Always bet on pink

Posted on Sun Jan 10th, 2021 @ 1:52am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: USS Nimitz, Holodeck 3
Timeline: tbc
2156 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

On:

Jessica waited holding a flight helmet on the deck of the carrier for Miraj. S'hib told her about Miraj, She wanted to know if she knew her stuff. Besides, If she could pass this test, Jess would admit she was good.

Miraj arrived at the holodeck, curious as to what the CAG would want with her. it wasn't that she'd been avoiding them, but Miraj's job was to fly the big ship, and as she couldn't shoot for toffee, stay well away from Valkyrie fighters. The doors opened onto something she'd only seen in Earth history books. An Aircraft carrier. A big one. Several ancient fighter aircraft stood on the deck, and next to one, the CAG herself.

"Ensign Derani, ma'am," She introduced herself to the woman with the helmet. "You wanted to see me?"

"So, Somepony once told me that you were confident in your skills as a pilot. Well I have a little challenge for you because I only accept good pilots who prove that with actions, not words." Jess gave Miraj a smirk. "So here's the challenge." Jess chuckled. "This is a Boeing F/A 18 Super Hornet. If you can Pilot one of these, and land it on this ship's deck without crashing. I'll admit you're good." Jess grinned widely.

Miraj was surprised, and then a little insulted. "I wasn't aware I needed your approval ma'am."

Jess knew this had gone over her head. "This is just friendly competition, Ensign. Apologies. Anyway, wanna pull something off that only few pilots these days could ever do? It's no cake walk, and you probably like challenges."

Miraj looked at the Super Hornet. She'd flown one once, when she'd been working through a history of aviation holoprogram, but that had been several years ago. It would still be swinging the lead. "Piece of cake, ma'am."

"Let's see how good you really are." Jess moved to a hornet and climbed aboard it, the Carrier's deck crew began to prepare her Hornet and Miraj's for launch. "Just to remind you, they had an innovative way of launching and recieving aircraft on a three hundred and thirty seven meter deck. Hold onto your stomach." Jess pushed the throttle up to full afterburn and the hornet was accelerated off the deck suddenly. The G's hitting Jess immediately. "Hell yeah, that never gets old." Jess pulled her hornet upwards. Next Miraj's Hornet was prepared.

Miraj had't missed the catapult tow bar on the front landing gear, and watched it hurl the commanders ship off the tiny runaway at over two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour. In the cockpit, gave herself a moment to check everything was flight ready, and strapped herself in. The canopy closed, and she gave the deck crew a nod, and pushed the jet's afterburners to max, and then the catapult officer released the pistons.

With text book perfect precision, she was off the end of the runway in three seconds, four Gs pressing her into her seat, but she was more than used to it, and all it did was leave a thrill of adrenaline singing in her blood. That was definitely fun. She streaked forward, speedo climbing towards mach 1. It was a reasonably responsive plane, and the stick moved easily as she reached a higher altitude. It was the noise that made it stand out against modern vehicles. Compared to the whisper quiet of 24th century repulsors and impulse engines, the twin jets of the jet fighters were hellishly loud.

Falling into place at the commader's leftm Miraj opened the radio. "I'm up here ma'am. Are we going straight for the landing?"

Jess smiled. "No.." She flew higher in the sky. "This is freedom Miraj. Only pilots know this. Let's just enjoy the air under our wings and do a few maneuvers."

Inside her helmet, Miraj's eyebrows rose an inch. Did this woman really think Miraj had no idea what flying was. And doing it on a holodeck didn't count. Swinging away from the commander a little way, she twitched the stick, sending the left aileron down, and shot off in a series of rolls, before pulling up into a loop coming back to Jess's wing. It was a fast, brutal machine, the roaring engines blotting out almost every other sensation. But it could certainly fly. "Was that what you wanted Ma'am?"

"Nice, Ensign. You handle yourself in an atmosphere as well as in space. Want some tips for the moments you're maneuvering the ship in combat? You don't seem like the shooting type, Ensign."

Miraj rolled her eyes. This was like being back at the academy again when no-one believed her when she said she was good at flying. "How about you try and shoot me before I land, and then give me tips." She pulled back on the stick, gaining altitude and was turning before she'd even finished speaking.

Jess smirked. "Oh? Wanna play tag huh? Okay." She flipped on her weapons and pulled back the throttle, banking up and then hitting the afterburners. She wanted to get into the clouds and the sun. Already planning how she was going to attack Miraj. She'd come at her from her twelve o'clock right from above. "This is fun, Ensign. We should do this more often."

Miraj knew two things. One was that she had to land to win, so Vaii would no doubt try and ambush her as she made her approach. She had the commander as blip on her five, and high, going for a yo-yo. Okay, she could handle that, no problem. She banked harder, turning away from her target, trying to provoke Vaii into an over shoot she could take advantage of.

"You're real good, but I don't provoke easily." Jess made for the clouds. One of her signature tactics was to conceal herself until she was ready to pounce. Once again, Dicta Boelcke, She was attempting to secure an advantage before attacking. She knew Miraj would either have two choices; Chase her in the clouds, which was hazardous in its own right, or wait until Jess came out. Commander Vaii's flight style always came back to either Baron von Richthofen or the Flying Tigers. She was hunting Miraj, and her attack was going to come soon.

"Come on," Miraj muttered under her breath. They were in a long range game of chicken now. She had got through a few lessons at the fighter school before she'd left. It was probable Vaii would try and come from above and try and dazzle her by coming at her out of the sun. Vaii wasn't close enough to engage, but they twisted through the sky, rolling and banking as each tried to maintain position.

The Nimitz was angled so the sun would be to Miraj's left, high enough it wouldn't dazzle her when she went to land, but certainly high enough it would make a blind spot she couldn't avoid. She pulled hard on the stick, sending her Superhornet screaming upward, shortening her forward movement suddenly and getting her up above Vaii for the moment.

The g-force crushed her into her seat as she pulled over nine gees. "Computer? what are G-LOC parameters?"

"G-LOC parameters are set to realistic. Intervention occurs after ten seconds of unconsciousness."

The second thing that Miraj knew, and was willing to be a commander who didn't believe in words hadn't bothered to learn was, that as half Boslic, Miraj was very very much better at high-G than pure humans. She smiled as she looked down at the Nimitz class. She had a plan.

Jess had a plan too. Miraj was planning on using speed and maneuverability to win the day. She flipped the master arm on her missiles and fired the two AMRAAM's on her wings. The Superhornet felt lighter. Jess started ditching everything she didn't need except the two sidewinders on her wingtips. She even vented some of her fuel, enough that her fighter would be lighter, faster. "There you are." She pitched up hard and began to climb towards Miraj. She buzzed him getting her attention and Jess started pushing high into the stratosphere. She had to be the last one to stall. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Miraj watched Jess shoot up in her six and had noticed she'd ditched the majority of her ordinance as they started to line up with the rear of the Nimitz. Her angle was sharp, chasing for height. Miraj was putting money on the fact that the fighter pilot was expecting her to continue the jockeying for height and position, the maneuvers taught in fighter school. But that was getting her no where. She pulled a hard left, tipping sideways as the plane banked hard and suddenly, on the edge of its engine's limits. She could feel the growl and shake of the afterburner engines threatening to cut but not quite ready to g through with it.

And then she pushed her stick down, spiraling for the water.. "Here kitty kitty." she muttered. "come get me."

Jess did a loop and began shooting downwards towards Miraj This was perfect. She had optimal speed and a lock on Miraj. She began to shoot downwards, but Jess knew what she was going to do. She was going to break before she hit the water. Jess put her flaps down as she dove on Miraj. She was going to turn her hornet unto a dive bomber and use the flaps to dampen the speed.

Things inside the cockpit started pinging wildly as the lock came on, and she tuned it out, holding her nerve. The water was rushing closer, but Miraj knew her advantage lay in the fact she could turn later than the pure human above her. At the last possible moment, she slammed the airbrakes, threw her ailerons to their max positions and pulled up.

At barely a fifty feet above the water she turned. gravity doubled, doubled then doubled again, crushing her into her seat and for a moment her vision tunneled and the eighteen-something Gs threatened to pull the hatch of the cockpit and rattled all the rivets. But the move was made, a lightening fast twist from certain doom, the air pressure wave it caused sending water bursting high in her wake.

Jess came in low in front of Miraj and began to charge her from her twelve o'clock. As she neared her. Suddenly her engines flamed out. "Oh Shit!!! Dumped too much fuel."

Miraj watched Jess's plunge to the sea. "Computer? safeties are on, aren't they?" She asked anxiously. Most of the fighter jocks she'd come into contact with at the academy were frighteningly cavalier about that.

"Safeties are correctly engaged for all participants," the matronly monotone reassured her.

Relieved that other pilot wasn't going to come to any actual harm, she allowed herself a grin of victory. The commander might still save herself, but not in time to stop Miraj from winning. She aligned herself with the back of the ship, and moved the throttle to fall power. One weird quirk she'd remembered from her first trip in one of these ancient birds was that to land them, you went at the deck at almost full speed, and trusted the wires to slow you down.

Whistling to herself, she made the approach, lining up with the angled runaway across the deck of the carrier, and went into land, made sure the hook was in position, and brought her nose down. As soon as she landed, she blasted the engines,, and then there was the jolt of the hook catching the 3rd of 4 arresting cables, the engines powered down and the drop of speed was almost a jolting as the high-G turn a minute before. As soon as she could, she popped the hood and looked to see if the commander had come through okay.

"You fly well, Ensign." Jessica mentioned. "I had to see for myself how good you were. Words are words, and you have my respect now." Jess mentioned. "However, it's my own fault, I was too ambitious to figure out a way to outmaneuver you."

Miraj shrugged. The she might have the woman's respect; the commander certainly didn't have hers. "You can still shoot better than I can." She offered. It wasn't much of an achievement, really. A crippled targ with no depth perception could shoot better than she could.

"Unfortunately you're young." Jess turned to leave. Ending the exchange right there.

Miraj stared after her, pulling on one of her bunches. This was just like being back at the academy. There hotshot pilots were always thinking she didn't know her pitch from her roll. And then, when she'd shown them they weren't just wrong, but hell wrong, and outclassed to boot, they got their knickers in a twist. She sighed as the other woman left the holodeck. Why did no one ever believe her?

[OFF]