’s quarters, which was empty since her roommate was on duty as well, we stripped and made hot steamy passionate love. About thirty minutes later the ICS rang. . “Ello?”

“Ah good Miss Parker, Miss Francis said you would be there, tell your uh friend that the courier package is almost ready to go?”

“Almost Ma’am?” I asked confused at why we were not told when they were done.

“Yes, almost I am lacking two signatures, but they will be ready as soon as both of you can make it, shall we say in eighteen minutes?”

“Yes Ma’am, Miss Parker out.” We took a quick shower (separately as the stalls were not big enough for two, and still wash, then got dressed, me in my ship board uniform and Barbara back in her flight suit, and headed to the BDC.

Ms Greer was standing by with the courier attaché but had one data pad out. “Right ok this item is lacking two signatures, namely you two, so go ahead and sign it, and then Miss Foster you need your Squadron CO to sign it and get it approved, so it can be forwarded to Her Grace for her endorsement.”
Wondering what this document was, I quickly glanced through, and noticed that is was a request for intimate partnership, not quite a permanent partnership but best thing two young Kaydettes could ask for. All approval blocks on my side were filled out, from Miss Francis, to Ms. Greer, and a Kapatin Walker, who is the senior BDCO, and department head for command. I signed my block, and handed the pad over to Barbara, well I can call her Barbie from now on.

She grinned and filled out her part and then placed it on the top of the data pads. Quickly closed the attaché, and went out back to the hanger area, she picked up her pistol form the BDC guards. We were walking hand in hand, until we remembered that the partnership was not official yet, so I settled for a long kiss, and she boarded her fighter, I rushed up to the VNB to see her launch and fly back to the Illustrious.

Later that watch a message slip made it to my station and said action approved waiting final disposition from TGR (Task Group Regent). Halfway through 2nd Watch I was still awake, and so picked up the ISC, the BDCO said simply, “action approved, congratulations Miss Parker”, and hung up.

Reservations for 4: Well having everything official meant no sneaking off and finding dark rooms. However being on two different ships was a big drag. Of course whenever she could Barbara would take the courier run, or find any excuse to go to Golgotha, I had yet to find any legitimate reason to take the shuttle over to Illustrious. Her freedom of movement made me slightly envious.

However on one errand she took Terry and it was during the 3rd watch so everyone was off duty. Wendy and Terry spent the time together and we had a feeling that an intimate partnership request was soon in the making. However we did spend some time showing the ship to the two aerobabes, this tour included K Battery.

K Battery consisted of three single Naval Pulse Laser Cannons aligned in an oblique pattern on the ventral port side on a giant blister that ran three quarters the length of the ship. The long navigation sail bisected the blister. Its sister batteries, I, J, and L were on the dorsal port and starboard and ventral starboard sides respectively. Each battery had a primary crew of ten; the Battery Mistress and three gun crews of three each. K battery protected the bottom of the ship as well as the port side after section. Besides its sister L battery, and the small point defense guns the only other defenses for the ventral stern was the small M battery of two NPLC also in single mounts. (Later versions of the Neptune have twin HNPXC turrets in the M and N positions, sometimes referred to the X and Z turrets). This meant that Wendy’s K battery covered a very important and highly vulnerable part of the ship.

Barbara made the comment that an attack by a flight of Sheenas armed with torpedoes could make life very exciting for the crew in this area. The fact that Wendy did not contradict her did not rest well with the others or me. Not counting the small crawl spaces in the navigation sail, or the twin domes of the primary sensor; Wendy and I worked on the lowest and highest compartments of the ship.
Her duty station, inside the ventral blister was on P deck. Other compartments on P deck included environmental control, ventral shields and a DC station. O deck had the nearest lifeboat station. The other interesting thing about the gunnery station was it had very little gravity. The gunners were in gyroscopic chairs that rotated freely along all axes but had fire stops wherever the turret would be pointing at the hull of the ship. Besides the gunner, the other crew was the Gun Mother and the power regulator. The Gun Mother, for most of the mounts a Senior Gunnery Mate directed the operation of the mount. The Battery Mistress coordinated with the Gun Mothers and the sensor operators. The power regulators ensured that the guns would maintain optimum firing levels, and could reroute power from one station to the other.
In addition to the primary crew, 3rd watch consisted of six additional personnel who provided local DC control as well as replacements for any casualties. Both the GM and PR were outside the mount proper, with only the Gunner strapped into her special chair was in the turret. The PR was typically a Gun Tech or Senior Gun tech, while the Gunner was a Gunnery Mate. 1st Mount had a Chief Gunnery Mate as its Gun Mother, and she was the 2nd in command of the Battery, after the Battery Mistress. Foxy Girl was the PR for mount 2. I also recognized two of Wendy’s old charges as another PR and Gunner both were in mount 3. We left P deck and returned to the rest of the ship, and ended their time having a foursome in our quarters. Everyone needed a cool shower after that.

[Sylviekat]

Ok time to get violent: The next group will be about Miss Parker's first taste of stellar combat and the brutal nature of the fighting. Though combat is space is best summed as hours of tedium and boredom filled with minutes or even seconds of pure terror.

---

Old Skull’s last sacrifice: After that trip the meetings became less and less frequent. I found out soon enough we had entered Corporate controlled space. The Sheena-Cats were conducting long range patrols, while the Amazons and Amazon-Warriors were on full alert. Illustrious was on 24 hour aerospace operations which left little time for socializing. All but the most urgent of dispatches were left aboard the Illustrious and a Amazon carried these.

Late on the third day of being in Corp space all of the section officettes were gathered into the wardroom where we were briefed. Illustrious group CTG 61 was to rendezvous with ATG (battle cruiser or heavy cruiser led) 453 and BTG (dreadnought) 11. Lady Countess Volkberg wanted the three task groups to clear the way for an invasion force. The rendezvous point was three jumps away, and it seemed we would be the first on station. The TGR decided to send the Famous with the Salsa and Bride ahead to secure the rendezvous point before the rest of CTG 61 would jump in. This made sense since the Famous was an attachment already and was capable of independent operations. The Salsa was nothing more than a sensor platform and the Bride provided some offensive firepower. Also these three ships or vessels were some of the fastest in the CTG. They jumped almost a full day ahead of the rest of the group.

Thirty minutes after they jumped, the Famous jumped back, she was trailing vapor from some moderate to severe battle damage. Shortly after the general quarters alarm rang and since it was 3rd Watch, both Wendy and I quickly got suited up and rushed to our respective stations.

By the time I got to the VNB all the stations were manned either the primary or secondary (1st or 2nd Watch). Third watch went to their respective DC areas. Ms. Greer came up and took command of the VNB as Lady Amanda Sheridan was on the BDC. “Report!”

“VNB manned and ready, Ma’am!” Shouted Majourette Sampson, SWO 2nd Watch, she was the primary for navigation.

Miss Francis was at her sensor station, and I had the helm. “Thompso, signal BDC that we are manned and ready!” Ms. Greer ordered.

“Aye Ma’am”, stated another Kaydette, she was from 2nd Watch, “BDC this VNB we are manned and ready”

VNB THIS BDC VERY GOOD SET CONDITION ZEBRA “

Right you heard her set condition Zebra, If you are not in your suits do so now!” That last comment was directed at about a quarter of the personnel mostly from 2nd watch.

“Ma’am getting a signal from the Famous, they say they were ambushed by a full battlegroup led by two Dolcianies and about 12 Thetas, no Pascals or Descartes though. Bride and Salsa were lost before they could react, she further says that her shields are down to 10% and has suffered moderate hull damage with several breeches. Casualties are relatively light though.”

“Roger that, send info down to BDC to confirm and inquire if we should relay to Illustrious.”

“Aye, BDC confirms and so does Illustrious.”

“Roger, ok girls you heard that two battle cruisers and twelve cruisers, we will have our work cut out for us this time.”

“Jump signatures!” shouted Tamara.

“Where Miss Francis?”

“Off the Starboard bow, 300 MM, 20 Degrees bearing 10, angles –10 to +11.”

“Roger, what number?”

“Too far to read accurately but best guess over fifty.” Tamara said looking at her scope.

“Good, they jumped too far, alert BDC, now we wait.”
And that is exactly what we did, due to the nature of the Golgotha’s weapons we were not in this fight, yet. The Famous and the other offensive ships and vessels accelerated towards the enemy ships. The Golgotha and the other escorts swarmed around the Illustrious while the Zambezi and one corvette turned about and fled to the far side of the system.

Meanwhile; the Famous, Golgotha and Illustrious all spat out their respective aerospace craft. Our pathetic flight of four joined up with the Amazon squadron of the Famous while its flight of Sheenas and Jean De Arcs linked up the appropriate squadrons from the Illustrious. We had over 100 aerospace craft in space, and all but 30 Amazons rocketed towards the distant corporate ships. At 300 MM, the attack birds could get up to three strikes in before we got into knife range. If we can keep the enemy away from us we had a good chance of defeating the attack. The plan was to make this a long range fight, and bloody the corp noses, of course they had other plans, and their ships once fully stabilized from the jump accelerated to 30MMH, Their destroyers and fast thetas went to 40MMH.

“Ma’am, I’m detecting twelve small jump outs!” Shouted Tamara

“Right that would be the Newtons making a small hop to get closer, Francis let me know where they appear.”

“Roger Ma’am” The Newton, a small corvette, barely worthy of the name was the main light strike platform for the corps, since their aerospace bomber was a piece of junk. The Newton had the ability to microjump, or jump within a system, it was a risky tactic but could pay big dividends if they jumped in a weakly guarded area.

“Ma’am got em, eight signatures to the port, bearing 185 degrees, angle +34 distance 24MM. Two signatures to port bearing 200, angle negative 200 distance 40MM, and one signature bearing 74 degrees, angle +11, distance 100MM.”

“Last one?”

“No signature”

“Right two mis-jumps not bad for the corps, ok keep an eye on those bastards at 200, negative 200. Confirm with BDC.”

“BDC confirms, priority is group at 24MM.” The Newton was equipped like a super heavy bomber, her main weapons being torpedoes that were effective within two MM. However unlike an aerospace bomber they had jump drives and shields. The defensive weaponry aboard the escorts had a range of 8 MM, this meant that we could get several shots on the Newtons before they could unleash their deadly torpedoes. To make things harder for them the main body turned about 90 degrees so that the side the Newtons were approaching was now shielded by the massive broadsides of the Golgotha and the two frigates. The other remaining corvette covered the weak side.
At a closing speed of 34MMH the Newtons would be in range of our guns in about thirty minutes and must endure about eight minutes of brutal bombardment before they could even consider striking with the torpedoes. At about twenty minutes the order to secure blast shields was given and our wonderful view of the panorama was reduced to the tiny displays of our consoles. Miss Francis provided a play by play of the brief action.

“We are in range and firing!” The eight small vessels were now met by 55 guns, all but two were NPLC, the last two were light Naval Particle Cannon, these big mama’s were the main mount of the big Illy.
“All right!” Tamara shouted, “one Newton just got tagged by the Big guns off the Illy!” A few seconds later, “five bad boys are drifting, one is turning about the other two are still closing.”

“Torpedo Launch!”

“Where?”

“The two fools they fired at 6MM.”

“Right how many?”

“20, they fired their spread, looks like they are cutting and running.”

“Gottcha…..”

“Scratch that make one running, and one vapor.”

“Right alert BDC, that we may need local control, open blast visors so we can see those torps!” The last command was not needed as the furthest Newton fired its torpedoes way out of range and all of them ran out of fuel and so proved easy meat for the guns. As for the other 10, most of them were likewise unable to maneuver and had to drift the last two megameters, and were likewise destroyed by the defensive batteries. Only four had fuel and each one selected different targets, which ensured their destruction by the point defenses. Only the Octopus suffered any damage, and that was to her shields from a close proximity blast.

As for the Newtons three were totally destroyed, and four were dead in space. Only one of the eight got away, and it was one of the two that fired off its weapons.

“Good job, ok keep an eye out for the last bastard, he may try something dumb.” Meanwhile the two advancing elements sped closer to each other.

“Our gals will be in missile range in about two hours; those two Newtons are just lurking at the 40MM mark.” Stated Miss Francis.
“Right and the last one?”

“Oh ah it is in path of the Famous, that should be messy.”

We now had a few hours before anything interesting happens.

BDC TO ALL SECTIONS SECURE FROM CONDITION ZEBRA, REPEAT SECURE FROM CONDITION ZEBRA. That announcement meant we could stretch and take short breaks until the action heated up again.

[Sylviekat]

The battle intensifie and gets up close and personal.

Two hours later Miss Francis announced that the Famous and the Licorice have launched their LRAMS, or long range missiles. Now the Corps had three very different groups heading towards their mass of ships. The eighty odd aerospace craft, which were headed towards the distant Dolcianis, the attack ships and frigates going to meet the leaders and now a huge swarm of over 100 missiles aimed at the center of the corp formations. The missiles will arrive first, followed almost immediately by the aerospace craft and then several hours later the ships will be in range with their guns. The missiles were traveling at almost 600MMH and had a range of 200MM. The AS craft were cruising at a cool 80MMH, even though the fighters and attack fighters could easily double that, but for now they were staying with the slower bombers.

Thirty minutes later the missiles screamed home into the dense formation of Theta Cruisers and Trigonometry and Hawking class destroyers. From our great distance we could not tell how many hits were scored, but the thermonuclear blooms were very visible, some appeared larger than others. As was predicted the AS craft struck next, again we were too far to see anything but several more blossoms of nuclear fire could be seen as the torpedoes exploded amongst the enemy ships.

“Ma’am comm. traffic states that the attack fighters took out four Thetas, and twice that in destroyers, they are returning to rearm. The bombers and fighters seem to be still heading for the battle-cruisers.” The commander of the aerospace split her force, sending the attack fighters to attack the lead formation, while the fighters and slower bombers continued on to the main body. Since neither, Thetas or either class of corp destroyer carried fighters, the attack met with little resistance. Corp ships had only the fraction of defensive weapons as ours, but every ship carried a huge wallop in direct fire guns.

“Hey Lover girl, just let you know your sweetheart made it through, her flight took out a Theta.”

“Ah thanks Miss Thompson,” I said greatly relieved that Barbara made it through that attack. The next thing of note was the returning attack fighters screamed by and landed to refuel and rearm for the next strike.

Only three hours had passed since the Famous jumped back alone. And for the loss of a corvette, a frigate and a damaged light cruiser, we have so far taken out at least four heavy cruisers, eight destroyers plus the eight well nine counting the fool who mis jumped, Newtons, so far no AS craft were lost but that’s because the fighters on the Dolcianies have not joined the fight.

Twelve minutes later the first of the attack fighters launched for the 2nd strike, a flight zoomed close enough that I could see that they were not carrying torpedoes, but were rigged up as fighters. About five minutes after that, we got word that the bombers and fighters engaged the Dolcianies. One of the massive blips that represented a battlecruiser blinked out on the screen.

“That is a kill!” shouted Miss Francis.

“Commo from the strike, reports one Dolci killed, the other damaged, but all of the bombers were lost or damaged, and most of the fighters suffered damage, seems like only 40 of the sixty are able to return. “Miss Thompson announced for our benefit “Enemy AS down to about 20%.”

Ms. Greer stated “Ok so we don’t need to worry about them, good, that still leaves one battle cruiser and close to 40 other ships to worry about.”

Again we proved mere spectators as the fight remained a long distance battle, the 2nd strike of attack fighters concentrated on the Thetas, accounting for two more, also this time it was clear that the missiles got a Theta and eight destroyers. This left the vanguard with only 7 Thetas, and about 20 destroyers. Now that the fighters were back, the third strike could use all of the attack fighters with missiles. Of course by now the twenty quadratics from the two Dolcianies were able to mix it up, so the AS craft took some more casualties. But then so did the Corps, including another Theta and two destroyers. By now though the pilots and crews were exhausted and returned to the Illy for some much needed down time. Their services would be needed again soon enough, but first Famous and friends needed to add their two cents.

The six remaining Thetas pulled back and joined up with the surviving Dolciani and fifteen of the destroyers. The remaining six destroyers made a suicide charge at the Famous. The big guns on the light cruiser and the destroyer blunted this attack so that the frigate could add its firepower. Four of the Corp destroyers were destroyed or left as lifeless hulks, in return the Butterfly was lost and the Licorice and Famous battered to ineffectiveness. Both ships broke off and headed to the far jump point. The two stubborn destroyers were harassing them until the Licorice’s torpedoes engaged them. Again something lacking by small Corp warships. She suffered more damage but accounted for both destroyers. Licorice could no longer jump, so both ships were told to retire to the Zambezi and await relief. Rooster was then detached to go look for help, since there was an ATG and BTG somewhere nearby.

Rather than breaking off contact, the Corp leader decided to end the fight, one Battlecruiser of unknown status, six heavy cruisers, and 15 destroyers were now going to press the fight against one carrier, a heavy escort cruiser, and two escort frigates. We had about 25 AS craft capable of strikes, another 40 AS craft for escorts and defense, plus both frigates had torpedo tubes in their bow. The heaviest guns we had were the twin turrets on the Illy. Facing us were the huge particle cannon on the Dolci, and the heavy particle cannon on the Thetas, and half of the destroyers, the other destroyers had small fusion guns and light particle cannon. There were those two Newtons still lurking about as well. We had to remain in the system until the crippled Licorice could dock with the Zambezi and use its jump drives to get out of system, or abandon the crew of the destroyer to the tender mercies of the Corps. Needless to say that would be the option of last resort.

Besides Lady Baroness Shelly MacFaye wanted the other Dolciani, and in her shoes I would have done the same, take it out now or fight it later on possibly even worse terms. The distance between them and us meant we could get another two sorties in before their guns got in range. The fighters would have to keep the enemy quadratics away from the strike birds, which were carrying the maximum load of torpedoes. Priority would be on the Dolci, as she also carried a few missiles that might get lucky. We stayed on a broadside aspect, with Old Skull on the same plane as big Illy, and the two frigates slightly behind but above or below us. Because of their torpedoes the smaller frigates were actually more valuable than we were. Also with our massive shields and armor we could take far more punishment, even when compared with the Big Illy, so Old Skull was literally the wall that sheltered the rest of the ships. Again like the first part of the battle we mostly sat back waiting, I watched the fighters leave the Big Illy and head off towards the Corps, one of the Sheena Cats wagged her wings when she passed, so I waved from my perch on the VNB.

This wait was particularly hard, many of the gals reclined in their chairs to get a catnap, but we have been on station for several hours and the stress was taking its toll. Luckily we were not at Condition Zebra, which made things bearable.

“Ma’am strike report coming in, fighters blew through the quads, and pummeled the Dolici and two Thetas, one Theta is dropping out and listing, our casualties are four amazons and two Sheena-cats lost The Dolci is reducing speed…”

“That means that either the whole formation will slow down or they will soon have two distinct elements. Sensors what do you have?” Greer asked Francis.

“Ma’am I have two groups, first one is four Thetas and 10 destroyers, and the other is the Dolci and last Theta plus 5 destroyers.”

“Right so figure the Trigs are with the first group and Hawkings with the 2nd group.”

“Ma’am signal from flag, the whole group is heading towards the Zambezi, she is extending the distance between us.”

“Right Helm, prepare to adjust course as dictated by BDC. Sensors ETA on return of AS craft?”
“15 minutes Ma’am.”

“Very good, ok, what’s the status of those lurkers?”

“Still same bearing respective to us, they are keeping pace but not closing.”

“Hmm interesting, right keep watching them.”

The AS craft flew back to the carrier, and again one of the strike birds waggled its wings as it passed us by. Another 15 minutes later they flew back this way, and the same fighter (it had the same tail number) did its waggle and sped off towards the first group. Another eight minutes they flew back, all 23 Sheenas, the Amazons and newer Warriors still remained on station. Five Sheenas landed on the Old Skull, as we still had several torpedoes from the fighters that should have been present. This sped up the rearming to 10 minutes and off the fighters went again, to strike the first group. This time only 21 Sheenas, returned, and again 5 landed on our ship.

“Commo from strike, including the last strike, eight destroyers hit, at least three DIS, they are going after the 2nd group, and it is our job to handle the 1st group now.”

“Right, ok people wake up we have some work to do…”

NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS, SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA, REPEAT SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA

“…as I was saying this is it, show time.” Ms. Greer said buckling her restraint, we did the same.

So it looked like we had 4 Thetas and around 7 destroyers that would be in their weapons ranges in twenty minutes and our ranges in twenty-two.

“Ma’am Commo from Flag, Old Skull is to get 4MM ahead of the Illy we are attract fires she is going to try to maneuver to get her A turret in action.”

“Right ok Helm, be prepared to take over local control, Thetas have torpedoes, big mothers but they are still torps. Sensors get a bearing on the closest Theta; things are going to get rough.”

We closed with the Corp ships, and soon they began firing their main weapons, we were on a bow on aspect reducing our profile as much as possible. Of course this also reduced our firepower. The good news is the massive shields warded off the shots As we got closer we could see the status of the enemy, five destroyers were hanging back, and appeared to be damaged, along with one Theta, the other three Thetas formed one group while two destroyers, positively ID’d as Trigs formed another group.

BDC TO VNB BE PREPARED FOR TORPEDO COUNTER MEASURES, WE ARE GOING TO MOVE BETWEEN THE TWO DESTROYERS AND RAKE THEM WITH FULL BROADSIDES

“Ok, you heard her, Miss Parker get the maneuver overrides set up and plot several alternate courses to zigzag and disrupt torp locks.”

“Aye Ma’am, ok Ichrone you handle torp breaks, Collingwood, you get the zigzags, right Miss Francis what is our ETA?”

“We will be at the destroyers in eight minutes, present speed, no wait five minutes.”

As we were speaking the crew down in the BDC kicked the big ship to 35MMH, almost our maximum, this was putting moderate strain on the engines but if we were going to survive this and still be able to play with the other ships it had to be done quickly.

“Ma’am destroyers are lining up to fire main batteries…”

“Roger that Parker first course change now!” Ms. Greer commanded

“Down 80 degrees then right 30 and up 40, move!” I yelled out to my team.

The violent maneuver caused objects not strapped in to slide about, which included my cup of tea, which I caught and magna locked into place. However it worked as only one beam hit the ship and it was a glancing blow. The other three missed completely.

“Resume original heading.”

The BDC took over and we continued the death ride taking several more shots and evading most of them. None did any serious damage to the shields.

“Torp Launch, eight of the bastards!”

“Right, Evasion 1!” “Aye Ma’am evasion one.” Ichrone executed her first evasion plan which caused five of the torpedoes to break lock, the other three were engaged and destroyed by our defensive batteries. While all of this was going on our forward facing weapons began hammering the two destroyers, the purpose was to reduced their shields.

“Ma’am 1st ship is down 20%, 2nd is down 40%.”

“Right, ok keep it up. Blast shields closed!”
This command was given as soon as we were about to pass between the two destroyers. However before they closed I saw the forward weapons swing to the port and engage the port side ship. It looked like all the weapons were bearing on a very small part of the ship. We felt some minor bucks as the pathetic secondary mounts on the destroyers fired back. In a broadside with a Neptune at knife range there is usually only one outcome. We sped by the two ships strafing them with over 25 guns each. “Ma’am port bastard, shields have just flared, starboard is down to 10%”

ALL HANDS BRACE FOR FLIP the command from the BDC sent shock waves through the VNB crew.

“What?” Miss Francis exclaimed in surprise

“Oh yeah, you know we are flipping the old Skull, giving those pukes another dose.”

Sure enough the cruiser did a loop and flew between the two destroyers, which were trying to turn about. This time though it wasn’t the shields that were taking our weapons but the hull, and Corp ships have very fragile hulls, especially around engineering.

“Reactor Spike, brace for Impact!” The shock wave of the starboard ship (was originally the port one before the flip) blowing its reactors buffeted the Old Skull.

“Status on shields?” Greer asked the DC team leader

“Still 80%, we are returning to Illy.” Miss Thompson got the data from the BDC first and relayed it to the Executive.

“Ma’am 2nd trig is DIS, she is listing and falling out of the plane, her attitude controls must be shot to hell.”

“Right good work there Parker/”

“Oh Shit!” Tamera yelled

“What is it?” I asked her before anyone else could reply.

“The two Newtons have just decided to join the fun, they are closing on us fast!”

“Right open blast shields prepare for Torp evasion!”

“No Torps, those crazy so and so’s are going ram!”

“Crap, alert BDC and brace for impact!”

“All right one was taken out by our batteries shit lost the last one!”

The force of the small star vessel impacting the ship and shields was tremendous; The area of impact was near L battery on the ventral side. The damage knocked out the lower rear shield section, and seriously damaged the whole lower half of the starboard side. The worst damage though was the main power coupling from the BDC controls to engineering was severed.

BDC TO VNB, YOU HAVE THE CON WE ARE OUT OF COMMISION DOWN HERE WITH MANUEVERING

“Aye BDC how’s navigation and sensors?”

“We still got primaries on line, Damage Control reports commo between us and engineering is gone, Navigation sail is gone from S to U. Decks P, O, and N report serious damage on starboard side, L Battery is not responding, J Battery is down 20% and has casualties.” Miss Thompson relayed the diagnosis

“Right ok Parker you are flying the ship.”

“Aye Ma’am, course and heading?”

Take us back to the Illy…”

“Thetas firing Torps, at the Illy, forty long range torps, 10 are going to hit!” Tamera interrupted given the grave news.

“Not if we can do something about it, move this can Parker!”

I then ordered the ship to accelerate to 45MMH and we rocketed between the Illy and the interposing torpedoes.

“Ma’am reporting jump signature, no wait reporting several jump signatures, it’s the Dauntless!”

The news of the battle cruiser and her escorts’ arrival meant that the Corps were doomed, but first we had to deal with those torpedoes.

“Parker don’t you dare dodge those things, they can’t hit the carrier!”

“Aye Ma’am, Miss Francis, what are their bearings?”

“90 Degrees. Plus 30, 2nd group 95 Degrees minus 80.”

“Right Ichorne plot course 93 Degrees minus 30, Speed 35MMH.”
“Aye Ma’am!” This course put us on a bow on aspect to the first group and slight oblique to the 2nd group.

“Defensive weapons firing!”

We had to keep the blast visors up, but that meant that the glare from the explosions could dazzle even with the polarized view screen. The ship rocked with each nearby explosion.

“Shields down 40% at the bow.”

“Aspect change bottom group, they have broken lock from the carrier, heading towards us now.”

“Aye, Collingwood, roll 280 degrees to port. Ma’am signal BDC to evacuate port hanger area.”

“Right, you heard her do it, and open launch and recovery doors port tube.”

My plan, if you can call deliberately driving a ship into the path of several fusion tipped torpedoes a plan, was to put the empty and decompressed launch tube and hanger in the trajectory of the Torpedoes, this way the port batteries had a chance to engage, plus if any should hit a good deal of the explosion will be vented out to space. Like with the first group the guns got some, and the missiles and other point defenses got a few others, but one or two leaked through. The impact of the first torpedo rocked the ship, as the warhead detonated on contact. The second torpedo managed to slip through the opened recovery bay and detonated on the hanger bay wall. It was going at slight upward angle so it ripped apart much of J and I decks, which unfortunately for us included the BDC. Recovering quickly I noticed that several systems were off line but I still had maneuver control.

“Ma’am DC reports massive damage to J and I decks, including the BDC, casualties unknown but…”

“Right ok, we have all command functions. Advise battery mistresses that they are on local control.

“Ma’am DC reports fires spreading in J and I decks, recommends we vent.”

“Do it, get me a status on all batteries.”

“Ma’am two thetas heading this way.” Tamara said as the situation just turned even uglier

“Right Parker, take me through the leader!” Ms. Greer commanded.

“Ma’am?” I asked not quite understanding the command

“You heard me ram that son of a bitch.” She said with little emotion

“Right plot course 230 degrees, angle plus 800 then dive through once we reach 14MM, speed 35MMH.”

“Ma’am engineering reports they can do only 20MMH.”

“Right then, do it, it would help if we could strengthen forward shields.”

“Right, do it. Signal evacuation code all decks forward of frame 14, except for A turret, they are to keep firing.”

“Aye Ma’am, but you know we are at frame 12.”

“I know that, give the order if you please Miss Thompson.”

“Aye Ma’am!” BEEEP BEEP, EVACUATE FORWARD FRAME 14 ALL DECKS, SECURE FOR IMPACT

“Ma’am Theta is turning about but she will not get main batteries to bear.”

“Good, Miss Parker the ship is all yours, aim for that bulge just forward their engine nacelles.”

“Aye, adjust by 3 degrees, can we kick in more speed?”

“Aye Engineering can give us 43MMH but only for a few seconds.”

“Good on my mark…” “Sound Collision!”

At first it was hard to tell what happened, when the two shields collided we saw the weaker units on the Theta flare and then blink out, our shields were seriously depleted but still functional, then the armored bow of the Old Skull drove into the top starboard side of the Theta, my angle was slightly off, so rather than a clean perpendicular hit we hit at about 80 degrees. An intense screaming noise of wrenching metal was heard, our bow sliced through the side of the Theta, tearing up the internal bulkheads, A turret was wrenched completely off, and we saw it drift away still firing, until the capacitors were totally drained. Our forward momentum drove the bow through the other ship and it sliced the Theta in two, but we kept going. The entire rear half of the Theta was knocked away, spinning, so that one of the nacelles smacked into the forward superstructure causing some debris to fly up and hit the side of the VNB.

“Hull breach, we have a small leak, over there!”
“Seal suits! DC get to it, everyone else remain at your stations!”

I quickly unzipped my hood and fastened over my head, thus sealing me in the emergency vacuum suit. This is when I saw the cracks develop in the patch from the old torpedo damage.

“Ma’am we are losing that patch!”

“What, oh shit, everyone strap in.”

Soon enough the patch gave way and the entire compartment was exposed to vacuum, as the atmosphere vented out anything or anyone not strapped securely in place was sucked out, which included Miss Thompson as she was trying to stop the first leak. After the chaos of the venting atmosphere subsided I noticed that the navigator was not moving, and as her chair spun around, I saw that her suit was not fully sealed.

While all of this was going on the momentum of our ram pushed us into the port weapons pod, but no further we were stuck hard and fast with the forward half of the theta firmly lodged in place. The after portion, the engineering section soon lost its containment field and its reactors cooked off, with us only ½ a MM away, or 500 KM, way too close for comfort. The shock wave slammed into the ship driving us even further into that weapons pod, which contained the capacitors for the main gun and also racks of torpedoes, which then were cooked off. The explosion of the torpedo magazine destroyed what was left of the Theta, and also tore off our bow, forward of frame 8; secondary explosions gutted the forward compartments of decks E through J. Old Skull was now basically two self contained areas, the port side below deck J and the After section and superstructure above deck E. Everything else was no good.

“Ma’am, Engineering reports all reactors going critical, containment field failing, they are ejecting cores!”

The three huge fusion reactors had their cores ejected through the special hatches in the deck, as the containment fields collapsed the reactors detonated but outside the ship and several MM away. However with the loss of its reactors, Old Skull was now on life support, and internal batteries and capacitors had a very short duration when not recharged.

“Status on the Enemy?”

“Ma’am they are retreating, do we signal abandon ship?”

“Not yet, do launch the beacon though. I am transferring control to DC station 3, we will abandon this compartment.”

“Aye Ma’am ok let’s get out of here.”

Leaving the VNB through the airlock hatch was not easy, but it did help that all gravity controls were off, to help conserve life support. We cycled through five at a time, with Miss Francis leading, as she was injured and Ms. Greer taking the last group down. Since there was little need for maneuvering and sensors, I took charge of both sections and we began a systematic search for injured and trapped crew.

According to the Majourette heading DC 3, there were intense fires in the forward amidships and fire suppression systems were inoperative. Engineering minus reactors is relatively intact and same with the superstructure. The port side is also mostly intact but it was the opinion of just about all of the senior people, which I was one, Old Skull would never sail again. We made our sweep and found several minor or moderately injured personnel, the hatchway down from deck D to E was warped and extremely warm, and so we evacuated D deck and in fact set up a makeshift medical area in the wardroom, which was on C deck. Through DC 3, located on B deck, we had communications with port side lower decks, at DC 5, engineering at DC 4, but nothing from DC 6, 1, or 2. A couple of brave volunteers, suited up in hard vacuum suits to see if they could reach DC 2, which was on deck F at frame 38. DC 1 is in the crumpled zone, and should have been evacuated, and DC 6 is in the area where that Newton hit. While the one team went to establish contact with DC 2, Ms. Greer sent my little detail on another mission; we were to see if we could find an access way down to Engineering, and then see if it was possible to get into physical contact with Portside lower. This is where I became reacquainted with Troopie Ling and Rookie Gierson, so with Ichrone I had almost half of my old trainee command.