Doing his run a voice comes over the comms. Its the bridge officer in charge of operations. The feed comes in as clear as day. The man might as well have sat in the back of Kray's cockpit.

"Lt. Shadow. Could you please do another run past the ship engines, in a crossed pattern? Cams showed an abnormality, we would like a closer look."

  Shadow   nods with  downturned lips   and satisfaction...Lt Shadow...  on it....

 The  Hellcat   banks gracefully away  as he bellies out  to come in..Slowly.. allowing the CAms a good  view... he will stop if asked... if there is no COMs,  and he makes his first pass, he will  do an Inverted turn ( more for fun then anything else)  then come slow  from the port  side..
This message was last edited by the player at 22:39, Thu 16 Mar 2017.

   he makes a few more passes..slowly or stopping if asked,.. so?.. what are  we looking at?..Never  seen a star ship from the back before....

 he was watching his time... as much  as he loved it out here.. he didn't want to over do it , until Lady was   secure.

Bridge quickly replied.

"Please do another run past engine three. Especially the top side. It seems the exhaust there is dented, could be from an asteroid impact. Could also just be shading, but we need to be sure before we start up the engines."

  ..will do....

 the  Hellcat is  bent around..using only thrusters  now.. he turns on his laning lights  to give..what little  extra light he could ad.

  Holding postion  and   inching along on thrusters, so they can see the damage.

Kray immediately notices what the bridge crew had seen. One of the exhaust vanes, used to direct engine thrust in much the same way as the Hellcat had, but massively bigger, was bent out of  shape. Pieces of space rock were still embedded between them, locking the vane and those around it together in a slightly bent left angle. It doesn't look too serious for a ship that large, but for a hellcat it would mean an infinite left turn.
Worth fixing indeed.

  Kray shook his head,..Look . Mate?  I can tinker  with  my fighter. but there is some things i won't bloody mess with... Now this  thing here?... we need ta fix.... don't know how  long the engines were on after  we were  sent..'on out way'... but you may want ta back-vector out course for the last 100 plus  years... if ya do that.. with a percent of veer ,caused by the engine... you should find out where we are..by a  light year or two?  Folks with better  math..and  information on how long  engine 3 burned... they could narrow it down to a sector?...But..anyway... that's me thoughts...we had to do that in SIMs   for a malfunction  for the hellcats?  so eggheads on board will have to do this?

 ..if we're  done.. i'm gonna go back to the underbelly   and continue the  'mapping' the ship... don't want to keep me fighter out..too long , the first trip.

Copy that nineteen. You can charlie mike.

   for  the rest of his flight. he flies a bit slower, so the  keel can be seen, but those watching. one he reaches the Bow, he   does another  Immelmann  cruising   slowly down the Ports side. Until he reaches  the stern....then he will cruise back up to the Bow, along the portside once more.

  Once he reaches the Bow  again,  he'll repeat the flight along the  starboard side. when he finishes his second  pass  he COMs,Alright ,Mates? That's as Good  as a scan as yer gonna get of the MArco.... I'm ready to bring , me Lady in , 'less ya have somthion' else  fer me out here?

Feel free to bring her in unless you wanna test her some more.

  Check... coming in , after a few minutes...

    He   stays  close to the ship , takes Lady off and  pushes her  a bit. checking  loops  a spins  and banks... Turning away from the Ship , he tests the  guns  with a few  fires   just to check the sight lines and make sure they work.

  Right after that, He Peels around, and Happily  brings Lady in. Hanger 2... LT Shadow here..requesting  bay doors open...


 he hovers  100 yards  off the ship.

The doors to bay 2 quickly open, allowing the Hellcat easy access next to the shuttles.

In the middle of manouvres suddenly a red light starts blinking, causing Lu to snap her chair back into place and nearly launch herself over the dashboard to look outside.
"Ack!" she curses as she quickly starts tapping away on the controls of the winches. "Keep steady now. We have locked up line."

Shadow knew even before she mentioned it, the Rhino suddenly jerking violently left.

    Shadow,  flicks   toggles  and  eases the throttles on the thrusters.Trusting the   momentum of space to help  stop/change direction of the Shuttle.

 ..So?   do  we have to Jettison it ? Or can you attack it?

Getting up from her comfortable seat Kong-We shoots Kray an evil stare.
"I get out and unlock! Ack!"
Snarling a bit she gets out of the cockpit into the airlock between the pilot compartment and the load bay. Soon Kray hears the hissing of decompression.

A minute later he sees the warning lights. Load bay door open. He sees Lu drifting slowly, weightless, towards the polo, carefully guiding herself along the stuck line. Untangling the line from the plating it is stuck on takes her a moment, then she slowly comes drifting back inside.

The warning light goes off and her voice comes over the comm.
"Take us in."

..You bet, On our  way in.....

 He  checks the screens to make  sure the cables aren't messed,  the pushes off, away from the   marco. Then  Pivots  about  to belly out  so he can have  a straight  run at the  Hanger  Bay doors.

 ..double check?  The  Cable is all in?

  Once he hears the confirmation he   guide the shuttle into the Hanger Bay.

<<<< coming back out with engineers.

  The Shuttle held its place  relatively firm. a tiny hiss of a thruster  here and there, would keep her   steady.

  Now see? This  is  why a bloody fighter pilot can be a shuttle pilot..we're  so used ta lookin' around  and quick actions... that this is sorta ...calmer?

  There  is  a self depreciating  chuckle,..'course  , one of the reason Shuttle pilots  are better at this?.. is they aren't wired as tight.. so sittin' around is  all right  fer them!

<<<<<<<<  from Hangers....

  After  launching, Shadow kicked the ship into a few hard Turns, ad climb and a dive... letting the readouts track the performance .

    he circled  around  waiting for the drones  to appear as if he were on a hunt,getting Acquainted with the  HUD.

 ..right..ya tin fish.... show me why i show like ya..

Call it superstition, call it coincidence, but the #22 just didn't feel as good as the #19. The fighter performed as it should, no doubt about it, but it all felt a fraction slow. Still a beauty to fly.

The four drones are coming in in a standard formation, reacting at maximum range by spreading out. They scatter into four directions, as to be expected in a dogfight.  The HUD easily tracked all four. Fast, agile, mimics of the Hellcat, no match for the targeting systems. Soon the four contacts were locked. The void missiles were in range.
Back on earth that meant they usually missed untill you got much closer.

  Shadow Kicked the Hellcat's engine.. and   gave a burst of thrust to Help him slide to the Left. His thoughts were to Isolate one, to make sure the others   didn't  interfere with the lock on...

 Then he fired  his  first  Missle, he has in 100m + years....

 he watched eagerly  as he brought the tail around to go after the second closest..his frown showed he  did not like  the way the Missle was flying.

  Taking his eyes off that one  and going to the second..He fired  again...

  Hitting the side of his seat, he   Rolled to the third.... muttering  some  soft curses...

   the third one    felt   better..looked  Real good... the Flash told him  it was gone as he was already locked on the 4th....

  As he   closed in..he fired  the last Missle...

 This one flew  true..much better then  the first two..

 but his reactions were already Bringing the fighter, 'up and over as he rolled out at the top... Looking for the two that 'got away' so he could bring the guns to bear.

   Now the Hellcat twisted  as he tried to get the drones where he wanted,   , more or less 'behind' them..if one could  truly be 'behind' a drone.

  the  further on Peeled off to the right, Kray Grinned  as he  Kicked to the Left..and didn't   even wait for the  tone..  the rounds lit  up The Black, Just missing the  drone...

  He wasn't as mad as he was with the Missles... He almost expected it, tyrning over   and Kicking BAck..he caught the Drone that Peeled off, trying to come in behind him... Hellcat wingman for sure...

   This time..he did  wait for the tome...firing as they headed towards each other... he checked his screens, the   destroyed  Drone didn't get a lock..so it was clean..

 He  Pulled back hard and went  straight up  looking at the screens    as the drone  tried to follow him up, then, titling the  noes over..in the wonderous feeling over going head over heels   and diving towards  on the drone..not quite the same  feeling as in atmo..because in space..there was no up or down, unless you had some perspective.

 right now.. the Tone began and he pulled the trigger. the rounds   zipped  By the  Drone, he had  to kick out of the drone's  'lock' or be counted as  a kill..he  shook his head,,they should have all been  scrap a minute a go...

   settling down to try a deflection shot..which was nice..because there was no wind in space.. he fired again.

 he laughed   at himself... These drone  were either better prepared...or he needed a lot more work...

  Zipping down and  around to Keep the Drone  from getting on his  Tail   Corkscrewing up he chuckled,..well..they'll get alot of bloody readouts on this one!  The  drone made a mistake, Giving him a chance to settle in on its  tail again... he didn't know whether to trust the tone or not..so he trusted his eyes....

 this time the Drone  Vanished  as the round blasted into it.  He Leveled off, lokign back at the MArco, he was 'upside down'...  he  spun the  craft  and headed towards the Hanger.

 It was damn fun to do this again... the hits   the Missles made..were damn near perfect..the misses..were bad.... on the other hand, he didn't do much better  with guns... Until he trusted his own eyesight and skill..  he may have to book time on simulators... or  do some  'screen shooting'..but that wasn't ever as good as doing it against something 'live'

 In a half  disgusted  voice he said,..Shadow , to Marco..coming in....

 Shadow to  Hanger....>>>>>>>>>>

<<<<<<< shadow from Hanger

  23 glided out  into  The Black, when  given the OK....well , little Shelia? let's see if we can make you dance a bit.. an' maybe ya can tell me what ails ya?

 he started off slow...then began to  do simple   moves..the   started to ratchet up to  the moves he was using in combat...

23 decided to give Kray a hard time for a while, but only for a bit. Once they got to the faster and more tight manouvres the oil lines connecting the flaps managed to get their aged tubing into gear, and soon there was no longer any difference in response times.
After ten minutes, convinced the fighter was in okay shape, Kray passed along the back of the Polo.
Turbulence immediately grabbed the fighter, swinging her away into the vast expanse.  The Polo had fired up her engines, the blast catching the 23 on the wings, spinning her.

  The   Poor  Fighter Bucked  abit... He never saw it coming and reacted out of instinct .    puling  away  From the MArco and  diving down  Under her, he Kicker The Hellcat around  in a rising Climb  aiming for the Hanger doors...

 He  called into the  COMs,..what the bloody 9 'ells!... Isn't there a bleeding  passage in the  book that say "..warn your  bloody fighters the  ship is starting the blood 'hell up!

 Tracking the hanger  door, he says,..ready to come aboard.. I think this  little shelia's  had enough!
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 21:06, Fri 07 Apr 2017.

<<<<<<<<<  from Hanger


    jetting out  away from the Marco, Shadow  COMs the Bridge,..Lt Shadow  Ta Bridge... I'm shakin' down  the  fighters...how 'bout lettin' me know if  yer gonna take off on me... almost lost the last fighter when the engines kicked  in ....

   Starting  off with easy moves, once more to check the feel of the  throttle  and such, the  slowly working up to  his favorite   battle moves....


  Moving  through climbs , dives,   and turns, rolls  and sideslips, he things  about his  career..as it were. Two combat postings..4 sorties..no confirmed kills.. those still rankled him.... but the Gun Cam footage was there... everyone saw them... they just never were stamped.

  He chuckled,Lots of kills in  Wargames... but that's what that was for... the 'kill' on the Drone  transport Launcher made him famous...infamous , depending if you were sitting in the Cockpit, or behind a desk..