| Author | Message | ||
     Craig Serrold |
"All fighters, scramble! This is NOT a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!" Lt. Craig Serrold toggled the Sprectre's master controls to full active. A quick flip of a switch, and his weapons were brought to hot standby. Another switch thrown, and his fighter was blasting past the flight deck doors. Moments later, Serrold and the Thunderbirds were free and clear to navigate. This was the third such call this week. Pfhor ships had continued to probe Starfleet's Pitstop rally point defenses since the return of Coronado's crew. The ships had never been much larger than cruiser analogs, but they had frequently been able to cause enough havoc that the Starfleet and Camelynian forces had been on a constant four-shift patrol rotation to keep from getting worn out. It had been a hectic time, to say the least. "We've got a medium cruiser analog closing fast," Serrold was telling his flight as they closed the gap rapidly. "I'd say, three-quarters impulse. Weapons are on hot standby. Set shields to full forward and follow a conic intercept." This. This was what Serrold lived for. The thrill of the hunt, the joy of flight and the fight. To his port and starboard he saw his flight forming up and taking their positions alongside his fighter. On his sensors he saw the Thundercats forming up just aft of his flight and the Wraith and Camelynian squadrons moving in on their own intercept vectors. "My God, look at the size of that thing!" came the voice of 2nd Lt. Elizabeth Hesteande over the comm channels. "Cut the chatter, Bird 2," the reply from Serrold's deep voice boomed back across the T-bird's private frequency. "Lock systems in attack mode and pick your targets carefully. Thirty seconds to intercept. Let's go. Full throttle." The battle was short-lived, but harrowing. As most of the recent encounters had been. Serrold held nothing back, and he was certain that none of the other Starfleet Marines did either. Micro-torpedoes enhanced with false matter warheads. Pulse phasers modified to the resonance frequencies of the Pfhor polarized hull plating. It took a while for the small craft to do enough damage to take the cruiser apart, but eventually it was done. It was hoped that when Starfleet's capital ships had finished the "M64 mods", as the upgrades were becoming known, the Pfhor ships would not stand a chance. But the Pfhor had already shown that they knew how to hold back what they held in their hand. If all of this had been one massive poker game, Serrold would have accused the Pfhor of hiding cards up their sleeves a half-dozen times over. But now was payback time. And Starfleet was coming down with a vengeance. ======================== Christian D. Clem '01, aka "Aggie" 1st Lt. Craig Serrold, SFMC Wing Leader, TFW-47 "Thunderbirds" U.S.S. Coronado NCC-97901, 8th Recon Regiment |