09-15-2016, 06:46 AM
Crazy work schedule is over at least for a little bit.
So here is the next section
Garrison and Refit and then back out on Patrol
Parker House Rules: Parker Manor, or 1242 East Congreve Lane, was a four story eight bedroom mini-mansion. The top floor had two rooms, the third floor three, including the mistress suite, and the 2nd floor had three bedrooms. The last room was on the 1st floor and served as a guest room. The half acre lot also had a large pool and nice garden. The kitchen was very well stocked and we had a garage with roof mounted flyer port. Across the street Lady Tamara had a place, and Lady Janice had her estate at the end, next to another Baroness’s town house both with full acre lots. We nicknamed Congreve Lane, Regent Row, or someone with sense of humor called it Shrapnel Alley, since anyone not living or a guest would get it from several ladies of note, well at least on Goddard.
Wendy and Terry had the 4th floor, and Barbara and I had the 3rd floor all to ourselves. We hired a house keeper and cook, both married to each other from the residents and they had the room on the 2nd floor. I made one of the bedrooms on the 3rd floor into an office; the flygirls did the same with one of their rooms. Wendy and Terry could have gotten a cottage in town if they wanted one, but we enjoyed their company, besides the place would be quite empty with just the two of us. Goddard being an agricultural world also has a rustic feel, so to help blend in; Barbara bought some horses at the local stable. So quite often we went riding. Lady Tamara and Lady Janice also liked horseback riding so the eight of us, counting their partners, which for Lady Tamara changed quite frequently, but for Lady Janice, she was with Lady Winters, who was her companion beyond just being her flag skipper, a very cozy arrangement; would take frequent forays across the local terrain, which was mostly flat but had some nice hills. Von Braun has many similarities to what was called the Midwest on Terra.
We were firmly settled in when Terry received word that the Intrepid was out of the maintenance dock. That was her cue to return to the carrier and being training up her girls. Wendy spent quite a bit of her free time shopping in Roswell, however although the ship was still in dock, the crew of the Feline still had things to do. Barbara likewise spent her time at the aerospace base keeping proficient in flying if not flying a Raptor. Soon enough, or too soon, the Gopher was out of the dock and so Barbara was recalled to her ship.
I talked with Wendy about what her future plans were, because if she expected to progress any further, she would need to consider moving from weapons to command. However she told me she was happy where she was, and was honored to be under my command. I said that as long as it was in my power I would love to keep you on my team, meaning even when my rotation on the Feline is up, I will take her along if that is what she wants.
The next cycle although lonely at night, was very busy as I had much to do before the Feline was released from the dock, including breaking in a new Executive well Ms. Porter was promoted so was no longer acting. However Ms. Joyner was assigned as Executive of the Lionfish, one of the destroyers in the 655th. My new BDCO was Ms. Harriet Woods, fresh from a tour along the Confed Border. The Confederation was peaceful towards us but occasional flare-ups with the IUP occurred and those had the possibility of spilling over, however that border was nothing like the active warzone that is the Corporation-Imperial border. In fact we received word that the 122nd Fleet had several skirmishes during their patrol. They were just due for being relieved by the 123rd, so we were getting ready for our own system patrols and training routines.
Senoras Wanda and Marie took care of the manor while we were away. They were authorized to rent out the rooms on the 2nd and 1st floor to any AIDOF person to help defray their expenses. They also hired a groom to take care of the horses and other animals that were part of the property. In the meantime the 652nd played aggressor as well as target for the other elements of the 65th and then the 65th had exercises against the other task forces. The biggest thing that happened is that someone back home decided that a CTG needed more than one carrier, so we were given two more carriers, the Inclusive and Impudent. Trade off was the battle cruiser. The Inclusive joined up with the Intrepid while the Impudent became the flagship for the newly reclassified 653rd CARON. The other main change was that we had two of the new Venus class escort destroyers to replace the old Eros class as secondary escorts to the carriers; they reminded me of Neptunes without the hanger deck. The next few rotations out were very routine.
Desert Fury: During this time, unbeknownst to those of us way out in the Goddard area, the Xeniods were back. The Xeniods were a very weird and powerful race of aliens that destroyed or subjugated anything in their way. Their main thrust was away from the Empire, so we were not directly involved, however the Corporate systems that bordered the Confederation were attacked, so for the time being we were ignored. Someone on Amazonia used the inattentiveness of the Corps to conduct our own offensive operations, namely the systems of Faid and Daharan.
The 12th SF was tasked to clear the way for the 34th Assault Fleet, Besides the Persephone transports, the NGAL ladies now had the Athena light carrier and Artemis bombardment cruiser, the first ship carries the aerospace forces used to attack the planet, while the Artemis carries big emag cannon used to soften up the planet, we got the idea from the Huron, but improved on it.
The 121st was in the train-up patrol portion of the rotation scheme so we were “volunteered’ to be the lead element. The 65th had the task to secure the system of Dahran, a planet much like Mars in climate. And the 652nd had the task of being the escort and screen for the 342nd Assault Group. The 342nd carried two legions the 7423rd NGAL and the 234th Mechanized Infantry. A fringe benefit was that 2nd Cohort of the 234th was led by Ms. Angela Brooks, and the regent of the 7423rd was Lady Arlene.
Lady Janice and Lady Nicole were both away on personal business at Sappho (rumor has it they were getting married), so I was the senior rank in the squadron. The Fable was under the temporary command of Lady Gloria Waters, she was from the 123rd, or the off rotation fleet, however I was her senior by about six months. So as the escort squadron regent (acting), it was my duty to meet with the senior ground pounders. For simplicity sake we met at the main briefing room on the Intrepid. The skipper of the Gopher, Lady Tamara was present as well as her CAG, a certain Ms. Foster.
“Lady Tamara what a nice surprise, I did not expect to see you.”
“Oh, well Lady Cynthia, someone thought you needed a more, ah mature hand, the Gopher is tasked as the command ship for the 342nd.”
“Oh, are you by yourself?”
“Heck no, girl both the Ostrich and Only are accompanying the Gopher plus I have the Newt.”
“What’s a Newt?”
“Oh, that would be one of those Venus’s that joined up a while back.”
“So are you running the show?”
“No that would be Lady Baroness Wanda Du Prix, she is a pinky.”
“Oh right, so are senior amongst the blue legs?”
“Yeah by the way when are you and Barbara going to get hitched?”
“Err…”
“Tammy silly, Cyn doesn’t know but I think we are waiting until after this deployment, after all in two years I will be up for my own title.”
“Right, makes sense ah here is Lady Wanda now.”
Lady Wanda was followed by Ladies Arlene, and Laura Weiss, the regent of the 234th. Trailing behind were five kommandettes, two with the pink and navy berets of NGAL and Three with the purple of mechanized.
“Ah Lady Tamara, and you must be Lady Cynthia, let me introduce to you my senior regents and staff, this is Lady Arlene Saunders, and Lady Laura Weiss, and this is Ms. Watts, my matron of staff.”
“Welcome to the Intrepid, Ladies, madams, I am Lady Tamara Francis, skipper of the AISS Gopher and regent of the close escort force, this is Lady Cynthia Parker, she is the skipper of the cruiser Feline and will be commanding our screen. This is Ms. Foster she is my CAG or Commander of Aerospace Group and will coordinate all aerospace operations to include escorts for the assault shuttles, prior to atmospheric penetration. If you follow me your Noble Ladyship we can get the briefing started.”
The briefing was rather detailed, I gave my portion regarding how the Fable and Feline sections would probe the system while the Hula-hoop; our Hermes would scout ahead with the Shirttail, our oracle. The DESTRON would stay with the main body to provide a quick reaction force. The other parts of the briefing really did not concern the disposition of the 652nd but we had to pay attention.
After the briefing we were given a few days liberty, so I invited Arlene and Angela to join us at Parker Manor. Wendy and Barbara were both pleased at seeing a few more Sally Ride girls. Terry had permission to stay down with Wendy before we shipped out.
“So Cynthia, ooh nice place, what is there to do here?”
“Well Arlene, we usually go horseback riding, and Lady Tamara has her place just down the road, in fact all of these homes are owned by ladies of 12th Star fleet.”
“Lucky you, my estate is back on Aerial but being NGAL I don’t see much of it. I see you have your ship, and Wendy what do you do?”
“Oh, work for Cynthia, I am her Weapons Division Officette, my main fun duty is pushing the fire button, but mostly supervising, I see you have a legion of your own.”
“Yeah, however being a Century or even Cohort matriarch is more fun, I don’t even drop with the 2nd wave.”
“Well that makes sense, you can coordinate things from the ship much better silly..”
“Oh Angie be quiet, we have been over this before, dropping is the fun thing, slogging in the muck now that’s no fun.”
“Well I can’t help it if you don’t have Banshees….”
“What’s a Banshee?”
“Oh it’s a mobile coffin that the purple heads like driving about in…”
“It is not it is an armored VTH transport carries a full squad and has a pulse laser for its main weapon.”
“Oh I know about those thing, kinda weak don’t you think Ironhorse?”
“Tell me about it Pychobabe, a good particle cannon will blow that piece of junk away…”
“Good one Arlene you got the Airheads speaking gibberish…”
“Speak for yourself space cadet; at least we are smart enough to wear vac suits in space.”
“Hey now…hmm you do have a point Ms. Foster, it does seem kind of silly rushing to change into vac suits prior to combat. Wendy make a note that we will wear our vac suits at all times when on duty.”
“Ok, wow learning something from an aerobabe, next we will ask the pinkies for advice.”
“Ok enough before it gets ugly, let’s go get the horses.” I said cutting off what would be hours long debate on which branch was better.
Our brief liberty was spent in many relaxing and enjoyable activities, including a Sally Ride plus 1 reunion that reminded us of the old evaluation sessions with Miss Helen.
Alas we had to return to our respective ships, and although at first my crew grumbled a bit about wearing the vac suit all the time, it did speed up the time to reach action stations and condition Zebra by about three minutes. I mentioned the practice to Tamara and she thought about it, and tried it with the Gopher, and having both been on the Golgotha, we saw what happened to unsuited personnel. Soon afterward she issued a directive to the close escort group, and I did the same with the squadron, all personnel when not sleeping or otherwise unable to suit up will wear their vac suits at all times.
So we had our rank insignia and department devices permanently stamped on the vac suits. Likewise both Tamara and I added gold braid to our trim, like the gold braid on the shipboard dress sleeve cuffs. I had my executive put on silver braid and department heads yellow, all other officettes light blue. This way the crew could easily distinguish who someone was with just a glance. Little did I know that I just established the uniform pattern for the next several years.
The ships left Goddard for Dahran with my squadron in the lead. Hula Hoop entered the system and found that only a small squadron of corporate ships guarded it. My plan was to have the squadron jump in and take on the picket force. The DESTRON would jump from the far point, so I attached the Shirttail to them, and she would jump back to us once they were in position, and then jump to the Destroyer group once we have jumped. That way the smaller vessels could jump while we drew the attention of the enemy.
The plan was executed with flawless precision; we caught the corp picket group napping and made short work of them. The ground assault likewise had an easy time of things. However Dahran was not much of a fun planet to visit. Cool deserts and high plateaus dominated most of the landscape. However it had a huge mining industry which we could definitely use. Now the trick would be keeping it, and well one reinforced cruiser squadron was not much of a roadblock. We relayed our success to our respective higher headquarters, and Lady Wanda was named provincial governess of Dahran with both ground legions left to secure the planet. We were likewise ordered to remain on station until further reinforcement. We also learned that the attack on Faid was not a resounding success, but the ground troops did land and are now fighting for it. There was talk of using our NGAL to help with Faid but Lady Wanda did not want to cut her own ground troops in half without being reinforced first.
Therefore we waited and waited, until finally a Lincoln House garrison unit arrived. The tension between the Imperial and House troops was so thick you could cut it with the proverbial vibroblade. The Lincoln forces were also not happy being under a Countess who did not report to their own illustrious Queen. But that wasn’t our concern because once the garrison was established, including a stellar force of two CRURON’s we grabbed the NGAL girls, the poor Mech Infantry ladies were ordered to remain, under Lady Wanda’s direct control, another thing the Lincoln prigs did not care too much about, but hey we are supposed to be one Empire first, right? So without some of the ground forces we linked back up the rest of the 65th and continued with the resumption of the Goddard Patrol.
After Faid and Dahran, things settled back into the routine. Of note before my term on the light cruiser was finished, I recommended Wendy to attend the Command and Ship’s Mistress course, so she reluctantly traded her missiles for the astrolabe and attended the class. Her first posting was on the Negligee a Venus class destroyer, as the executive officette. The Negligee was part of the 651st CARON, and so was close to the Intrepid and Gopher. My replacement Weapons Officette, was Ms. Harriet Waterston, she was very good at her job, but not nearly as personable as Wendy.
Barbara was made Lady Foster and assigned as a Wing Matron for the 145th Aerospace Wing, The wing consisted of two Raptor groups, the one on the Gopher, and one on the Intrepid, besides two fighter groups, again one on the Intrepid the other spread out amongst the escorting cruisers, and one strike attack group. So she moved over to the Intrepid. Terri became the 1451st Interception Group matriarch, also based on the Intrepid. When Lady Tamara rotated out of her command slot, I did not get the position, but rather I was picked up by Her Grace, Countess Gloria Donitz, the new incoming regent for the 65th CTG. The Intrepid was her flagship, and I was DAVR or Deputy Assistant Vice Regent Operations- Scout and Screening Forces. Technically that meant the CRURON’s and DESTRONS were my responsibility. My immediate boss was Lady Baroness Kimberly Miller, the AVR Operations. The 65th CTG spent the first rotation doing more routine patrols.
So here is the next section
Garrison and Refit and then back out on Patrol
Parker House Rules: Parker Manor, or 1242 East Congreve Lane, was a four story eight bedroom mini-mansion. The top floor had two rooms, the third floor three, including the mistress suite, and the 2nd floor had three bedrooms. The last room was on the 1st floor and served as a guest room. The half acre lot also had a large pool and nice garden. The kitchen was very well stocked and we had a garage with roof mounted flyer port. Across the street Lady Tamara had a place, and Lady Janice had her estate at the end, next to another Baroness’s town house both with full acre lots. We nicknamed Congreve Lane, Regent Row, or someone with sense of humor called it Shrapnel Alley, since anyone not living or a guest would get it from several ladies of note, well at least on Goddard.
Wendy and Terry had the 4th floor, and Barbara and I had the 3rd floor all to ourselves. We hired a house keeper and cook, both married to each other from the residents and they had the room on the 2nd floor. I made one of the bedrooms on the 3rd floor into an office; the flygirls did the same with one of their rooms. Wendy and Terry could have gotten a cottage in town if they wanted one, but we enjoyed their company, besides the place would be quite empty with just the two of us. Goddard being an agricultural world also has a rustic feel, so to help blend in; Barbara bought some horses at the local stable. So quite often we went riding. Lady Tamara and Lady Janice also liked horseback riding so the eight of us, counting their partners, which for Lady Tamara changed quite frequently, but for Lady Janice, she was with Lady Winters, who was her companion beyond just being her flag skipper, a very cozy arrangement; would take frequent forays across the local terrain, which was mostly flat but had some nice hills. Von Braun has many similarities to what was called the Midwest on Terra.
We were firmly settled in when Terry received word that the Intrepid was out of the maintenance dock. That was her cue to return to the carrier and being training up her girls. Wendy spent quite a bit of her free time shopping in Roswell, however although the ship was still in dock, the crew of the Feline still had things to do. Barbara likewise spent her time at the aerospace base keeping proficient in flying if not flying a Raptor. Soon enough, or too soon, the Gopher was out of the dock and so Barbara was recalled to her ship.
I talked with Wendy about what her future plans were, because if she expected to progress any further, she would need to consider moving from weapons to command. However she told me she was happy where she was, and was honored to be under my command. I said that as long as it was in my power I would love to keep you on my team, meaning even when my rotation on the Feline is up, I will take her along if that is what she wants.
The next cycle although lonely at night, was very busy as I had much to do before the Feline was released from the dock, including breaking in a new Executive well Ms. Porter was promoted so was no longer acting. However Ms. Joyner was assigned as Executive of the Lionfish, one of the destroyers in the 655th. My new BDCO was Ms. Harriet Woods, fresh from a tour along the Confed Border. The Confederation was peaceful towards us but occasional flare-ups with the IUP occurred and those had the possibility of spilling over, however that border was nothing like the active warzone that is the Corporation-Imperial border. In fact we received word that the 122nd Fleet had several skirmishes during their patrol. They were just due for being relieved by the 123rd, so we were getting ready for our own system patrols and training routines.
Senoras Wanda and Marie took care of the manor while we were away. They were authorized to rent out the rooms on the 2nd and 1st floor to any AIDOF person to help defray their expenses. They also hired a groom to take care of the horses and other animals that were part of the property. In the meantime the 652nd played aggressor as well as target for the other elements of the 65th and then the 65th had exercises against the other task forces. The biggest thing that happened is that someone back home decided that a CTG needed more than one carrier, so we were given two more carriers, the Inclusive and Impudent. Trade off was the battle cruiser. The Inclusive joined up with the Intrepid while the Impudent became the flagship for the newly reclassified 653rd CARON. The other main change was that we had two of the new Venus class escort destroyers to replace the old Eros class as secondary escorts to the carriers; they reminded me of Neptunes without the hanger deck. The next few rotations out were very routine.
Desert Fury: During this time, unbeknownst to those of us way out in the Goddard area, the Xeniods were back. The Xeniods were a very weird and powerful race of aliens that destroyed or subjugated anything in their way. Their main thrust was away from the Empire, so we were not directly involved, however the Corporate systems that bordered the Confederation were attacked, so for the time being we were ignored. Someone on Amazonia used the inattentiveness of the Corps to conduct our own offensive operations, namely the systems of Faid and Daharan.
The 12th SF was tasked to clear the way for the 34th Assault Fleet, Besides the Persephone transports, the NGAL ladies now had the Athena light carrier and Artemis bombardment cruiser, the first ship carries the aerospace forces used to attack the planet, while the Artemis carries big emag cannon used to soften up the planet, we got the idea from the Huron, but improved on it.
The 121st was in the train-up patrol portion of the rotation scheme so we were “volunteered’ to be the lead element. The 65th had the task to secure the system of Dahran, a planet much like Mars in climate. And the 652nd had the task of being the escort and screen for the 342nd Assault Group. The 342nd carried two legions the 7423rd NGAL and the 234th Mechanized Infantry. A fringe benefit was that 2nd Cohort of the 234th was led by Ms. Angela Brooks, and the regent of the 7423rd was Lady Arlene.
Lady Janice and Lady Nicole were both away on personal business at Sappho (rumor has it they were getting married), so I was the senior rank in the squadron. The Fable was under the temporary command of Lady Gloria Waters, she was from the 123rd, or the off rotation fleet, however I was her senior by about six months. So as the escort squadron regent (acting), it was my duty to meet with the senior ground pounders. For simplicity sake we met at the main briefing room on the Intrepid. The skipper of the Gopher, Lady Tamara was present as well as her CAG, a certain Ms. Foster.
“Lady Tamara what a nice surprise, I did not expect to see you.”
“Oh, well Lady Cynthia, someone thought you needed a more, ah mature hand, the Gopher is tasked as the command ship for the 342nd.”
“Oh, are you by yourself?”
“Heck no, girl both the Ostrich and Only are accompanying the Gopher plus I have the Newt.”
“What’s a Newt?”
“Oh, that would be one of those Venus’s that joined up a while back.”
“So are you running the show?”
“No that would be Lady Baroness Wanda Du Prix, she is a pinky.”
“Oh right, so are senior amongst the blue legs?”
“Yeah by the way when are you and Barbara going to get hitched?”
“Err…”
“Tammy silly, Cyn doesn’t know but I think we are waiting until after this deployment, after all in two years I will be up for my own title.”
“Right, makes sense ah here is Lady Wanda now.”
Lady Wanda was followed by Ladies Arlene, and Laura Weiss, the regent of the 234th. Trailing behind were five kommandettes, two with the pink and navy berets of NGAL and Three with the purple of mechanized.
“Ah Lady Tamara, and you must be Lady Cynthia, let me introduce to you my senior regents and staff, this is Lady Arlene Saunders, and Lady Laura Weiss, and this is Ms. Watts, my matron of staff.”
“Welcome to the Intrepid, Ladies, madams, I am Lady Tamara Francis, skipper of the AISS Gopher and regent of the close escort force, this is Lady Cynthia Parker, she is the skipper of the cruiser Feline and will be commanding our screen. This is Ms. Foster she is my CAG or Commander of Aerospace Group and will coordinate all aerospace operations to include escorts for the assault shuttles, prior to atmospheric penetration. If you follow me your Noble Ladyship we can get the briefing started.”
The briefing was rather detailed, I gave my portion regarding how the Fable and Feline sections would probe the system while the Hula-hoop; our Hermes would scout ahead with the Shirttail, our oracle. The DESTRON would stay with the main body to provide a quick reaction force. The other parts of the briefing really did not concern the disposition of the 652nd but we had to pay attention.
After the briefing we were given a few days liberty, so I invited Arlene and Angela to join us at Parker Manor. Wendy and Barbara were both pleased at seeing a few more Sally Ride girls. Terry had permission to stay down with Wendy before we shipped out.
“So Cynthia, ooh nice place, what is there to do here?”
“Well Arlene, we usually go horseback riding, and Lady Tamara has her place just down the road, in fact all of these homes are owned by ladies of 12th Star fleet.”
“Lucky you, my estate is back on Aerial but being NGAL I don’t see much of it. I see you have your ship, and Wendy what do you do?”
“Oh, work for Cynthia, I am her Weapons Division Officette, my main fun duty is pushing the fire button, but mostly supervising, I see you have a legion of your own.”
“Yeah, however being a Century or even Cohort matriarch is more fun, I don’t even drop with the 2nd wave.”
“Well that makes sense, you can coordinate things from the ship much better silly..”
“Oh Angie be quiet, we have been over this before, dropping is the fun thing, slogging in the muck now that’s no fun.”
“Well I can’t help it if you don’t have Banshees….”
“What’s a Banshee?”
“Oh it’s a mobile coffin that the purple heads like driving about in…”
“It is not it is an armored VTH transport carries a full squad and has a pulse laser for its main weapon.”
“Oh I know about those thing, kinda weak don’t you think Ironhorse?”
“Tell me about it Pychobabe, a good particle cannon will blow that piece of junk away…”
“Good one Arlene you got the Airheads speaking gibberish…”
“Speak for yourself space cadet; at least we are smart enough to wear vac suits in space.”
“Hey now…hmm you do have a point Ms. Foster, it does seem kind of silly rushing to change into vac suits prior to combat. Wendy make a note that we will wear our vac suits at all times when on duty.”
“Ok, wow learning something from an aerobabe, next we will ask the pinkies for advice.”
“Ok enough before it gets ugly, let’s go get the horses.” I said cutting off what would be hours long debate on which branch was better.
Our brief liberty was spent in many relaxing and enjoyable activities, including a Sally Ride plus 1 reunion that reminded us of the old evaluation sessions with Miss Helen.
Alas we had to return to our respective ships, and although at first my crew grumbled a bit about wearing the vac suit all the time, it did speed up the time to reach action stations and condition Zebra by about three minutes. I mentioned the practice to Tamara and she thought about it, and tried it with the Gopher, and having both been on the Golgotha, we saw what happened to unsuited personnel. Soon afterward she issued a directive to the close escort group, and I did the same with the squadron, all personnel when not sleeping or otherwise unable to suit up will wear their vac suits at all times.
So we had our rank insignia and department devices permanently stamped on the vac suits. Likewise both Tamara and I added gold braid to our trim, like the gold braid on the shipboard dress sleeve cuffs. I had my executive put on silver braid and department heads yellow, all other officettes light blue. This way the crew could easily distinguish who someone was with just a glance. Little did I know that I just established the uniform pattern for the next several years.
The ships left Goddard for Dahran with my squadron in the lead. Hula Hoop entered the system and found that only a small squadron of corporate ships guarded it. My plan was to have the squadron jump in and take on the picket force. The DESTRON would jump from the far point, so I attached the Shirttail to them, and she would jump back to us once they were in position, and then jump to the Destroyer group once we have jumped. That way the smaller vessels could jump while we drew the attention of the enemy.
The plan was executed with flawless precision; we caught the corp picket group napping and made short work of them. The ground assault likewise had an easy time of things. However Dahran was not much of a fun planet to visit. Cool deserts and high plateaus dominated most of the landscape. However it had a huge mining industry which we could definitely use. Now the trick would be keeping it, and well one reinforced cruiser squadron was not much of a roadblock. We relayed our success to our respective higher headquarters, and Lady Wanda was named provincial governess of Dahran with both ground legions left to secure the planet. We were likewise ordered to remain on station until further reinforcement. We also learned that the attack on Faid was not a resounding success, but the ground troops did land and are now fighting for it. There was talk of using our NGAL to help with Faid but Lady Wanda did not want to cut her own ground troops in half without being reinforced first.
Therefore we waited and waited, until finally a Lincoln House garrison unit arrived. The tension between the Imperial and House troops was so thick you could cut it with the proverbial vibroblade. The Lincoln forces were also not happy being under a Countess who did not report to their own illustrious Queen. But that wasn’t our concern because once the garrison was established, including a stellar force of two CRURON’s we grabbed the NGAL girls, the poor Mech Infantry ladies were ordered to remain, under Lady Wanda’s direct control, another thing the Lincoln prigs did not care too much about, but hey we are supposed to be one Empire first, right? So without some of the ground forces we linked back up the rest of the 65th and continued with the resumption of the Goddard Patrol.
After Faid and Dahran, things settled back into the routine. Of note before my term on the light cruiser was finished, I recommended Wendy to attend the Command and Ship’s Mistress course, so she reluctantly traded her missiles for the astrolabe and attended the class. Her first posting was on the Negligee a Venus class destroyer, as the executive officette. The Negligee was part of the 651st CARON, and so was close to the Intrepid and Gopher. My replacement Weapons Officette, was Ms. Harriet Waterston, she was very good at her job, but not nearly as personable as Wendy.
Barbara was made Lady Foster and assigned as a Wing Matron for the 145th Aerospace Wing, The wing consisted of two Raptor groups, the one on the Gopher, and one on the Intrepid, besides two fighter groups, again one on the Intrepid the other spread out amongst the escorting cruisers, and one strike attack group. So she moved over to the Intrepid. Terri became the 1451st Interception Group matriarch, also based on the Intrepid. When Lady Tamara rotated out of her command slot, I did not get the position, but rather I was picked up by Her Grace, Countess Gloria Donitz, the new incoming regent for the 65th CTG. The Intrepid was her flagship, and I was DAVR or Deputy Assistant Vice Regent Operations- Scout and Screening Forces. Technically that meant the CRURON’s and DESTRONS were my responsibility. My immediate boss was Lady Baroness Kimberly Miller, the AVR Operations. The 65th CTG spent the first rotation doing more routine patrols.