I’m moving and my cat is coming with me. He actually does pretty well in the car and usually falls asleep, but the longest car ride I’ve had him with was about 4 hours. I’m wondering if i should just go with the 8 hour drive or if the 1.5 hour flight would be easier on him because it’s so much shorter. Of course I would have to deal with the fact that he’s never flown or been in an airport before, so that would be stressful in a different way. Thoughts, advice, experiences?
Hello, maybe a silly question but it's my first big flight and i'm worried! Hoping someone can help me.
So when registering my Aeroplane account, auto correct happened and changed my legal name to my shortened name. When buying plane tickets, I added myself as an 'additional passenger' so that I could add my full name, and added the aeroplane number to this passenger.
Now on my plane ticket my full legal name and aeroplane number is on there. But then naturally a few days have passed and I wondering, will this cause any confusion or problems when checking in at the airport, just hoping to reach someone with some travel experience as i'm clueless.
Hi guys, I have to catch a flight early in the morning from Delhi Airport. Could anyone please confirm the last metro timing for Aiport express line from NDLS. Last time anybody has witnessed, encourtered/know the metro runs from NDLS to T3?
I could find any recent or old thread which gives out the same info, May please redirect of there is an existing thread.
Thanks!
Was kicked off a flight and forced to sit in the airport for another 4 hrs. My bad was left in JFK while I went to MCI. My bag was delayed and I bought overnight expenses and looking to be reimbursed. Now the airport is telling me that they sent the bag to MCI, but that's 2 hrs away, I thought they were supposed to deliver it to your house? I tried to speak to a customer representative over the phone and he was clueless, I asked to speak to someone else and he said there was no one else to talk to.
Any advice
FIRST CHAPTER PREVIOUS CHAPTER This product is a fanfic of the Sexy Space Babes/Between Worlds product of
u/Bluefishcake and one I highly suggest you read. It was created with permission, but give the OG works some love.
Imgr gallery of Comissioned and Fan Artworks I'm Back Bitches! Again! //////////
Junior Systems Engineer First Class Che’keero knelt before a semi-sparking control panel and sighed. She, and a large band of her fellow Engineers with Marine support, had boarded the pirate frigate with the singular goal of ensuring that the pirates didn’t scuttle their floating hulk and doom the slaves aboard to a, if they were lucky, a swift death in space.
The problem, of course, came with the pirate’s maintenance schedules and decisions to forgo certain…
safety measures when it came to repair.
Like the panel before her. Usually a perfectly functional control system for the reverse-magnetic bulkhead doors that ensured void seals in power outages, some pirate at some point in their dumb, dumb life decided to fix the panel blowing a fuse… by ripping the fuse out and replacing it with a high density power cable. Which meant the entire thing was one massive shock hazard and actively sparking as the reactors deep in the ship flickered and surged due to damage.
Che’keero swore as an arc of electricity flashed towards her face after a tool that
was not supposed to be magnetized, cheap dick WaDepth requisitions, caught a magnetic field, fusing the entire system shut and turning the formerly barely functional control system into nothing but pretty, decorative wiring and cheap solder. She punched the now utterly unfunctional control box and toggled on her radio. “Three-Two to Three-Lead, this door’s fried. You’ll need to bring in the cutters if we want to get to the rest of the ship. Might as well also bring in an inflatable airlock, I’m not liking how some of the metal strain sensors are flashing at me.”
A semi-synthetic voice replied back to Che’keero, “Three-Lead copies. I’ll be over there shortly with the stuff. Double check those sensors, I’m not getting the same readings, so let’s make sure something isn’t blocking errors from reaching me.”
“Copy that Three-Lead, Three-Two ou-” Something tapped against the back of her helmet and Junior Systems Engineer First Class Che’keero mentally swore.
“Now, now, lassie, how about you sit right there and don’t move.” A nasally, unfamiliar voice called out to her while tapping what a camera she set up to watch her back revealed to be a laser pistol to Che’keero’s helmet. “I think that you’re going to be our new best friend and way off this dead end ship.”
Che’keero paused, letting the situation settle in her mind, “Wait, what? Are… are you taking me hostage?”
“Yes!” The pirate replied.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you taking me hostage? This won’t work, none of the shuttles are jump capable and if you try anything, you’ll just end up jumped by marines. They specifically train to deal with pirates taking their engineers hostage. If you want to survive, you should just surrender and take the penal colony when it’s offered.” Che’keero mentioned, shrugging and continuing her inspection of the door.
The pirate seemed baffled at the sheer
nonchalance of this response, the pistol slowly falling to merely point at her upper back instead of her head, “You… you really aren’t taking this seriously. I’m a pirate! I’ve killed people! I’ve killed
boys, and you’re just sitting there like this doesn’t mean anything!”
“I mean… I wouldn’t say that.” Che’keero replied.
“THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN!” The pirate screamed, the pistol moving away from Che’keero’s body by a fraction of an inch during an angry gesture.
It was at that point, a ceramic alloyed, carbon steel blade punched clean through the back of the pirate’s suit, slicing through their central nervous system and striking with enough force to shatter the faceplate of said pirate’s helmet on the way out. Muscles twitching, the laser pistol fired off randomly, missing Che’keero and slagging a chunk of bulkhead.
“I’m just buying time,” Che’keero replied cheekily.
“You really need to remember to check your cameras,” The semi-synthetic voice of Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns commented as the ex-pirate fell to the ground and blue blood dripped from the long blade sprouting from her right arm and a toolbox hanging from her left hand. “This isn’t the first time you have been flanked, and this one wasn’t during training.”
“Look, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” Che’keero replied a bit testily.
“I’m sorry…” Ventures Forth prodded.
“I’m sorry,
Ma’am.” “Much better. Right, now what do we see in this- yeah you were right on it being fried.” Ventures Forth gently shoved the Junior Systems Engineer aside and took her place at the control panel. “Do a sweep of the strain systems. I don’t want this section of the ship breaking apart. Feel free to call up our hull patches. We’ve got plenty to share and this might have to be a lifeboat.”
“Aye, ma’am aye,” Che’keero replied with a crisp salute before rushing off to her duty.
Deeper inside the ship, Ventures Forth could hear laser fire, clashing of metal on metal, and cries for help.
The pirate ship was doomed, it was shattered and broken, but it was not
destroyed. Not yet. \
And if she had her way, Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns would
keep it that way. //////////
Roshal stood still as her steward continued to clean the dark blue and rapidly congealing blood off her armored form. “Comms,” She called out, “Do we have any contact with the shuttle we sent to the station?”
“Negative, ma’am.” The comm officer replied. She wasn’t the same one that was present when Roshal left to fend off the boarders. At the unspoken question, the woman continued “Communication’s Mate Second Class Lev’tal, ma’am. My superior got a concussion when the pirate ship rocked our ship during boarding. Strap snapped, prior damage. I took over.”
Roshal nodded approvingly, “Good initiative. Send a message to the station, see if we can’t rai-”
“Ma’am! Contact!” One of her sensor techs called out, “Belay that, two contacts. First contact, nav point 782 spinward, possible bogey, cruiser weight. Unknown movements. Second contact, nav point 102 coreward, aerospace assets inbound. Small flight. Hard to determine numbers due to damage. No less than two, no more than five.”
“Focus on getting a hard contact on that possible cruiser. Weapons, what is the status of our anti-aerospace.” Roshal demanded, holding her sword arm out for the steward to scrub at a particularly clotted chunk of blood splattered over her wrist.
The weapons officer shook her head, “If we’re lucky, then we’ve got 20% coverage on half our sides. If we’re
very lucky, I might be able to bump that number up to 35%. Not going to quote doctrine, but that’s not nearly enough to fend off a flight of Aerospace assets on a strike run, and that’s assuming they don’t hit us on an unprotected flank.”
Roshal nodded once more, “Sound
general quarters and get weapons and tactical back online. Tell the damage control parties to not be distracted and focus on critical systems first. Engine room, report. Can you give me maneuvering thrust?”
The nearby ship phone chimed in with a staticy hiss,
“Negative, ma’am. The shot we made with the spinal mount tripped breakers up and down the reactor room. This isn’t an engine problem, we need to make sure our reactor doesn’t blow up when we siphon power. Before you ask, emergency power is still flowing and none of their circuits tripped, but that means we’re down to life support, basic systems, and dockyard thrusters. It will take at least 20 to get the reactor in a safe state. If you want 10, send the chaplain down so we have someone praying for good luck. The fact most of our structural engineers are doing an EVA boarding to ensure the pirate ship next to us doesn’t go critical and render the entire exercise moot isn’t helping matters at all.” The engine room replied Roshal bit down a bit of annoyance at the snark, but engineers were always a finicky sort with authority. They were the first to remind uptight officers that while the Captain’s word may be iron law, it was
their work that truly moved the ship.
“Confirmed, engine room.” Roshal instead replied. “Chaplains will be arriving shortly. Do what you can and inform me when you’re three minutes out from full power.”
The engine room didn’t even bother replying, just sending over the affirmative light as they got to work. Roshal approved of that. Sometimes, you just had to insult someone in order to get it working right.
“Captain, we have confirmation on contact. He’s an Alliance Karcharidon class Heavy Cruiser on intercept course. Energy readings are spiking… they’re charging their guns, ma’am!”
“Issue a hostile challenge and give me a firing solution with any gun still functional.”
“No response, ma’am. Hostile Karcharidon is increasing speed. Hard contact in 15 minutes.”
Roshal snarled, emotion breaking through her mask. “Of course, the pirates had one more vessel. Helm, fire our maneuvering thrusters, use the pirate hulk as cover. Weapons, get whoever’s left of our Interceptor flight to engage the enemy. Comms, get me in contact with the merchant fleet, tell them to evacuate. We’ll provide cover.”
“Aye ma’am.” The Communications Mate Second Class said with a shiver in her voice. “Sending-”
“Update on Aerospace assets!” Her sensor tech called out.
“Deliver!” Roshal demanded, cutting off the comms officer with a slice of her hand.
“Weapons fire. Definitely less than four contacts. Seems to be two grou- negative, only two contacts remaining- weaponsfire- one contac- IFF received, oh goddesses, IT’S RUNOFF THREE! FRIENDLY AEROSPACE INBOUND!”
//////////
Milk gripped her crash harness hard as Cookie slammed the Interceptor’s fusion torch clean past its safe thrust marker and into the red as g forces crushed her chest. “Last target down.” She reported after Cookie’s final laser burst hit something critical inside the final Aerospace fighter’s frame. “That’s 20 for 20. All enemy bogeys down. All standard munitions are in the black. Static drive is 48%, dump core ejected. All we’ve got left is our ASM and front laser.”
Cookie flashed back an affirmative signal.
“We going for that cruiser?”
Another affirmative.
“Well, I’m braced and ready on the release. Ready.”
“Ready.” Cookie spoke, his voice horse.
It’s funny what people think when their lives are on the line. Because charging towards a fresh enemy Heavy Cruiser, nothing but a single anti-shipping missile worth a damn, no allied support but the faint glimmer in IFF screens of their fellow flight doing the same… all Aoibhinn McDermott could think of was a poem she had read at least a decade ago or more at the Naval Academy.
Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the Valley of Death Rode the six hundred. //////////
Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns could do nothing but furiously swear as the basic sensor system her engineering team had restored on the thoroughly ventilated secondary command bridge of the pirate hulk revealed an enemy Heavy Cruiser bearing down upon their homeship.
“Weapons are trashed. We cored their reactor, anyway.” One of the tangential engineers reported, “Other teams are calling in. Things are worse where they are. We’ve found the slaves, though, luckily it was one of the few airtight bays. Also, have some more captives, but that really doesn’t matter right now.”
“No shit.” Ventures Forth replied, “Can we do
anything?” The engineer looked back to her, visor depolarizing so the Gearschilde can look into the black and yellow eyes of her Shil coworker.
“Pray.” The woman replied simply.
Ventures Forth Bravely Into Great Unknowns did just that.
//////////
Low chanting filled the engine bay as a small group of priests stood around the engine praying to whichever god that would listen to allow them one more shot. One more fight.
Around them, black handed engineers scurried, ripping out blown fuses and replacing them with soldered in high strength wire. A final measure of desperation. Sparks flew as engineers swore and chaplains prayed, power still remaining in circuits needing to be bled out before bypasses could be installed, turning every bit of solder and every ripped out fuse into a deadly gamble.
Already, someone was lying on the ground, no longer twitching.
They didn’t have time to check on their fallen comrade, the work was too important.
A clock ticked down. Four minutes elapsed.
//////////
Lieutenant Commander Cenywyn swore as she watched Runoff 2 die.
Their single Interceptor had mistimed a maneuver and had been caught dead in the middle of an Anti-Aerospace array, shredded in an instant. The only consolation she could take was that, seeing as the first shot went clean through the cockpit, they didn’t even notice they died.
“Runoff 4, stay in formation.” She ordered over the radio, “We’ll lead you in for the run.”
“Yes ma’am.” The hesitant voice of Junior Flight Lieutenant Griogill replied. She swallowed, “We’re- we’re ready when you are.”
“No fear, Lieutenant,” Cenywyn called back to the
child she was leading to her death. “We’re pilots in the Imperial Patrol. We do our duty. No fear.”
A clock ticked down. Six minutes elapsed.
//////////
“Talk to me!” The last remaining senior engineer in the reactor bay called out to anyone who was able to reply.
Someone, she didn’t even bother looking to see who, called back “We’ve bypassed 60% of the fuses. Should be able to give ourselves a burst of combat power. No more than 10 minutes of it before the entire system overheats and we either die, or the reactor shuts off.”
“Any chance we can get more than 10 minutes?”
“Not before that Heavy Cruiser delivers us straight to the stars.”
“Fuck it, good enough.” She slammed her fist on the ship phone’s dialing button resting near the console the engineer had just ripped the last safety override out of. “Captain. We’ve got your power. You give us the word, and we’ll give you ten minutes.”
//////////
Roshal breathed in, breathed out, and nodded. 10 minutes of combat power before the entire ship shut down into uselessness. She’d done more with less. She couldn’t remember when, but she had. Luckily, this was a Patrol Carrier instead of a standard ship, so it was more than capable of combat maneuvers with nothing but RCS thrusters. That should give her some time.
Movement, movement was going to be the key.
“Comms, tell the engineering crews on the hulk that they are ordered to figure out
anything that could draw the attention of the Heavy Cruiser,” She began, “Systems, break our mooring lines. We’re going to have to split from the hulk. Helm, prepare for maneuvers. RCS only. We are going to have to do this carefully. Engineroom, prepare for power activation, but hold until my command.”
This needs to be perfect, Roshal thought,
A single mistimed action ruins it all. A clock ticked down. Ten minutes elapsed. The Karcharidon had entered maximum weapon’s range.
//////////
He of Slender Tail shivered where he stood. The secondary command bridge was silent as Roshal began giving orders to
fight. This was… this was insane.
They were in a ruined ship with nothing but a merchant fleet beginning to flee and a three thirds dead pirate hulk on their side against a fresh Karcharidon class Heavy Cruiser.
They couldn’t win.
This was suicide.
They would die here.
\ So why didn’t He of Slender Tail feel afraid?
He stood at his post, a secondary bridge console where he would relay orders to other departments, freeing up the other Watchkeeper to collate those orders, there was nothing he could do to help win this impossible battle, and yet…
And yet he felt
heat blossoming inside his chest with every single order delivered.
“Mooring teamsss, you are to cut your linesss immediately.” He relayed to a crew of Shil scurrying around the ruined bulkheads, “Damage control, prepare for electrical firesss and arcsss.” He commanded, switching between teams instantly.
He didn’t feel fear. He could see his Watchkeeper shiver every time the sensors reported the enemy contact was still closing, but he didn’t feel the same.
What he felt… was
indignation. How
dare this pirate scum threaten his vessel, his crew. How
dare they ambush this valiant ship after they had fought so hard to win. How
dare they. He let his fangs fold out as he spat the next order, “Anti-Aerossspace teamsss, prepare your batteriesss for grouped fire. Gunnery calculationsss are on their way.”
How dare they stand up to him. A clock ticked down. 12 minutes elapsed. Weapons fire.
//////////
Roshal swayed slightly as she could feel the ship beneath her feet move. Movement is life in naval warfare, movement is death. “Right RCS fire, bring us clear of the hulk. Bow thrusters, up twenty.”
“Aye, ma’am, aye, right standard and bow up twenty.” The Helmswoman replied.
“Confirmed. Next maneuver, give us rear thrust-”
“Torpedo!” The sensor operator called out in a shrill voice, “Two marks on intercept course! Range, twelve K and closing fast!”
“Decorum!” Roshal snapped at the panicking sensor technician. “Comms, order Runoff flight to divert and intercept those torpedoes. Rear RCS to full, give us momentum.”
Roshal turned away from the bridge as affirmations were shouted, and the ship began to move, “Engineering, prepare to activate combat power on my mark and prepare for hard maneuvers. Mark in five.”
//////////
Griogill swallowed bile and tried not to feel too thankful that the enemy vessel had fired torpedoes at their home ship. Being diverted from an attack run had a much higher chance of survival than striking through an AA bubble.
“Runoff 4 engaging far torpedo. Moving in for intercept. Bre’kas, give me lock.”
Griogill’s backseater muttered something, and a target lock appeared on the far torpedo as Runoff 1, their previous Drill Sergeants, dashed by in a hard burn and blazed away at their own target.
“Right. We can do this. We can do this. No fear.” The rookie muttered as the sight of her friends in Runoff 3 being turned to vapor echoed in her mind. “I can do this.”
The target locked. She fired. The torpedo detonated.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Mark in four.”
//////////
The Heavy Cruiser loomed closer as the comparatively tiny Patrol Carrier spat its defiance in the form of two Interceptors dancing between the stars.
As a pair of torpedoes detonated, four more were launched, the anti-shipping weapons built for this specific purpose. Destroying disabled vessels.
And so the last two remaining Interceptors on CAP dove into the fray, risking themselves against an ever approaching AA bubble in order to save their ship.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Mark in three.”
//////////
All Cookie could do was stare and push his meager aerospace fighter further on its nuclear thrusters as shimmering dots of torpedoes lanced out from the Heavy Cruiser attacking his new home.
He pushed his hand forward and felt the throttle once more push back against him, the lever pushed all the way past safe thrust and into the further setting on his console.
The Interceptor was fast. It didn’t feel fast enough.
And so he spoke the words he spoke once before, back when he’d had to listen to his backseater’s screams of pain and the rush of wind after shrapnel pierced his fuselage, and the hospital was so,
so far away.
Father, I pray that you will not hide your face from me. Whenever I pray, Lord please hear me and answer me speedily in Jesus' name. God, I pray that you will grant me speed through your help. A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Mark in two.”
//////////
The Heavy Cruiser shifted, engine flaring and it began to close the range. A single disabled ship on emergency RCS thrusters and a pair of Aerospace fighters was nothing it would have to deal with.
It fired a third spread of torpedoes.
A clock ticked down.
//////////
They took the bait. Roshal thought with a vicious grin.
“Mark in one.” She paused, “Execute.”
In an instant, power flowed through the ship, emergency lights flickered off as the burning red boarding lights returned their fiery glow. The entire ship
shook as the main thruster came back online, and capacitors began to charge for maneuvers.
“Hard burn, full thrusters, right, on my mark.” Roshal watched as the Heavy Cruiser began to react to her movements, the enemy ship was alive, you needed to roll to broadsides to begin bombardment, come on come on…
Roshal watched as a torpedo flickered out of existence, Runoff 4 gaining another kill.
Come on, dammit, you don’t get put in charge of a Heavy Cruiser without- THERE! The Heavy Cruiser flinched, turning her bow away from the no longer stricken vessel, preparing for broadside.
The Captain’s grin showed more teeth than smile. “Execute! Full right thrust!”
“Full right thrust! Aye ma’am aye!” Her helmswoman called out as maneuvering thrusters dead cold roared to life and physically
threw the vessel to the side, causing everyone not strapped in on the bridge to rock as a barrage of fire flew past their former location, manual targeting systems in play since the automatic systems would still be getting warmed up.
“Full thrust forward, prepare to divert all power to secondary weapons. Weapons, give me a firing solution.” Roshal commanded, hand raised and pointed at the enemy’s display as if she were commanding from a tall ship.
A chant of “Aye ma’am aye” flowed out across the bridge as the weaponsmistress was silent before calling out. “Port side is up to 45% secondary fires and 32% point defense. That’ll be our best bet.”
Roshal nodded. “Make it so. Target their main weapons. Helm, get us that facing.”
“Ma’am. We’re getting a call from Runoff 3. They are entering the AO and are asking for a target.”
Roshal smiled, “Weapons, shift target. Aim for the anti-aerospace systems. Let’s give Runoff 3 the opening they need.”
A clock ticked down.
//////////
“Cookie, we’ve got a targeting path.” Milk called forward. “Putting it up on your HUD.”
“One second… I’ve got it. Moving to comply. Did the Captain give us a plan?” her front seater replied, causing her stomach to do funny things as the Aerospace Fighter maneuvered while under high thrust.
“Something like that. She asked for a munitions report and specifically about our anti-shipping weapon.”
Cookie paused.
“Ah.” He finally said.
“Yeah.” She replied.
“Well, let’s hope they’re able to open us up to a window of opportunity. Or this will be a short charge.”
“Not our place to question why.”
“Just our place to do and die.”
Time to target… three minutes.
Into the valley of Death, rode the six hundred. A clock ticked down.
//////////
Two vessels, three Aerospace fighters, one chance.
Six minutes of power remained. All actors took their places on the stage.
One hundred kilometers, close enough to check the weld quality of hull seams, the two ships danced across from each other. Maneuvering.
Five minutes of power remained.
The Karcharidon Heavy Cruiser rolled itself trying to keep the vulnerable top deck away from the Patrol Carrier’s presumably still working main gun as Roshal’s vessel jumped to the side. Thrusters roared.
Four minutes of power remained.
Runoff 1 and 4 shot towards their formerly separated comrade, forming up behind them in a wedge. The trio climbed towards the sun as their captain continued to chase and harass the Karcharidon.
Three minutes of power remained.
Roshal spoke. The lances of her vessel fired. Laser blasts carved across the hull of the enemy ship as it rolled.
The rolling ceased. A helmswoman swore as a full broadside caught the Patrol Carrier in the flank. The port hangar pod was ruined, armor shattered and all inside exposed to hard vacuum. Those who could scream died the fastest. The Interceptors had their opening.
Two minutes of power remained.
Silent wings swept through vacuum as three Interceptors began their dive, their formerly speedy arrowhead shape giving way to an inverted t as their wings swept out for stability, the ASF dove and dove and dove.
Five Kilometers away.
The range was too wide. They had one shot. It had to be perfect.
One minute of power remained.
The
Into Harm’s Way spat its defiance into the world, limited power drained to give her pilots a seconds more of time.
30 seconds of power remained.
Three Kilometers.
Hard Lock! Milk shouted from the back seat of Runoff 3. Cookie was silent. The range was still too wide.
15 seconds of power remained.
Two Kilometers.
The Karcharidon seemingly began to roll before the Patrol Carrier once more fired, its last remaining weapons spouting their defiance against the world. Deep in engineering, systems began to blow, wires that replaced fuses sparked power and delicate circuit boards shorted out into useless scrap.
The lights went out.
No power remained.
Roshal, in her head, began to count down as lances of light began to sweep across her ship. Damage control did what they could, but the beams began to cut like an overly enthusiastic shipbreaker.
Five.
One Kilometer.
Four.
Cookie’s thumb depressed the firing stud as the Interceptor screamed at him.
Three.
The ASF launched its deadly payload.
Two.
Three Interceptors pulled back
hard on their sticks to avoid colliding with the deck.
One.
The thruster of the anti-shipping missile roared as it rocketed the point blank aerospace distance to target.
Impact.
The armor piercing tip of the missile punched into the upper deck plating of the Heavy Cruiser, classified alloys allowing it to pierce into the armored plating just enough to allow the shaped charge to open up a hole as momentum kept the weapon moving.
Within the frame of a single second, the warhead of the missile had entered the ship and, before the alarms even had time to sound, detonated.
A new sun appeared in the void for a split second as a plasma-fusion warhead detonated inside the Karcharidon heavy cruiser’s hull.
//////////
Roshal allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief inside her head as the emergency power lights flickered overhead and the gravity ever so slightly lightened. What was left of their sensor arrays showed the enemy vessel powering down. “Engineering. Good work, your 10 minutes were just what she needed.” She called out, picking up the ship phone.
There was no answer from engineering.
She signed externally before pointing at one of the marines guarding the bridge, “Find a crewmate in a void suit. I have need of runners.” The marine clasped a fist to her chest before leaving to execute her captain’s commands. “Comms, do we have any contact with the engineering teams on the pirate hulk?”
The Comms officer held up a hand, Roshal waited, “No, ma’am. We aren’t getting- wait. We’ve got visual on flashing lights from the hull. Apparently, something shorted, so they’re having to rebuild broadcast arrays. They can receive just fine, though.”
“Good, once we can maneuver, bring us broadside of them. What’s the status of the merchant fleet?”
Navigation spoke up now, “Still heading for the Jump Point. Should we send the recall order?”
“Not yet, we are still unsure if the area is safe. If we have any sensors remaining, begin sca-”
The mentioned sensor technician interrupted Captain Roshal, “Ma’am, new contact, signature unknown. Just jumped in from outside the starlane!”
“Give me details. Course, range, and speed?” She demanded.
“Signal confused, can’t get a lock!” Navigation called out, “Can’t tell if confusion’s from them or us.”
Not another one… Roshal sighed, “All forces prepa-”
“Ma’am, we’re being hailed.” Communications called out.
“On squawk.”
“This is Captain Al’yosha Cal’rada of Her Imperial Majesty’s Ship
Spear of the Knyaginya, responding to Merchant vessel distress calls. Imperial Patrol Carrier, are you in need of assistance at this time?”
Roshal recognized the voice. A junior officer from her days in the Navy and a fellow Sevastutavan. The memory of the fresh faced girl when she’d joined her as an Ensign straight of the Naval Academy flashed before her eyes. “Captain Cal’rada. Your timing is impeccable as always.”
“
Admiral?” Roshal could hear the shock in her old protege’s voice.
“That’s
Captain, now, Al’yosha. I require your aid in ensuring the disabled vessel still glowing from an ASM strike remains disabled along with Search and Rescue teams for our sister Carrier.
“Whatever you want, you’ll have it,
Admiral_… Helm! All ahead flank and plot course to intercept. Launch gunships and prepare to deploy Bluejackets. We’ll test our _Orcas’ teeth today!”
The line cut out a moment later than it should have, and Roshal nodded in approval.
“Captain, I still don’t have a read on new contact. What is it?” Sensors asked.
“A Drep’na inspired vision, come to life.” Roshal watched, feeling an odd sort of parental pride as Al’yosha’s experimental warship began closing the distance towards the Karcharidon at breakneck speeds. “A swift sailing vessel and ten carriage guns…” Roshal murmured the line from an old Vaasconian poem from the ancient Age of Sail. She had heard Cal’rada had succeeded in petitioning the Navy to build her dream-ship, burning every favor and passing out favors to any and everyone to see the program through. Now, there she was, standing on the bridge bearing down on a ship twice her size, but if the rumors were true, only half her guns.
“Ma’am, contact is still not resolving, but IFF confirms Imperial Navy designation. An
Akula Class Attack Transport. I’ve… I’ve never even heard of this class.”
“Perhaps we shall hear of them more in the future. Fortune favors the active.”
“Contact is disgorging multiple signals, moving at speeds consistent with aerospace assets.”
“That is our signal we may disengage. Comms, inform the merchant fleet that the area is secure and to begin refueling procedures. Helm, get us alongside the pirate hulk, we have people to recover. Marine, get me a runner to the MP’s, we shall need the port hangar prepared for an old tradition the Navy has regarding pirate prisoners…” Roshal commanded. The fight was over, it was time to begin the cleanup.
//////////
So… that took a while. Sorry about that.
Turns out when a combination of writer’s block, decision paralysis and
LIFE hits you over the head, it becomes a touch difficult to get your shit together long enough to write something down.
On the plus side, we are out of the “unplanned bits” and right back into the parts I have brainstormed, so I won’t be staring at a screen trying to think how to make things connect as much anymore. On the other hand, that means we are now entering the epilogue of book 1 of Top Lasgun.
Don’t worry, the story isn’t ending, I’ve got “three” books plotted out in my head, so we’ll see how that shakes out, but for the most part, this is where I start wrapping up plot threads, laying down threads for what comes next, and all that other good stuff.
So yeah, next chapter is going to involve everyone wrapping up what happened here, some fun little Military Justice, and potentially a bunch of plot. Also, I’m planning on starting a “rewrite”/edited version of this to go up on AO3, so keep an eye out for that. Early installment weirdness is a bitch and I’m not proud of what the older stuff looked like.
Well, I hope you have a wonderful morning, afternoon or evening whenever you read this and I will see you next chapter.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
TLDR: Within the span of 3 hours, the price for a main cabin ticket to Japan jumped $5000USD. Delta reps shrugged and told me "that sucks bro".
I need to book a flight to Tokyo for work and MKE is my home airport. I was searching in the morning of 5/15 and flights from MKE-HND round trip were hovering around $2400-$2700. I put my preferred itinerary on hold to go book my hotel. Came back later in the afternoon and prices have 4X. I was shocked and contacted both my company's third party booker and Delta themselves and both were not helpful at all. When I tried to explain to the Delta representative that I could book a $200 round trip flight to DTW/MSP/ATL and then book the international leg from either of those airports for less than $2700 total, and that it seemed that I was being assessed a >$5000 fee to essentially combine the itineraries. The Delta representatives just kept saying "dynamic pricing" and how prices are not guaranteed to stay the same. Additionally I lost it when I was told, it could be a full flight causing the price hike. I did check and there were like 6 seats occupied for the July 3 MKE-DTW. I calmly agreed and asked if they saw it odd that even Delta one was priced lower than Basic Economy that it might be a software issue. And we went in that circle for about 30 seconds until I ended the call. I cleared cookies/history and waited another day to see if it had gone down, it has not.
Am I taking crazy pills? Is this normal? Should I just book the two itineraries and hope it works out. Loyalty can't be worth this can it? Also this seems like a blatant case of price gouging?
Last year during summer in Las Vegas, my flight got delayed because the FA’s left the windows open during a transition from arrival to departure and with the AC off, the passenger cabin up to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. So we had to wait 30 minutes in the terminal as a delay while the plane cooled down.
2nd craziest reason, was the wind at Denver airport a couple of weeks ago. Plenty of other airlines were taking off on time or with slight delays, but nooo frontier decided they wanted to cancel a bunch of flights including mine. Luckily I was able to rebook to United without a hitch and take off a few hours later
I have an upcoming flight to ATL on Delta. The flight is scheduled to take off at 5:20am.
I don't have a car, and Lyft/Uber looks like it will cost $40-50 to get there early enough. I'm thinking I have to be there around 4:00-4:15am (Leave my apartment in Grad Hospital at 3:45-4:00).
Has anyone ever spent the night in PHL, either in the airport or at baggage claim?
Wondering if it's worth it to get a few extra hours of sleep (and salvage some sanity) by arriving the night before. Just exploring my options to see if it's too much trouble.
TIA
So, I was walking around Dubai Media City and had just finished my lunch at McDonald's when suddenly this guy stopped his car and asked how to get to Sheikh Zayed Road so he could reach the airport.
I told him which way to go, and then he asked me how long it would take to get to the airport. After I answered his questions, he thanked me and asked me which country I was from. He then mentioned that his wife in Italy was also from my country (he really knows about my country, from city and even talked some native words)....
He then offered me some perfumes as a gesture of gratitude, explaining that he wouldn't be able to take them through airport security. Initially grateful, especially seeing the "Emporio Armani" brand, I asked if he was sure. He insisted and even gave me another one, a women's perfume for my wife.
He mentioned he was a "Sales Director" in Dubai for just a week, and these were sample perfumes. He showed me his meeting invitation letter, a business card with the name "SAVIO" (forgot his last name), and had a suit in the backseat with his Armani suitcase
As I was about to accept the "gift," he then offered me a watch (which looked fake right away) in exchange for buying him 10 rims of Marlboro cigarettes from the grocery, claiming they would be very expensive in Italy due to taxes. I asked why he couldn't buy them himself, and he explained he didn't have cash and was only using a company credit card
At this point, I remembered so many threads on Reddit about the "Armani Guy," but instead of suits, this one involved cigarettes.
Since it was a hot blazing afternoon, and my building was nearly a 10-minute walk away, a bright, or rather, a stupid idea came to mind. I told him I would buy the cigarettes and asked him to take me to a nearby grocery store. We drove for about 2 minutes, and I asked him to wait in front of a building. (This building didn't have a grocery store; my office building was just next to it.)
I told him I would withdraw some cash and buy the cigarettes afterward. Instead, I went inside the building, exited from the backside, and went to my office next to the building.
From my office, I could see his car waiting there for about an hour...lol.
The guy must have missed his "flight."
Hey all I am traveling From PA to CA in June and will be in Yosemite and San Fran. Any tips for that big flight from Philly? With layovers and such? I’m flying comfort plus and hope they upgrade me but not likely I am gold medallion. Any tips to share with me please. It’s a business trip I never flew that far before I am by myself and will be driving a Lot once I get to California will be staying in Yosemite to check it out for a night and then heading to San Fran and hitting some spots along the way.
I’ll take any advice for the flight. for the airports. PHL SLC FAT SFO ATL PHL
For meals or drinks or luggage or anything. Seats. Whatever. Anything you can share please. Travel driving. Traveling solo female 50s. Thanks.
I am planning to fly my daughter (under age 5) to Raleigh (RDU) to spend a week with the grandparents this summer.
My plan is to fly with my daughter to RDU and then I would turn around and get back on the return flight from RDU to our home town. There is an hour between when the flight lands at RDU and when it departs back to my home. I don’t think I’d have enough time to escort my daughter out of the airport and go back through security, but maybe I could swing that.
My mom (her grandma) is willing to go through security and pick my daughter up at the gate when we arrive.
Does anyone know a way/process we can go through so that my mom would be allowed to go through security to pick up a minor?
I thought about buying my mom the cheapest ticket I could find on a flight out of RDU around the same time (and then she’d just not board the plane), but if there is a way to avoid that, I would prefer it.
Any ideas?
Thank you!
Yesterday i came from Kualalumpur to trichy via air asia, I had a very worst experience in the airport.
We traveled as a nine member family with old people and kids. When I went to assisted check-in air aisa counter, some random guy approached us saying he works in cargo, he spoke our language (tamil) and started scaring my parents (70yrs old) about extra charges for the luggage ( I had 3 big luggage each with more than 20kg) and they asked my parents to check the weight in the airport in the machine provided in airport while checking the luggage weight another guy came and started talking to the first guy and saying long time my friend started sharing intros and then he also started saying they will charge more for these luggages and suggested me to go to a specific air asia counter where his friend works and asked me to pay some bribe money to him, he will then load all our luggage in the flight with free of cost.
I was scared so decided not go this route and informed him I will pay for the luggage because I paid amount while traveling from trichy to Singapore 3 days before for the same luggage. Then when I was in queue to check my luggage in assisted check-in counter one more old guy approached stand behind me then the first guy came and talk this old guy called him uncle did you see him he is going to pay for this luggage and shared the whole story then the old guy also suggested me to buy 7 bags more bags and split the luggage and then pay for the remaining luggage.
My parents were agreeing to this, while I was in queue the second guy was talking to my old parents and convincing them, then I said no to him firmly, then he told ok l will suggest a last option to save money.
He told he will give gold chains and rings to all 9 of us and pay 100rs for each gram we carry. He will also pay the extra luggage fee for the trip I just need to wear the gold jewelry and give it to someone in trichy when I land. He told he will take photos of our passport and us for security.
I told them I am not going to do any shady stuff and started moving in queue then the old guy standing behind me left the queue, I didn't know he was part of them until he moved away after I told him no.
After this I paid around 17000rs to air asia and traveled to trichy. This is the first time I am seeing these kind of shits happening in airport.
Hello, me and my partner are headed to Seattle in July and are planning to spend some days in Olympic national park. I’ve done a bit of research but figured I might as well ask for some feedback on the itinerary I’ve planned so far. Thanks in advance!
July 17-travel from Seattle to hurricane ridge and then to Port Angeles to spend the night
July 18-leave Port Angeles and head to lake crescent. Make our way to Forks after that to spend the night.
July 19-from Forks go to Hoh rainforest early in the morning and then spend the afternoon in either Rialto or Ruby Beach.
July 20-leave Forks and head to Seattle airport for flight home.
TLDR: Flight to Turks and Caicos for a wedding was cancelled due to weather. AA’s solution. 20 hours of travel to get me to the destination…but I miss the wedding. Im out thousands for the resort.
Was flying to Turks and Caicos for the wedding of my 70 year old Aunt and was bringing my 5 year old. Itinerary was SLC to CLT to PLC. AA cancelled the flight the day of and I called AA.
The AA agent had a solution that got me from SLC to LAX to MIA to PLC. I accepted it and got in the car to drive to the airport. But the agent could not get the tickets confirmed and I lost the itinerary.
AA then tried to book me through 20 hours of travel to get there. Flying the next day from SLX to PHX to MIA to PLC. But I would miss the rehearsal dinner and wedding. It would be a total of 35 hour of travel (round trip) to be there for 36 hours.
I told them to cancel the trip and I’m still waiting on a refund. Seems the trip is still active for some reason.
In the end, missing a moment with family with parents/grandparents that are in their 70’s. And thousands lost on the resort fees.
Learning…fly Delta out of SLC when possible. Much more options since it’s a delta hub. And avoid AA.
I'm flying PHL-ATL on Delta. The flight is scheduled to take off at 5:20am.
I don't have a car, and Lyft/Uber looks like it will cost $40-50 to get there early enough. I'm thinking I have to be there around 4:00-4:15am (Leave my apartment at 3:45-4:00).
Will TSA let me into the airport if I get there the night before?
Or is it not worth the trouble trying to sleep a few extra hours at the airport?
Wondering which option is easier for my sleep/sanity and travel timeline. TIA