Let the Training Begin

Posted on 06 Apr 2025 @ 7:16pm by Lieutenant Serina "Reaper" Donovan & Lieutenant Paul Winchester & Lieutenant JG Faith Benson & Lieutenant JG Margeurite "Maggie" LeFebvre & 1st Lieutenant Cassandra Mathews & Master Sergeant Thomas Zang

3,007 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: General Sim Postings
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: After Exam

[ON]

Cassandra was all fitted in her new flight suit. It felt strange to report in something other than her usual uniform. Still, it was nothing she couldn't get used to. She'd been cleared to begin training. She received her summons for training no sooner had she been cleared and issued a flight suit. She didn't allow herself to get excited about it. It was simply training and even though she knew Paul, he might as well be a stranger. She arrived at the holodeck on time. She approached Winchester and as was customary came to attention and saluted. "Second Lieutenant Mathews reporting for training as ordered." She stated in the standard procedure. No smile, no-nonsense, just business this time. She was here to learn.

Paul stood in front of the fighter that he would be using as today was the first time she would get the feel of the G forces when flying this class of fighter, he said," Cassie," using her first name, he continued, "I am going to be tough with you as I am with all my pilots when they are evaluated," looking back at her. he finished " So, please do not take it the wrong way,"

Cassandra dropped the salute and stood at the GQ position. "Aye, sir. Understood." She stated, as was customary to the situation. His words confused her a little. Had he called her Cassie? She was sure he had. Still, she cast it from her mind he was the RDC (Recruit Drilling Commander) after all. He could call her Skippy the space monkey and she'd have to go with it. So she didn't question it at all.

Paul looked back at Cassandra and watched more officers enter the holodeck and now knew that this was not going to be a one-on-one but a training school, he now knew that he would need help with the class. He said " Welcome class, to your first day at flight school." looking around the room.

Thomas nodded to the gentleman who had welcomed him as he entered. His eyes scanned the others that were there. He fought a grin as he saw that Cassandra was here. He had been ordered to report to flight training to learn to be the gunner. He looked back at Winchester. "Master Sergeant Thomas Zang reporting as ordered for gunner training."

Mags was already IN the holodeck, near the back. She took pieces of training seriously, though she wasn't a very serious person in general. She LOVED flying, and it was all she had going for her, so she understood that pieces of training were important and had done some hard work to rank up and improve her skills. Only the cockiest of pilots with a death wish believed they were the best, and she wasn't looking to die today. She knew there was always something to practice and some skills to work on. Always. She just hoped that she could set a...well. A decent example, anyway.

Faith stopped before she walked through the doors to the holodeck. She Rolled her shoulders a bit. before Taking a breath as well. Recapping the custom helmet under her up and stepping through the doors. Looking around at whom was there before her echoed steps sounded out.

Stopping near everyone and fully interrupting Paul, because she could. "In which he's going to try to give you a bunch of by-the-book crap. It looks good on paper, but none of that mattered in real combat, evading, or flying through an asteroid field, particularly in combat. The enemy has already read all of our field manuals, and what our maneuvers are. Throw it out the window. That's why Lieutenant Winchester can't beat me." Faith gave a wink.

Maggie snorted from the back of the room. That much was true, anyway. "Except when one of you Marines pukes in my bird and then we gotta set the whole thing on fire," she quipped. It had happened before, and she'd bet money that it'd happen again.

Paul stood looking at those who had come to try their hand at being a fighter pilot and noticed Lieutenant Benson having read her file, he knew that she could run rings around him and maybe even learn a few tricks from her as well as he knew that it was never too late to learn new things. He said" I notice that Lieutenant Benson is here and would like her to join me as one of your instructors," he asked "Lieutenant, would you join me please,"

Faith switched her demeanor, giving Paul a polite and respectful nod. She Moved over to stand next to him. "What are we doing today, sir?"

" Today we will be splitting the group up into pairs, 1 pilot and one gunner," Paul stated "and then start on the flight course" as he wanted to evaluate how they handled the craft," So Let's start pairing them up shall we Lieutenant?"

Cassandra looked to Thomas who was the only other person she recognized in the small group that had gathered. There appeared to be people from all over the ship. Three wore the distinct badges of security, while two others came from engineering it seemed. The other one a youngish-looking Betazoid boy had on a science uniform and was working on getting his flight suit on as Faith and Paul bantered.

Thomas slipped over next to Cassandra, hopefully not bringing too much attention to himself. He smiled over at her and whispered, "Let's stand next to each other so that they might pair us up. It will be great if after we become full members of the fighter wings, we are assigned as partners. You fly, I fry." he shot her a wink and grinned.

"So..are we just going to take turns pairing them up? Also," Faith smiled, "Should we pick teams, see who comes out with the better score."

Cassandra was listening to Benson and Winchester. Still she smiled at Thomas's words. "Deal. Assuming I can figure out how to fly." She whispered back to him. She had flown a shuttle once. Once. Back when she was twelve. A Ferinigi tradesman had taken her out and shown her briefly how to work the controls and such. He had been in something of a hurry to barter the old shuttle off. Her proclamations of never having flown had led to him sweetening the pot and giving her a crash course in flying. The crash course is the best expression of the entire event. As Cassandra had crashed that stolen runabout right into the side of a Federation freighter and that was the extent of Cassandra's piloting career. Thus far. She was pretty sure that Winchester and Faith would likely prove to be better instructors than a fast-talking Ferinigi trying to pawn off his stolen goods on a stupid kid.

"Cool. Wanna ride with me, Boss?" She asked. She wasn't afraid to be second to the DCAG. It would allow her to prove she wasn't a total idiot. She had had her appendix AND tonsils removed as a child, so parts of her were missing anyway. But flying? Flying was her heart's calling, and it was the only thing in this life she was good at.

Cassandra wasn't as eager. Chose to linger more towards the back with Tommy. She'd been looking over the manuals sent to her when she'd first mentioned to Winchester her interest in possibly learning to fly one day. Mostly as a chance to possibly get closer to Serina. Serina had married Paul and ever since then she'd felt a strain between herself and her old friend. She figured if she could just let Serina get to know her and maybe become friends, things could be easier and more comfortable than they were. She hadn't expected anyone to consider putting her in the seat of a fighter honestly... But here she was.

Thomas moved closer to Cassandra. "I wonder who they're going to pair me up with for this training. I hope that after training I'm partnered up with you as your gunner."

"Nothing would give me more pleasure than to help you get close enough to blow some shit up Bright eyes," Cassandra whispered back to Thomas, as the two instructors engaged in their friendly banter.

Maggie stood up to prep. "I call the big shuttle," she hollered out. "Someone fire her up," she said, pointing to the simulation machine.

Cassandra waited to see if anyone else was going to step up. She walked over to get the machine prepped for the simulation when nobody did. She'd read all the manuals Winchester had provided her and started to go through the checklist.

"Lieutenant Matthews" Paul called out, as he noticed her go over toward the simulator, "We have not chosen our teams yet?" He stated as he turned to Benson and said " I will train the Marines and you do the fleet, what do you say"

Cassandra stopped. With a deep and flustered sigh, she returned to the group. Wondering again at just why she was here if she was going to just be ignored until she tried to do something.

"Well, Paul I see you got the troops here for teaching," Serina said finally walking into the holodeck. "So let's see, whatever he said was true except for what we are flying. I know Maggie loves to fly so we will start with what you can do in a fighter" she said smiling.

Maggie smiled. "Hey!! How are you feeling?" She asked her boss. "ALRIGHT!! I am ready," she said. The fighter was still new, and Maggie needed more practice before she could go into a skirmish. The technical skills weren't much different but the application and overall feels were.

Faith gave a glance a moment to Paul and shook her head, "No we've not picked teams yet. I thought we were going to do three or two-person wings." A look to Serina, "So you'd rather we just do some ring exercises first?"

Maggie hung back, waiting for more instruction. The CAGs needed to get their shit together. She was bored already. "I can lead some combat maneuvers," she offered. It was how she had learned-tossed right into the action. The flight instructors at the Academy didn't mess around with cutesy "icebreaker" nonsense. You were cut out to be a pilot, or you weren't. She fought the urge to unzip her flight suit some more, but it was getting warm in the training room and she was going to lose it. She wasn't good at sitting still.

Thomas stood next to Cass wondering what he needed to do. All the talk was about flying with nothing about his training of him as a gunner. He wasn't here for pilot training as Cassandra was. He offered her a smile before stepping back a bit and taking a seat on the ground to await the time he was summoned for his own training time.

Serina gave up and said, "Ok, so now what you want me to do?", she said looking at Paul.

"Sir, I would suggest training module Alpha 6, if you want my opinion. Good for beginners-one of the first we tackled at the Academy," she said. "Also, my shuttle is out if they wanna see what it looks like inside," she offered. A field trip to the Hangars would be nice. Especially because that cute air traffic guy was on duty today.

Cassandra inched back to where Thomas sat and tapped him with her toe gently motioning for him to get up. Just because CAG was a disorganized mess didn't mean her well-trained Marines got to be disrespectful and sit on the floor like toddlers in circle time. She gave Thomas THE LOOK. Her eyes reflected her disapproval. She loved him but she was going to have to beat him harder during the next PT for this.

Thomas stood up and went to parade rest. He shot Cass an apologetic look before returning his attention back to the others.

Cassandra wasn't sure how long they had been there. But her comm badge sounded and a voice summoned her away back to the Marines barracks. She glanced at Thomas and then motioned for him to go with her as she turned and headed off. It had been an interesting flying lesson, to say the least. But she needed to go deal with Carson.

Thomas turned and followed Cassandra out. When he was ordered to do something, he did it whether it was verbal or not.

Serina was dumbfounded when both Cassandra and Thomas left. Tapping her combadge, "Serina to both Cassandra and Thomas I saw you both leave. Please return to this exercise", she said calmly.

Cassandra's voice responded from the comms just as calmly and as respectfully as possible, =^= Negative, I'm needed in the barracks. Go ahead and write me up if you have to.=^=


Paul watched the two Marines leave he tapped his Combadge and spoke =/\= Lieutenant Mattews, you were the one I was going to pick as my wing Man,=/\= as he hoped that would get her back here, he continued, =/\= My money is on you to make the grade and beat my wife and Lieutenant Benson,=/\= he smiled candidly at his wife.

Cassandra's voice was amused but also a bit weary now as it responded through the comm. =/\=That's a big negative sir. I'm under orders to go surprised and toss a bunk for potential contraband. Which probably just saved you a fist full of dollars as nobody has even shown me how to operate your bird much less to have any skill in beating highly trained fighter pilots. So lady luck smiles on us both today as we will need to take a raincheck. Mathews out.=/\=

Not pleased with Cassidy and Thomas, she agreed, which was the end. Turning back towards Faith and Maggie, "Well I guess it will be just you two we teach. Question is... Paul, who flies and who does operations. So...who is the lucky one to go first?" Serina said looking at her husband. Serina never liked cross-training as it tends to confuse in a critical moment.

" I'll take Maggie and you can have Faith," replied Paul as his wife could beat anyone and he wanted to see how each of them could outsmart the other person's flight capabilities, He finished "Have Fun "

"Seems to be that way. Besides, the challenge was issued after all." Faith grinned a little bit as she stretched her shoulders a little bit and then arms up over her head.

"Come on Faith, let's see how smart you are. Climb up into the fighters second seat. Now don't forget that this is a simulation. Anyhow once you're in the cockpit buckle up and do your pre-flight checks," Serina said as she watched Faith go through each step.

Faith tilted her head a little bit, starting towards the fighter and stopping. "Wait what? I thought I was doing the flying." Though she did the pre-flight checks on the outside while she waited.

"Yes, excuse me. Front seat and do your pre-flight checks after you get into the fighters. There's a pre-flight checks done outside the fighter and then there is the inside pre-flight checks inside here as well. You got to be in fast. Shouldn't take you more than a minute a half to do it. Hop to it Faith your being timed," Serina said as she looked on.

There was a little grin on her lips, Faith came back around the fighter giving a motion with her head. "Done." Turning to climb up into the fighter's cockpit. Starting those pre-flights.

Maggie turned to her boss.

"Alright. Let's show them how this is done," she said. But really, she was serious about flying. "Shame the Marines had to leave; nothing I like more than cleaning the floor with them," she said. "Did you do the pre-flight checks, sir?" She asked, as she began her visual inspection of the bird.

"Yep, let's do this as I want to get one over on my wife " as the compertion between them was fierce as he wanted to prove who the better pilot was as he went over to his bird and started to do the Pre flight checks as he knew that Cassie was missing out on the fun.

Maggie laughed. "Ok," she said. She reviewed the checklist, as it was standard to have two eyes, just in case. She nodded. "Let's go. Do you want to fly, or should I?" She asked. She had been second-seat a few times, and didn't mind. As long as she was in the sky, she didn't really care WHERE she sat. She'd sit on his lap if she had to. She flipped down her sunglasses, and climbed into the bird.

"Agreed. Ok Faith let's go. You did all your flight checks I am assuming that you have,so let's go. Oh, did you file your flight plan with CFCO and make sure you are cleared to leave,?" Serina asked. Hoping that Faith would not fall into like several other cadets do.

"I did that before I even started the preflights, Lieutenant." Faith gave a grin, giving a glance behind her a moment. Looking forward again she started the start up sequence.
















 

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