Flieger Verner watched as the world around him began to shoot past at an incredible rate. Jumping from system to system filled his stomach with slight nausea and he hated being pressed so hard against his seat. It didnt much help that he was exhausted from everything he had done today. Patrols, endless waves of training being pounded into his skull, and the fact that he had been in the Rheinland Militar' for almost a week and didnt have a friend in the world. He was always too shy to speak to the other pilots on mosselle and always kept to himself. He really needed to open up.
The jump had ended and he sat staring at the mosselle. he sighed and thought, "here we go again, another non productive day and i dont have anything good to report to major keller." He set cruise speed and approached the Hangar bay on Mosselle. "what the heck?" He muttered to himself as he saw the cloud of thick black smoke coming from Maintenance Bay. "this is Flieger Gerald Verner, Mosselle, Requesting to dock, is everything alright?"
The dock coordinators voice was calm and smooth "Yes flieger, everything is fine, you are cleared to dock"
Verner pulled the ship into the docking bay and saw the cause of the black smoke. a beaten and smoldering wraith. Verner looked at the ID number on the wraith and saw it was Gefreiter Franck's. "looks like she had more fun today than i did..." he whispered to himself as he removed his helmet and emerged from the cockpit of his own wraith.
The Engineers were already sweeping up smoldering pieces of scrap. He could hear yelling, "LOS, LOS, LOS, AND INCLUDE THAT IN YOUR REPORT AS WELL!" It was Keller. already pissed. Verner thought How could his day get any worse than this. He sighed heavily, lit a cigerette, and headed for the lounge to file his report. "hopefully he wont see me come in".
Albrecht was walking through the hallways on his way to the pilot's lounge. Listening to his favourite music on large headphones, he was completely oblivious to all the yelling that was going on.
"Uuuh, yeah. Ageira can haul that..to there...but only from here..."
He started nodding his head in rhythm to the music.
"Damn all those laws...."
Quietly sighing he pulled out a book from one of the pockets of his uniform, immediately starting to browse through the pages.
"Ha!" He snapped his fingers "Page 631, here it is....aha...mhm..."
Albrecht sighed again, slowly shaking his head in resignation. "I am never gonna learn all this complicated stuff. Why can't these damn laws be phrased more understandable?"
He opened up the front page of the handbook and looked at something that was scribbled in the corner with a pencil.
"§1 Rot ist tot."
"If it only were that easy...." The book vanished again in one of his pockets.
Just as he was looking up to contiue walking he saw Hauptmann Schmitt heading back to her office. He slowly leaned his head over to one side and started to focus on the Hauptmann's behind.
"Uuuuh, they should list _that_ under restricted goods...."
Albrecht started walking again, nodding his head and tapping his fingers on his leg.
As Keller again began to wipe the floor with Franck, yelling about smoke coming out of Hangar Deck behind her, she turned around and finally witnessed the grey smoke coming out of the Hangar Deck for herself. What the? .. The Wraith has not been on fire as i left.. What's going on now! Arrgh! ... She turned back to the Major, trying to explain that she was not aware of her vessel catching fire, but got cut off as he ordered her to support the Hangar Crew. She didn't hesitate and took the opinion to bail out. Helping the Crew, was a way better Job to be done, than getting yelled at from Keller.
Running toward the Hangar Bay, she peeked over her shoulder to check if Keller was observing her. As she just passed the doors leading into the Flight Deck, she nearly run into someone she'd never see before onboard the Moselle.Though she did manage to evade the biggest parts of the opposing person, their shoulders did still hit each other.. "Verdammt.. Entschuldige. ! she shouted in the midst of the run.
As she reached her Wraith, she asked the Deck crew where she can assist and started to work on the recovery her Fighter.
Feldwebel Weiss watched the chaos unfold from near the Storage Hall. Noting the pilot run back into the Hanger he decided to go scold the piloting. Chuckling and shaking his head he bounded over to the Gefreiter a large metal tube carried in tow.
"You know. A better landing method would have been to cut your engines und spin one-eighty. Then slowly decelerate through acceleration. Und ah... I believe your engine compartment has just caught flame."
The Feldwebel stood there still partially in his flight suit, the upper portion tied loosely around his waist. Unsurprisingly his exposed skin and hands were coating in grease and grime, remarkably however his clothing was spotless. Setting the large metallic part down with an audible thud Klaus continued his face turning serious, "I had gotten this for mein own Wraith, however it looks like yours might need it more."
As Feldwebel Weiss gave her headups about proper landing, she could have choked him for a second.
Captain Obvious ! Like i don't know anything about simple physics.... .. She tought, before she realised that he might just not be aware of the fact that the rearview camera was also demolished as the backward part of the Wraith got hit by the cruisers fire.
"Ja, Weiss. I would have done it that way, if i had any chance to look behind. You know, that Hangar entrance is rather.. small! .. " she said and slipped a smile to the Feldwebel while she finished the clean up. She couldn't do more at the moment, repairing the Wraith exceeded her knowledge and the Flight Deck Crew already gave her the sign that she's finished here. "Anyways ... " She looked down on the brand new Engine Klaus just put on the floor and continued ".. Thank you very much, Weiss. I really owe you one. Keller's gonna kill me if that Wraith stays grounded for more than an hour."
She looked at her clock and evaluated: Shower.. Report.. a quick snack... "30 Minutes, Pilot Lounge?"
"Ja ja, I understand that. Now if you would be so kind and search for that report."
The hangar overseer turned away from Sittlingen and started typing on his computer.
Sittlingen looked over to the screen and uneasily tapped his fingers on the desk.
"There it is Herr Leutnant. The 90-ARKM-N45 with the serial number E57326214, assigned to Gefreite Annemarie Franck, destroyed during Scramble Nr.03-2607819."
"Open up the after action report, I want to know how it got destroyed."
"Jawohl Herr Leutnant." The overseer started typing again. "Fell to capital ship defense fire on an incursion with Liberty forces."
"WHAT?! How in the Kanzler's name is that possible?! A wraith, so agile, so nimble, the pinnacle of snubcraft engineering, shot down by sluggish capital ship weaponry?!"
"Uh, I don't know Herr Leutnant, you should ask Frau Franck that que..."
"Oh, that I will. Danke Feldwebel. Weitermachen!"
Sittlingen turned around and headed straight for his office.
Not even five minutes later the speakers in the pilot quarters started rambling:
It's been a calm on the Battleship Moselle lately. Franck slowly had made her way from Gefreite up to the Rank of Feldwebel and earned her place within the Fleet. She was lying on bunkbed and watched some of Rheinland news on that FlexiBild Feldwebel Engel gifted her, as the speakers call interupted her. "Feldwebel Franck. My office. NOW." Even tho she recognized the voice as the one of Leutnant von Sittlingen, she wondered what he wants from her as they have never had any business with so far.
She turned over, jumped off her bed, went toward the FlexiBild and double tabbed on "Turn Off". A split second later the screen returned to what appeared to be a regular poster of the Rheinland System Map. ... I love that thing ! ... she thought grinning from eye to eye.
After a briefly inspection of her uniform,she headed toward the Office of von Sittlingen. As she arrived the at the Leutnants room, she went into position of attention, began her salute. "Leutnant von Sittlingen, Feldwebel Franck reporting in."she said, waiting for the Leutnant to answer her salute so she can take off her hand.
Sittlingen gave a quick salute to Franck as she entered the room, however, he was not standing up to do so.
Sitting behind his desk he folded his hands, looking up to her with a most disgruntled expression on his face.
"Care to explain that, Feldwebel?"
He slided a file over the table in Franck's direction. The front page read "Scramble Nr.03-2607819 Report".
Without giving the Feldwebel time to answer he continued.
"Destroyed by capital ship defense fire? Please, fill me in on the details Feldwebel. How could your ship fall to capital defense fire?"
His voice was calm yet a certain unrest was accompanying it, which was also noticeable in the manner in which he sat there behind his desk, hands still folded.
"And please take a seat - I want all the details."
He unfolded his hands and pointed at the chair in front of his desk. Fingers of the other hand tapping, he looked at Franck, awaiting her explanation.
The Fähnrich found himself with an unexpected amount of downtime. Most of the new Fliegers didn't need training, and he didn't have a patrol scheduled. Klaus wandered into the mess hall momentarily contemplating lighting up the cigarette he idly held in his left hand. Muttering to himself Klaus shook his head.
"If downtime gives me time to reflect on this war, I'd rather not have it."
Lighting up his cigarette the Fähnrich took a long drag before heading over to a table. Hunched over the Fähnrich sat there nearly motionless with the only occasional drag on his cigarette.
"What are we even fighting for anymore? It seems like everyone has a reason to hate us. And all we ever do is defend ourselves. Is the world just out to get us?"
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