FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Richard is all but a bundle of nerves as he goes to go meet the squadron that he's going to be flying with on his first mission, however trivial it may end up being. He did make sure to suit up correctly, his roommate even going so far as to help him make sure it's on correctly just in case. As they get to the flight deck, his roommate runs off ahead to go and be social. There's actually a decent enough assortment of races in this group, far more than he was expecting since they're still in the Mythic's section of the station. He has been a bit curious about how the Jhereshii handle takeoff but didn't think it polite to ever ask. His roommate is of course here, as is one of those tauric Habenceun people. The one that catches him most off-guard is what looks to be just an android, like from the old science fiction shows back in his own time. And yet, what really strikes him as odd is that this android also carries one of those translation orbs on him as well, though they aren't currently using it since this place uses that Language of Intent thing.

"I would have thought that would have been built in," Richard says out loud before he's able to catch himself and quickly covers his mouth with his hands when he notices that fact. "I'm sorry."

"No, that's fine," the android says in a somewhat soft and feminine sounding voice. "I get that a lot. Most people are used to dealing with the pseudo AI used in drones and manufacturing or the artificial intelligences used in a lot of systems that require some flexibility but still be automated. What I am would just be considered intelligence. I have no ports on me of any kind, no way to access my programming. I grew up the same way you did. I learn things the same way everyone else does. The only difference is that I'm mechanical while you're biological. But the key distinction from other AI, is that I get rights. An AI would not be allowed to pilot a ship like these. But means I have to learn things like everyone else here. I am better than anyone else in that my mind processes information faster, I have a perfect memory and I'm far stronger and more durable than anyone here."

"And in exchange," Edgar says, "mister Allenpo is completely dependent on the existence of technology. Unlike us, he can't just grab an apple and chow down. He must plug himself into a special pod to recharge and his body can't self-repair. Any damage he gets has to go into an engineer to fix. Not to mention he can't use a lick of magic of any kind. Even struggles with Con magic, though I guess you're no different in that regard."

"And that is why I had felt this station would be the best place for me to be," Allenpo says, "for what better place for someone in occasional need of an engineer to stay alive than the station that courts all the best engineers in the galaxy. I have actually gotten a fair bit of upgrades during my time here. Of course there have to be some limitations on what they can put in them, though because of the structure of my body I can handle higher strain than most and can get much closer to the released cap of the ship's capabilities than anyone else."

"Yeah, shame your reaction speed is garbage compared to most the people here," Edgar says in response.

Richard shrugs, not really having much to say about the situation, though the information about the android is definitely intriguing to him. He'll have to see what it's like to work with him down the line. For the time being, though, it's a bit more important to try and get into the mindset of his first patrol. After another moment some sort of reptilian wearing the same flight suit as everyone else is in the group, but with a bit of ornamentation on the shoulder, indicating that they are likely a higher rank than the rest of them.

"Anyway, we're going to be going out on a patrol," Their flight leader instructs and ends any of the conversations going on. "It should be fairly straight forward. Because we have a new individual let me just explain our route. The station is on a geosynchronous orbit around the planet. And there is far too much activity for us to know everything about what everyone is doing at all the time. If there were any undesirables they'd be likely hiding on the other side of the planet, the moon or any other location then they'd be able to prey upon any ship either trying to refill their solar cells or head off to their own destination. So we will be going on a route that will be travelling around the solar system to try and see if we either see any ship that doesn't belong there or had been there before."

Richard is content enough to put his training into practice, though he strongly suspects that they are not expected to have any real opposition this point. That they are more doing this as a means to practice and get used to each other. Which is fine enough for him. He has no interest getting into a real fight at this point. But he goes to his fighter and straps himself in. Unlike in previous attempts he isn't lowered right away but rather they wait for a moment or two, probably so that each ship can be sure to have left the station safely before launching another. They probably can handle them all going at once but it's simply far safer to stagger when there is no threat.

Richard finally is lowered into position and the button to leaves lights up. He quickly pushes it, trusting that they'll only light up if he was free to go. He flies out of the station and as soon as he's out he pushes the button on his console by his hand to say he's 'good to go' as he looks to see where the other ships in the little patrol squadron are grouping up. He knows that in such a situation it isn't really necessary to press it at this point and that's why none of the others really bothered to but Richard felt it best to practice.

There are two main ways of communication for the fighters. There are a panel just for expressing general statements that are designed for quick and immediate communication. Verbal communications will translate everything said, but there is a delay as the translation can only happen once they're done talking to get the full context. Which in a period of time when time is of the essence is far too slow. So the pre-programmed responses are necessary for orders. Verbal communication is used, then, primarily for idle chatter. Though apparently if his monitors record enough stress or he says certain commands the ship will automatically send that response for him. He goes about in a somewhat idle flight path while waiting for the last two to leave as there really isn't any real need to stay in formation and formation flying with spacecraft is fairly useless anyway, at least not the formations he's used to thinking of. They'll be training him on those later, on how best to maneuver your ship to maximize the chance of hitting an enemy target while minimizing getting his by an ally.

Once everyone has gone out there is a signal being sent and Richard notices his map display on his ship starts lighting up and different toggles and buttons start lighting up to get him to follow them. He does so. The rest of the squad are so disinterested in what all they're doing that they are actively going about having some conversation or other and though Richard tries his best to try and follow what all they're talking about, he finds himself lost as too many of the references they're making simply make no sense and sometimes it's even clear that the translator doesn't know what to do. Unfortunately, he's started getting used to stuff like that. Phrases that are dependent on popular culture references don't really translate when the people making the translations didn't really learn what all popular culture references he was aware of. So some words simply come out strange, especially if it's a word from a specific language.

Once they get around to the other side of the planet another reason why they aren't flying in formation begins to take effect. In order to maximize the search for the allotment of time every single fighter begins to split up. The highest probability of someone hiding out would be the opposite end of the planet, where it's close enough to move in but still outside of the line of sight. Just putting satellites apparently doesn't work since they would just jam or go around them, though some probes are orbiting each of the planets in the system to check for anyone landing on them, since that's not in their purview as fighter pilots. Zera had told him they were capable of landing on most of the planets in the system, but would not have the capability of ever taking off from all but the smallest of them without assistance.

When he had asked earlier he was told that if they stayed together then any ship trying to avoid them would have an easy job. But by splitting up and having all of their sensors set to as large an area as possible, if anyone were to try and hide it'd be almost impossible. And that was why after scouting the most logical place for someone to hide the entire squadron would split up to cover as much ground as they could. Granted they'd have almost no chance of beating just about anyone in a fight. But they were also under orders such that if they did encounter anything they were to report it in and then run away. Which is just as well for him as he hasn't had much target practice yet and has absolutely no confidence in his ability to fight off just about anything at this point. In the mean time he simply just has to follow the waypoints that were assigned to his particular ship and just keep an eye out, which can be considerably dull. With space being so empty all he has to go by are a bunch of little specs in the distance, the highlights of the flight being when he's approaching a moon or planet to do a flyby. He definitely understands why it is that they all chose to engage in conversation rather than actually focus on the task. The odds of them actually seeing something before the sensors is so small to be negligible. They're just there to control the ship and keep an eye out on the sensors. Though Richard is able to get a feel for how his squad mates tend to behave. Richard also notices that though they occasionally ask him questions, there is almost no discussion with their squadron leader except when asked to report what they've found or when they've reached one waypoint and moved to the next.

Thankfully enough, there ends up being absolutely nothing at all for them to find. They don't even find any traces of anything that was there before. Instead, other than a few civilian ships that are doing routine and approved maneuvers around the solar system, including a mining company working at the asteroid belt there is nothing at all for them to report. Of course all of the others, though somewhat disappointed at not finding anything of note do seem to consider it a success to not see anything. A sort of result where the best possible outcome is where one is simply bored as a result. And though the system is still far too large for them to explore the entirety in one go even with splitting up after a few hours and only checking a few nearby locations Richard finds the signal being given to return to the station, the fighters all running low on fuel. Though as far as Richard can tell they are running on solar power, it doesn't change the fact they don't have any solar panels installed onto the ships themselves and the fighters aren't designed to be needed for rather long durations, relying on the station to repower them up between sorties. There will be another patrol of a different group to try and get more of the nearby areas with some overlap between the two groups. And that way each pilot can keep their skills somewhat sharp while still maintaining a level of security around the immediate area of the station. Considering how much getting back into the station is automated, though, unlike leaving all ships pretty much just get close enough and hand over control to the station as soon as they arrive, allowing Richard to successfully end his first real mission on his new job in the distant future.