Pilot Thread 1

[STSF Jumper 0]

Flight Deck, Main Locker Room

Ens. Jagrissa "Jumper" Honor-Scar

 

“I heard that, like, the bodies were so shriveled up they looked like Zombies.”

 

“Nah, you’re way off. Their eyeballs had popped out and pulped all over the place due to internal pressure.”

 

“You’ve both been sniffing the Lancelot exhaust fumes way too much … “

 

“Vampires. I’m tellin’ ya, it was Vampires. We should watch that one senior officer from Security. You know, that tall sexy looking one with the big yab yabs? In case she starts getting mental orders from these nut jobs to slash our throats or something.” *

 

“You all need bi polar medication, or something … “

 

“Shut it Drop Down. Why don’t you chime in over here instead of telling us we’re wrong every time we talk …”

 

The main pilot locker room was buzzing with activity as one of the 310th Squads - the squad that Ensign Jumper Honor-Scar had been assigned to for this patrol run – suited up and got ready to head out into the wild black yonder. CAG Ramson had ordered all her pilots on standby alert, and until the ship went full on stealth, that meant that certain squads had been picked to do spot patrols runs to avoid any unpleasantness wit the local controllers of this stretch of space. Jumper had been slated to provide electronic and recon support in Gwen Bomber Blue 411 while the others jigged it on out with the Lancelot fighters.

 

The word throughout the lower decks was that some months back, well before Jumper had been posted to the Excalibur, a squad of Excalibur pilots had apparently tangled with and come out on the losing end of a skirmish with some sort of blood cult group. The squad had been found, Lancelot starfighters floating in the dead of space, with the pilots completely drained of blood and basically entombed in their cockpits.

 

In Honor-Scars opinion, the incident gave whole new meaning to the term freeze dried. Get it? Freeze dried?

 

And, the section of space the ships crew currently found themselves traveling through was controlled by the same blood cult group that had killed that 310th Squad on patrol that fateful day. As a junior level pilot serving within the lower decks rank structure, the feline wasn’t privy to or cleared for command level information. But, the one rumor that also kept circulating down from the upper decks was that this distant world they were traveling too had information on the Dominion Founders. So, therefore, the big command types made the decision to go forward, pushing headlong into Blood Space, and putting aside the fact that they were putting every single crewpersons life in jeopardy.

 

“Hey, what about you Jumper? What’s your take?”

 

Ah, dammit. The tawny furred feline really wasn’t up to the whole theory slinging roundtable discussion thing today.

 

The Caitian methodically finished prepping her flight helmet before turning around to the gathered pilot squad, looking each and every one of them in the eye(s) (and in some cases, sensor devices) as she spoke in her purred tone of voice. Her ears flattened with a combination of tetchiness – her usual state of personality - and fear, but she’d never admit to being afraid at the upcoming mission.

 

“I think that somehow, those pilots were drained of blood using transporter technology or some dipsh** technology like that. If this is true, the same thing could happen to any one of us,” A low growl punctuated her statement before she continued talking, “any pilot or any squad that leaves the confines of this ships shield technology is at risk. If the shields fail, the crews on every deck of this ship are at risk of getting sucked dry. So, yeah, we’re pretty well screwed because the command staff wants to go take a look at some veken sholtash ancient information storage planet just to locate the Goo Brigade.”

 

And so, another lower decks rumor was added to the mill regarding the looming danger and how the blood could be drained so thoroughly from a body, and said rumor would further add to the myth and legend of the Blood Cult who controlled the sector of space that the Excalibur needed to travel through.

 

Honor-Scar just shrugged into the stunned silence that answered her rather blunt statement, and offered an amused sounding purr.

 

“Hey, you all asked.”

 

 

* Note: No Vampire yab yabs were injured during the making of this pilot squad production.