Sorting the Birds

Posted on Sat Mar 16th, 2024 @ 8:11am by Lieutenant JG Jason Williams III

939 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: USS Astria, Starfighter Squadron Commander's Office
Timeline: MD 4 / 1231 hours

Jason had been going over the information that the Captain and Executive Officer had given him. First, he had poured over the current starfighter and shuttle compliment of the ship. While she had a large number of auxiliary craft aboard, Astrea's current load out was nearly twenty years old. He had already made notations as to which craft would need to be replaced, and by which new craft.

The other half of the information that he was going through, was concerning Starbase 72, which was where Astrea would be drawing her new craft from, once the current mission was over.

Pulling up a list of the current craft assigned to her, he put it on his computer screen. It read:

4x Type 11 Shuttlecraft
2x Excursion Class Long Range Shuttle

Fighters
4 Griffon Class Fighter (Recon Variant)
8 Triton Class Fighter

Runabouts
2x Argo Class Runabout
6x Danube Class Runabout
6x Workbee (Capable of being converted to Attackwasp)


While the Type 11's were fairly modern, he felt that they could use a few more, as the Galaxy Class could hold at least sixteen of them, just in her main shuttlebay. In Shuttlebays Two and Three, as they were connected, could hold at least eight or nine more.

Taking into account that the Astria was equipped with starfighters, he made the decision to have them all located in the main shuttle bay. Thus, shuttlebays two and three would be the home for the ship's compliment of Type 11's, of which, he decided to request a total of nine. He would also position three workbees in the lower shuttlebays.

Returning to the main shuttlebay, he decided to put in a request for three Delta Flyers, to help augment the aging, but proven design of the Danube Class Runabout. For those, he chose to have three, but would request the current models, or as current as possible. As for the Argos, he would leave their number where it was. He would have four work bees and two killer bee variants.

That brought him, finally, to the starfighter compliment. Both the Gryphons and Tritons were outdated space frames. So, he would offload the entire roster. In their place, he would request seven more Type 3 Valkyrie's, like his, bringing the total to eight. They would fill the role of space superiority starfighters. In addition to the Valkyries, he had heard about the brand new Mark I Reavers, which would fill the roll of heavy starfighter/bomber.

Once he had the new compliment load out, he next got to work on the necessary parts and crew, that would be required to keep everything running smoothly. Some of the ammunition in storage was still usable, with some modifications, but the rest would need to be completely swapped out. Also, he'd need to bring in at least a dozen new service crew members, plus the pilots and, where appropriate, their Rear Equipment Operators, or REO's.

He worked on the report first a few more hours, refining details here and there, until finally, he felt he had a perfect report and requisition to hand in. Looking over the requisition form, he read it to himself:

From: Lt(jg) Jason Williams III, (interim) Starfighter Squadron Commander, USS Astria

To: Starfleet Starfighter Corps, Starfleet Personnel Command, Starfleet Quartermaster Corps

To Whom it may Concern;

Greetings. In accordance with the orders given me, by my Commanding Officer, Commander R. Johansen, I have gone through the current shuttle and starfighter compliment currently assigned to the USS Astria's T, O and E. While some of the equipment present can be made to work with current mission plans, the following changes need to be made to bring the Astria up to current, approved, readiness levels.

1. Current compliment of Type 11 Shuttles needs to be increased from four to nine.

2. Of the two Excursion Class Long Range shuttles and six Danube Class Runabouts, remove the Excursions completely, and reduce the number of Danubes to three, but replacing those on hand with the current versions of the spaceframe.

3. Current Workbee compliment be increased from six to seven, with two additional models added on top of this number, which would be dedicated Killer Bee versions, to be used in conjunction with the Starfighter Squadron assigned to the USS Astria, in her defense.

4. Following the removal of Excursion Class and reduction of Danube Class auxiliary craft, three Delta Flyer Class Runabouts are to be assigned.

5. The current Argo compliment will remain the same, providing that any older soaceframes be replaced with current versions.

6. Removal of entire compliment of Gryphon and Triton Class starfighters. In their place, seven additional Mark III Valkyries (interim Squadron Commander has already brought one aboard) are to be brought aboard, to fulfill all required Space Superiority tasks. Additionally, eight of the new Mark I Reavers, to fulfill all Heavy Starfighter/Bomber tasks.


Taking into consideration the required maintenance needed for all new craft assigned, I am also requesting twelve addition service crew, plus the necessary starfighter pilots and REOs.

Current ammunition and parts stores (where on-site replication is not possible) needs to be adjusted, to reflect the needs of incoming auxiliary craft compliment.

One final request. Upon delivery of new Starfighters, a unit designation is requested.

This concludes my formal requisition. Thank you for your time and attention in this matter.

Lt(jg) Jason Williams III
Starfighter Squadron Commander (Interim)
USS Astria


Once he was happy with his work, Jason sent a copy of the report and requisition form to both Commander Johansen and Commander Lorut, for their final approval and submission to Starfleet Headquarters.

~OFF~

Lt(jg) Jason Williams III
Starfighter Squadron Commander (Interim)
USS Astrea

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