[USS Charon]
"Lovely. Should we find ourselves through this mess alive and still free may I suggest that you hand them over to Starfleet command with everything possible on this little excursion? It will at the very least expose the failed secrecy attempts and give them a nice black eye for Federation funding and trusting them in the future," he said with a shrug. "Aside from shooting them now, which I would consider myself giving the circumstances, I'm not quite sure what else to do to them."
Brent smirked as he looked to see the program that was going on in the first suit. "I don't believe I've seen that one before..." he said idly before he began to input in the codes for one of the programs that he had brought on board. After a few moments the computer chirped and affirmative and Brent opened the door for the Captain. "Welcome to the Battle of Britain," he said as he motioned for her to come inside. Just past the arch she could see the old fighter planes being prepared for combat and in the distance was the sound of an air raid siren going off. "Know anything about Earth's history? Or shall we just get to dog fighting Jerry?"
"Only slightly. I have read several textbooks on the matter- though most of it pertaining to your wars. The Battle of Britain" she slid a finger across the bridge of her nose and then looked at Thorten knowingly "ah, yes, this is during your second great war on earth? It was a battle to claim an island if I remember correctly. However, your terminology confuses me. Are we going to wrestle an animal?"
Sam gave her a curious look. "You've really never heard the term dogfight before in related to a fighter fight? Really?" he asked a bit disbelieving. He shook his head. "You are right though. It's during the Second World War. Huge conflagration of battles, atrocities on all sides, intentional targeting of civillians for bombings. Depending on who you talk to, humanity at its best or at its darkest hour. This air battle here probably turned the tide away against the Axis." He motioned over at the fighters on the bay that the holographic flight deck personel were shuttling them towards. "They're called Spitfires. You'll be flying one." he said with a grin.
"Archaic." Shiarrael commented and approached one running her hands across the wing. The architecture was rough but during this conflict the humans were still at cultural infancy. The war was crude but quite bloody. "The design is interesting." She commented and made her way to the small ladder that had been pressed against the side of the plane leading into its cockpit. She was familiar with piloting, although never considered to be great she had some skill. "What are we doing?" She asked and looked at Thorten.
"Yeah. Internal combustion engines. Old stuff," Thorten commented as he hopped into the cockpit and put the goggles over his eyes. "Put the goggles over your eyes and strap yourself in," he called out across the tarmac. He pulled the harnasses over himself and attached them to one another to make sure he was secure in his seat before pulling the canopy over and shut. The flight crew latched the canopy shut and Sam turned to tell the Captain to do the same. "These babies fly like a dream. Or at least in comparison to anything else of the time," he said across the radio to her. "Take off is still the same as it is on most modern flight craft. Get a lot of speed, when you feel the fighter trying to take off on its own pull the stick up gradually and away you go. Button your stick controls your ammo. Lever to your left controls your extra fuel tank. Dump that when we hit combat. Come on now Captain Jerry won't keep waiting for a while."
Following Thorten's lead Shiarrael snapped the pair of goggles over her eyes finding the thing clumsy and bit smudged. She frowned but decided to bear with it. After securing the harness over-herself she slid a finger over the mechanical controls. "Fly like a dream? I'm surprised they fly at all." Shiarrael shouted as the roar of the engine rattled the cockpit. Without waiting she yanked the lever and put the engine to full throttle. Thorten was right about one thing- physics was a universal concept. Taking off in the rickety thing was just like taking off in a shuttle, albeit a bit more physically involved.
"Normally they'd tell you to shoot at the North Sea and call you trained," Sam said over the radio. "We don't really have time for that though, as we took too long getting into our fighters. There's a cross hair in front of you. When you shoot thats where the bullets will land in front of you, same principle as a fighter now days. More iron less holographic though," he said. Thorten spun his craft around going inverted before then coming back up to normal. "Here they come. I'm your wingman now stay close to me. We have to fight through these bastards here before we can hit the ones with bombs on them. And those are our real targets. Punch a hole and get moving fast! Our planes are more agile and are better at turning. Their fighters can go faster in a dive though so don't ever try to outrun one like that!" With that Thorten zoomed ahead to engage oncoming Messerschmidts.
[To be continued…]
Captain Shiarrael Rehu
Commanding Officer
USS Charon
&
Lt. Colonel Sam Thorten
Starfleet Observer/Marine Ambassador
USS Charon
