Crayter Military Reporting Facility

[Panzer]

Good news and bad news, as well as some drill theory today.

Good news is - a carrier we thought lost on G-day, the Valkyrie has reemerged and joined our merry band in the Taus. She's visibly scarred, but in a far better overall shape than the Hades. I have a theory about this all, that you probably you won't hear anyone admitting to. Val was always, I mean always a ship of nearly religious status among its crew by merit of its age. She's been in service from the very beginning and always crewed by select men - granted, many of the competent kind, but more still of the... eligible kind. On G-day, all carriers were lost one way or another - lost with all hands, abandoned and scuttled - the two exceptions were the Hades, that essentially played dead and then limped away. The Valkyrie was the only, repeat ONLY warship to be given an "unknown, presumed lost with all hands" status. Suspicious, huh? Now... I know the commanding officer of that warship sent some sort of communique, announcing their return and laying out the stellar success they had operating somewhere covertly. Ya right... I'm quite sure, that for the last year, the Hades has been the only Fleet carrier behind enemy lines. My theory is - on G-day, they simply broke ranks and fled, seeing, that the battle was becoming a suicidal rearguard action, rather than a fighting retreat. I figure they must have picked someplace to hide very well, as any bigger warship operating in the Taus would draw too much attention. I would have swung by Outcast space and emerged in Gallic space. In Council-controlled or at least contested systems, a ship of any size could hide out and maybe even do some some good. Or... just lay low. You won't see me throwing accusations around and I strongly advise, that no investigation is ever launched. Ever. A working, flying carrier, an iconic one at that - it's what this accursed war needs. Not judging people, who can be turned into hero role-models all the easier, since hardly anyone is left alive (like yours truly), who would remember and know better.

Now, the bad news. As I keep saying ad nauseam, the Taus are frustratingly understaffed and the hardly any of newly-arrived strike craft pilots ever received flight deck training. The only people, who performed squadron-sized combat launch and recovery are the G-day survivors. With the Valkyrie at least nominally back, there's potential for making good and devastating use of what USED TO BE the the most-used trick in the book! It will take weeks, if not months for people to start getting it right again - both the flying personnel as well as crews.

lastly, for the time being, I'm getting the pilots used to what I'd like to think is the best they can do in terms of carrier operation procedure. Until I'm sent updated handbooks (Actually, forget the books, send me some zoggen spare parts instead!) or come up with something better - They're what we'll be doing.

The idea is to get the planes and pilots back onboard. Yesterday. No matter how badly banged up by the enemy or the landing itself. Assuming any random engagement starts going south - the operation's commanding officer makes a decision, that it is time to LEG IT GOOD AND PROPER, the order is issued and immediately, things happen among the planes and onboard the carrier. The fromer one's commander decides on a recovery queue, prioritizing at their discretion. As per the aforementioned queue order, pilots each at a time signaling the carrier and waiting for the carrier to signal readiness. The latter on the other hand - drops everything (figuratively speaking) and prepares to receive a plane, signalling the approaching plane when ready using... just about anything as long as it's bright, flashy and easy to notice and distinguish from the inevitable snafu all around.

~ Cpt. J. Skalski, BG49

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