CAG Stand Down

Posted on 06 Apr 2014 @ 6:09pm by Captain Harvey Geisler

1,596 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Echoes
Location: Flight Decks of the Black Hawk
Timeline: Current

Lt Derrick Sheldon wasn't pleased with the order to stand down, especially with armed weapons so nearby, but he understood the reasoning why to recall all of his flights. It gave the Black Hawk option to leave in hurry if it had to, instead of waiting to recovery addition assets. All the debriefings had been finished, and the Squadron was on alert status with only 2 Divisions on the Ready Room or on the Flight Deck. The Blue Division was on rest period since they were last one to be out. Red Division was the ready group. While Gold Division, Sheldon and three of his pilots were going over the various logs, and the young Ensign of Gold Flight Two was out checking with bird Plane Captain.

Sheldon shook his he knew why he was out their with maintenance and shrugged it off. If he hadn't join them in studying transmissions and logs in bit, he would have to order him to join his flight leader in going over them. It was very important for all the pilots to understand what was happening in the System. This was so in the future they would know how correct for it, and if they were ask to take action in the future everyone would know what their job could be, and that of their flight mate and division mates.

While out on the Flight Deck Maintenance crews were going over all 8 of the fighter that had been used for CAP. Making adjustment to the 4 on standby right now, so if they were called upon they would be of more use. There were some personnel from Engineering who were helping the his maintenance staff, and some were making some adjustments to the various shuttle crafts that the CAG fighter shared with.

The Flight Bosses and Safety Officers had left their post and had joined Gold Division pilots and studying the information. They were all trained pilots and more importantly more experience. CAG Flight Ops was still manned with min. staffing for now to give the crew there down time, and Safety Officer wasn't need on the flight deck with no Fighters or Shuttles to launch and recovery. Once the other Shuttles that were planet-side were recovered they would resume their posts in order keep those working hard on other thing safe.

As the CAG was still in stand-by status, then Sheldon and his First Officer and Second Officer were in discussion with what the Black Hawk current mission had discovered. They were looking at options they may be able to perform for the completion of the current mission. Then the Sheldon Second Officer ask he knew if the landing party had been informed about the weapons that had been found.

As reports from the planet surface came in from the bridge into his Ready Room, Lt Sheldon called his senior staff in. After the Flight Boss, Chief Safety Officer, his First and Second Officer, Senior Briefing Officer, and the Chief of Maintenance for the Squadron were in his office, he shared the transmission that he had heard earlier. It let it sink in for few more moments looking at the Chief of Maintenance he had one order, "Get all the birds flight ready like they were needed yesterday." With the Chief of Maintenance left his commanders Ready Room and he went to the flight deck to see what had been finish and what could be finished, but still have them flight ready.

Sheldon turn to the remaining members of his CAG. All of them had been trained pilots, and all except for the Second Officer had served as Squadron Commanders in previous postings with various Fighter Wings. With the exception of the Briefing Officer who could no longer pilot a fighter due to past injuries that had slowed his reflexes, all were on the same path as him that was to command a CAG. So he briefly smiled, "I don't have the faintest idea what the Captain has in mind, but as of now I want two Divisions on stand by in the Ready Room. " Looking at the time before he continued,"That means Red and Gold are up on stand-by. Be prepared to have the entire Squadron on stand-by with a Division sitting out on the Flight Deck ready to launch." He looked at each of the officers who were in the room, and all of them knew what Sheldon had inform them, didn't needed to be said, but they also knew that Sheldon had to issue them.

With that he sent a message to the Lt Smith to show the Squadron was going to stand-by. With that since his Division wasn't getting ready for stand-by he left the his ready-room and proceeded to the turbo-lift. Sometimes CAGs had to confirm their gut feelings with the Captain. This was one of the times he wanted to show his face, to let everyone know up there that they were also busy, and ready to do whatever was needed.

[Bridge]

Shortly he he found himself with open door on the turbo-lift stepping onto the Bridge. Looking around to see if the Captain was on the bridge.

Harvey turned and spotted the CAG, and he could tell something was on the Bolian's mind. "Looks like you might not be done after all," Harvey said, gesturing to the display behind the Ops station. "Our team just managed to disable the magnetic interference and we're starting to find a way to bring down this weapon. Whatever this thing is, its sheer magnitude alone can disrupt the entire quadrant if it's in the wrong hands."

Sheldon smiled, "Well I have 0seen what was collected by our fighters, as well as the readouts from the Spiner. Looks like someone wasn't going to play Mr. Rogers and be a good neighbor. I have 2 Divisions on Stand-By ready to go. I can place the third on Stand-By with on one Division sitting in the their birds waiting for the word. What we need to know is how you were planning to use the Squadron. I left the Briefing Officer having a down right fit, leading the planning section on what the Squadron operation would be." Sheldon knew the Briefing Officer wasn't have a fit, it was just figure of speech. Beside his Senior Briefing Officer had been know to be right pain when he was Squadron Commander, when his Squadron was ask to do operation with little or no guidance from higher ups.

Sheldon was usually in charge of the planning section, with his First Officer, Second Officer, as well as the duty Flight Boss and Briefing Officers. Flight Boss was there mainly there so he could inform the Flight Controllers on the length, while Briefing Officer knew how to proceed with the Pre-Flight Briefing to inform the other member of any mission. 90% of it the planning would be done by the three Division Leaders. As he stood waiting to hear from his Captain on what his ideas were he was going to do with the Black Hawk, and what he expected his Squadron to do.

"Unfortunately, it's a waiting game." Harvey folded his arms and looked back at the viewscreen. "The Away Team is trying to figure out the weak points now. The question is how much time will we have when it blows."

Looking back to the CAG, he added, "The Away Team at the research center is being evacuated now. If we launch the fighters, just make sure you're ready for a quick recovery."

Sheldon smile, "Sir, we can launch anytime, and that one of the things we have trained on for Starship assignment that we are able to disengage and make haste back to the nest. Like I said we are on stand-by and waiting. I guess we can play the particulars by ear if we have to." Sheldon knew this was the reason why the pilots went through hours of training in the special holodecks so when they had to scramble without a briefing, they would have some idea what to do.

Sheldon could tell he was need back down on the Flight Ops and turned, "The Squadron will be place alert, with one Division in their Fighters waiting for launch if you need to. Just give quick heads up what our part of the games is before giving us the orders to launch, Sir." With that he made his way to the turbo lift.

Flight Ops

Once the turbo lift open and he exited into Flight Ops area of the Black Hawk. Just outside of the turbolift was special panel that had been install, it was close circuit communication just for the Flight Decks, Flight Ops Center, his Ready Room, Squadron Ready Room, and to each pilot and senior member quarters. He took a deep breath,"At this time they working to evacuate what they can of the away team. We are now on total stand-by, one Division in birds rotate every hour. Our mission will be told to us when we are called upon. One last thing, when the Bridge issues the recall order, that will become your sole mission to get back to the Black Hawk and land safely."

With that he went to get suited up like the rest of his Division. Once he knew his First Officer would be getting his men to their birds and giving out last second instruction. Him and Second Officer will have more time to give those out when it came their turn to sit and wait.

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