0076th Imperial Kagomine Hypervelocity Squadron "Jolly Rogers"

"This is Gyrfalcon Klavya Nuomintang, I come with orders!" "Attention to orders!" The squadron duty room became very quiet after that. "I will read."

Meihomei's Desk, by her will, Kagomine Palace at Megamisama Gyrfalcon Nuomintang, serial number: 1237582465-7322-18-18, will assume command of HV-76 hypervelocity squadron 'The Jolly Rogers' at first shift, first bell, 27th Heptiem, 815AK. She will review plane assignments and confirm all flight statuses at that time.

"That is all. Are there any questions?" "I do, where were you posted before you joined us?" That was Pilot officer Miles Kampfer. "I was Air Intercept Officer, Cruiser Shannter, as part of a mixed-crew familiarisation effort." "Did they have any hypers?" "Only hammers, your point?" "No point, just wondering, Zim."

"That was a good question you asked, Pilot Kampfer. Our new officer not having hyper-familiarity is a concern." "Raise it up to Thistle, Zim?" "Hmm, I'll think about it."

"What can I help you with, today, officer Ranthro Zinfaldir?" "Thistle, why don't I see you with 6thFLEET tags, Kon-Meritant-Zim?" "Because I'm Thistle 3RDFLEET, what's this about?" "Third fleet, the special ones, Zim-Meritant-Zim?" "Kon, not Zim, I work for a living. I'm responsible for 6THFLEET despite not having the tags, because the Telbun can't be just Thistle." "Oh, wow, 6THFLEETKON is TELBUN?" "Would be, except you make do with me, what's it about Zinfaldir?" "Well, Kon-Meritant-Veneer, we're a little concerned with Kestrel Nuomintang, Kon, she's not served with hypers before." "She's served as Cormorant crew, but you didn't bother asking the right questions, Zinfaldir, she has more spatial awareness than anyone I could assign to that billet." "Treaty Authority, Kon?" "1200 hours primary, 400 hours desk review. Only one Kon and one officer currently have more hyper than that, and they can't take the 76th." "Why not?" "One is taking to you, the other one is 6THFLEETACTUAL right now. Any other stupid questions?" "Kon-Meritant-Kon, Zim-No-Zim."

"What did the thistle say?" "That she was the best he got besides himself, what's he going to say?" "The guy with the green say that?" "The green?" "Meritant, the green ribbon, that's his call sign when he puts on a pilder. He ain't done that in a while now." "Why not?" "Being the heir to the throne kinda limits that kind of risk-taking. What you say we check her file ourselves, I got Kon privileges they haven't revoked yet..."

"Ok, and we're in..." "Ok, that's interesting, access denied, her file's classified..." "Try the bypass." "Trying now. No dice, encrypted, level 16." "Chief of the BOAT! Please instruct Pilot Officer Kampfer and Flight Officer Zinfaldir to step out of the ready room with their hands up. I'd hate to have to give the order to fire through that bulkhead." That was officer Nuomintang. "We surrender, we were just curious." "You're skirting this close to insubordination, the both of you, any idea just how singularly boneheaded going to the thistle is now that you're an officer, FFOF-01 Kestrel Zinfaldir?" "Err, I do now, Zim." "And you, playing around with Kon privileges you no longer need, Kampfer?" "Just didn't sit right with me we can't have an officer who served with hyper-Vs, Zim. It smacked of a conspiracy." "I'd love to say we have the hyper-Vs experienced officers to lend you, but when Gyrfalcon Konig Friccker and his understudy, Kestrel Hikaru Jaeger, both got killed, it left a dearth of trained hyper-V officers in the 76th. The 77th and 75th don't have trained replacements for their own losses, so that leaves you with me, what am I going to do with you two." "Gulp." "Precisely, I can't exactly let you two run around trying for holes in my authority. I can't let you break regulations, even if I understand your concerns, and they are valid, I do not have much experience telling a crew that they are the Elements' own gift to Arnd." Both men had to chuckle at that. "Err, Zim, I realize we didn't... get off on the best foot. But, with the Thistle saying my very question was stupid, he was also saying 'get off my channel, I got bigger problems', so it's not like you're getting replaced." "No, I'm not, do you know why?" "Zim-No-Zim." "Because, out of his sweet tutu-perpetrating schedule, the heir to Meihomei, the Bameimeito himself, Meritant of Honour, hero of Kagomei, decided to pick 20 minutes of his time to prepare me for all your questions. Now, this would have been great, if you'd asked them directly, instead of trying to hack our own systems! Are you both that uncomfortable with authority?" "Err, no, Zim, I guess, we're... just thrown off." Damn, she's throwing the utility language, where did they get that officer, she must be an ex-Kon. "Why?" "Frickker and Jaeger were our friends, Zim, but no one had told us..." "And they leave, and..." "No one read them their orders, Zim, it's not like we knew..." "Now, that is something I can do something about! Assemble all their friends, tomorrow, third shift, first bell, tell anyone who needs it I'll authorize cross-squad trades just this once. I'll read their orders, guess he IS human." "What, who?" "3RDFLEETTHISTLE, he had no idea no one had the authority left to Read the last orders. It'll be my honour to honour the dead." "Thank, thank you Zim." "Now, you two, if I catch you being this boneheaded again, there'll be black marks, you hear me?" "Zim-Zim-Zim."

"This is treaty authority, patrol flight 456-TEE-EX, acknowledge." "This is 456-TEE-EX, Kestrel Kampfer, flight-actual, what do you need, 51ST-ACTUAL?." "This is FFOF-03, Piersa Ouranos, 51STSQUAD, 1STAIRWING, tighten your angle, you show as heading 1-1-6, you should be 1-1-4, Goguryeo-DMZ is that way." "Treaty Authority, please confirm, 1-1-4, that is not what is showing on my jade bank, but neither is 1-1-6, I have 2-1-6." "2-1-6 lands you in Tsou soup, 456, I declare navigation malfunction on your inertials, go back to base." "#STATIC# Will comply Treaty Authority."

"Downchecked?" "It's my inertials, they were not reading the way treaty authority said my orders were..." "I've served on a cormorant, your inertics phone home on you, if your display was not matching the cormorant, something is seriously wrong." "Like, what?" "Like sabotage." "Zim, you're scaring me there, I'm in a hyper-V, if my inertics are just a little bit off, I'm not just dead, I'm a missile hitting some friendly!" "Trust me, I know, that's what happened to Konig Friccker, he plowed right through Hikaru Jaeger's plane." "What? You didn't say anything, at the reading..." "What was I going to say? We don't know why, but Konig Friccker's plane plowed through Hikaru Jaeger's with such speed what was left of both their planes and themselves challenged anything but dna identification?" "Ugh, ok, you got me there, that's not something you want to say, especially to Jaeger's Widow. You served on treaty authority, what was it like?" "Everything happens too fast, you got 2 seconds to decide, and it takes you longer just to remember where you are, and what you're doing and whose country that plane is flying." "Ugh, yeah, that's just what a hyperflyer is like. So it's like that all the time?" "Yeah, and then some." "Ugh, can't be that much fun." "It's a duty. Just like thinking you're the Element's gift to Arnd." "Hey, we're not all like that... I mean, Fricck was, and then some. But he... had so much talent, it was mostly justified, I'm just a guy who drives a plane, you know?" "I used to drive a Jade Console, now they make me ride herd on a bunch of plane drivers, kill me now!" "Hey! We're not that bad." "Tell me one thing you do that isn't to impress girls and feed into your nihilistic cult of personality?" "Err, that'd be everything, I mean, I paint models, I volunteer at the local elderly facility, I wrote two poems last year. No cult of personality there..." "Hmm, so you're not the Elements Gift to Arnd? And I had such hopes!" "That's what my superior is for Zim?" "He can't look up from his shoes far enough to see mine!" "Hmm, well you are our commanding officer." "But I'm still a Gyrfalcon, in the 51st, an officer can walk off a Skua and come back a Falcon!" "That's not how I heard it..." "What?" "An officer and a Kon walked off a Skua and a FFOR-03 Five Pointed Star and came back a FFOF-06 Raptor and a FFOR-06 eight pointed star. And married, and with a pair of merits, for saving a hospital's worth of innocent bystanders. Oh, and the Kon was a Namei of the blood, just this side of Bameimeito, and Meihomei was his babysitter growing up." "What are you saying?" "That, whatever happened to make Flora Rolli and Amarat Veneer Junior meritants of honour is probably not going to happen again. Don't stress yourself about it, don't validate yourself on whether or not you can match people who set records on how fast they could attain flag. But you probably did good, I mean, Amarat Veneer Jr, the man himself, he is giving you performance evals and they're not 'could be satisfactory, with some more effort'? I'd call that a win." "Hmm, ok, now you got me to blush, he..." "He picked you for this assignment, bless his Thistle Soul." "Hmm, yeah, what's it to you?" "Out of all the teams in Kagomei, out of all the squadrons in Flyforce, he picked mine. That makes it personal, I gotta outlast you, somehow." "Might be a lot easier if you and I work together." "But who has time for that?" "I got time, I gotta make you work for me, or throw you out. Pretty sure which one's less work too!" "Err, you got a point, favorite ideas?" "I tell you to get your plane's entire jade bank to Military Intelligence yesterday. Only, how do I make sure you don't mess it up, you're not exactly mister technical." "Hey, I can obey simple orders, I can't act on information I don't have, like, maybe, 'oh, our plane's been sabotaged, and at that speed it makes them murder weapons', and the like?"" "Hmm, good point, it's been classified, only FFOF-03 and above know." "And you're a FFOF-02?" "I was shift leader aboard treaty authority, I was cleared like a -06." "Of course, nothing I can validate." "Focus here, I don't need you to believe me, I'm not sure I believe it myself, but I need you to declare the tamper protocol correctly... Can you do that?" "Of course, XYZ-123 Stammer-Stammer, and then they mothball the whole plane, and I'm locked in here for a week. I hope you have books I can borrow. It's not like I'll have better entertainment." "I may have something better... This is Kimaguray after all..." "You're a native?" "Yes, I was born in the orchards in sixth ring, you can keep me company when I go off duty." "And you plan to be off-duty?" "I hadn't used any of my vacation time as a Cormorant, you can't when you're all back to back shifts all the time." "Hmm, and just what will we be doing? Touring orchards?" "Hmm, well, my father made wine, it'd be nice to have someone to try it out with..." "Officer Nuomintang, If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were flirting with me." "Oh, behave!"