Oh my god it's...

[Cannonshop]

Step One was to conduct reconaissance...no, that's not right, step one was testing the repairs, and getting the crew used to the new condition of the Melisune.

For the most part, the core systems only change was going from 'worn out' to 'in good shape'.  The Melisune was built out of adapted salvage from the start, but after the Snow Raven refit, she was practically a new ship and handled like one-the downrating on the sublight engines had been removed, because the structure was strong enough to handle the additional thrust.  The cooling systems weren't overtaxed because they had been updated and upgraded from stem to stern...and all the sensors and electronics actually worked now.

This might seem like a small thing, but it's a huge change for crewers used to constantly looking for leaks and failures to fix with rigging tape, resin paks, and spot-welds.

The trade being that the crew was larger now, and Foster had an actual job...because now, they needed gunner's mates and ordnance technicians.

"For our shakedown, we'll be plotting a low-observable course to our starting point, after which, we tank up and head first positive Z-axis to take readings and make observations along Kaminsky's pathfinding route."

"Who was Kaminsky?" one of the Snow Ravens asked.

"Very glad you asked.  Leo Kaminsky was one of the legends of the old Pathfinders, he ran explorations positve zed axis looking to confirm the IASA sweet-zone hypothesis.  Most of the expansion period ran along a forty light year z-axis along the plane of the ecliptic.  The "inner Sphere' is a misnomer-it's 300 lights across, but it's only about 50 Lights wide along the galactic Z-axis, there's another couple hundred, but low star density and lack of main-sequence bodies means nobody goes there.  if the guess is right, then the Republic's hyperspace 'wall' is just that, it's a wall, not a sphere."

"And if it is wrong?"

"Then we will know it is wrong." she shrugged, "It gives us a look at the target region for measuring gravitational distortion.  If they are using a standing wave KF field, there will be signs we can detect without just blindly rushing in."

"What if it is an englobed phenomena?"

Sindra laughed.  "You know those drop tanks,a nd the tankers we're going to rendezvous with?"

"aff..."

"you also saw the aerofighter grade life support at each station?" she asked.

"Ah, Aff.  I was wondering..."

"jump in as close as possible, and thrust on newton, it might take a few months of acceleration, but...if it's just a barrier in Hyperspace, and it's thin enough, we can get into the Republic's space at sublight speeds.  One of the things we'll be testing is how close we can get before the core says 'nope'...but first, we're going to look for gravitational anomalies-shit that didn't exist ten months ago in the region...and then we'll map it."

[paulobrito]

So, a first in centuries real K-F research?
Call me interested.

[Rodon]

A group that actually knows what they are doing and most of the science / history behind them.  I think even after this, the group will be effectively drafted into the Ravens as teachers if nothing else.

[Artifex]

Well, if the Ravens really want to go all belters as in one of the other Ngo TLs dear CannonShop has posted here as well, then they practically HAVE to.

[Cannonshop]

"For some reason, I expected more action on this mission."  Foster rued.  Sindra passed him a bulb of hot tea underhand, with a backspin to make it easy to catch.

"Well...thing about setting up a contraband relay, or any other sort of smuggling, is you have to know what someone else has done.  We're going into the best charted section of space ever, in human history, and we're looking to pick a lock without getting caught.  doing that, means it's a good idea to know astronomy, astrophysics, KF theory, including the untested hypotheses, and History, so you know what someone else has already tried, how they failed, and what not to do.  Blazing a new route is work."

"Is that what you feel we are doing?" he asked, "Blazing a route?"

Sindra laughed a little, "Yes.  Look, I mostly avoided Clan entanglements beyond filling orders from dad's contacts, but only an idiot knows nothing about their customers.  Clan Snow Raven spent a lot of resources getting us ship-shape and put twenty five battlesuited troopers on my ship as minders.  That's a lot of money for what is pure research, unless we're scouting a new invasion route to Sol, which means whatever route I find, needs to be able to support your warship fleet."

"this does not bother you?" he asked.

"No.  Earth is irrelevant, if you people want to fight over it, that is a net zero loss for me, since I don't care if it falls.  I have neither sympathies nor attachments to the former Terran Hegemony and zero belief that the Star League can actually ever be more than a temporary state of affairs, regardless of who seizes power or writes the treaty.  know why?"

"Do tell."

"I'm a professional smuggler.  governments change, what they ban or proscribe or regulate changes, but there are always people who want things their governments tell them they can't have.  I've smuggled bibles to Cappie worlds, it paid as much as running guns to somewhere else. You guys popped me running steroids on a payday that made muscle-milk as profitable as moving Neuroin."  she sighed, "as long as I can find work to keep flying, I don't care who is sitting there in charge of the people at the bottom of the well. at worse, it means moving on further out until I don't have to deal with enforcement anymore."

"is there any cargo too offensive for you?" he scowled.

"Yeah. there is. I will absolutely never take a job running slaves unless it's helping them escape being slaves."

he looked surprised, "THAT is your limit? Not bioweapons, or chemical weapons, or murderers, slavery?"

"Everyone has limits, Mine simply demand nobody is chained in the hold to be sold, and if we find one-a Slaver, and we can get at them?"  she smiled beatifically, "We'll make those ****** pay, and get their victims somewhere safe."

she finished her tea, "Time for mid-watch, and I've got another jump plot to work out once we're done with the telescopic surveys."

[Cannonshop]

"hello...pathfinder beacon."  Sindra looked at the sensor return, "helm, bring us alongside."

"Why are we pausing?" Foster asked from the doorway to the CIC.

"Found something that might be useful."  Sindra announced, as telescope imagery lit up on a screen.  "Pathfinder beacon, first era.  Looks like the power cells ran out."

"So?"

"So, we take it aboard, check the data buffers, recharge the fusion cell, make any repairs, and put it back." she told him, "That gives a waypoint marker for calculating additional jumps, and tells us who's been through here."

"Which helps...how?"

She sighed heavily, "Navigation." she told him, "Your people might live in spaceships now, but you're still dirtyfeet on the inside.  nav beacons are a shortcut for realigning your charts and keeping them updated, mark routes, and provide markers for fallback or follow-on.  Your invasion fleet's going to want to know where they are, and we're already off the usual paths, plus this is a generation ONE beacon which means it's got the nav data from the buffer of the ship that left it, which will help us figure out what's changed with the Fortress effect."

"Ah, so it is significant."

"Yeah...our ancestors blazing the trail for the Exodus left these back when jumpships averaged five to fifteen lightyears only, because a ship could get lost in interstellar space.  With a reference point or two, you can realign your ship's nav charts in a hard restore, and you learn where NOT to plot a passage."

He looked thoughtful, "Is this still a standard practice with..."

"Of course." she said, "Nav beacons and marker sats.  so when you find one that has gone offline, like  this one, you stop and fix it...because it's custom, and because you want someone else somewhere else, to do the same in case you need it.  even if only fifteen out of a thousand crews do it, everyone eventually benefits, so you do it, because if not me, then who, and if not now, then when?"

"We're at null velocity to the beacon, Captain."  Schroder tells me.

"Alright, who's on deck for an Eva? and Marguiel, print off our sanitized log to a class A datablock, we'll add ours to the marker for the follow-ons."

"Ayeh, Skeppeh."

"Excuse ME? Your LOGS?"

"relax, the 'sanitized' log only contains bare nav info and ship ident as a freight packet." she said, "enough to help someone who's in trouble, but not enough to reveal who we are or our mission...I'm a professional.  It'll be enough with the logs already stored for someone to plot an emergency jump to a safe port by comparing stellar motion across time."

[glitterboy2098]

and if the beacon is so old that it dates back to the first jumpships, and its battery died, it means that travel through there is pretty rare. so updating the logs wouldn't be much of a security risk.. especially relative to the advantage having a beacon does the mission.

[Cannonshop]

Six months of surveys. 

Sindra sat on the hull, getting time away from crew and passengers, letting the information percolate through her mind, and getting a nice break from what was turning into a pressure cooker of stress.

"This seat taken?"  Foster's voice interrupted her thoughts on the suit channel.

she glanced to the side, "no, have a seat."

"You get freaked out over the thought of being outside on a planet, but you choose to spend your off-shifts on the hull, Captain.  There has to be a story behind that."

"no story." she said, "I don't like planets.  Maybe it's growing up with brittle bones.  We're going to make a water stop before we try the first route I've charted, there was a colony site on that buffer that isn't on anyone's current charts.  that should give your people a chance to stretch out at the bottom of a well.  I read the reg, shore leaves are important for Planetborn."

"You are sure you do not wish to accompany us?"

"I don't do 'away' missions, finagle's sake, I'm the Captain.  I stay with the ship in case something goes wrong...but it should give you and what's-her-name a few hours to make the beast of two backs in one gravity."

"We are not coupling."

"She seems to want to, you should."

"I must admit...I have kind of had my sights set...elsewhere.  You seem unattached?"

She shook her head, "Can't.  Wrong impression, a Captain has to be completely objective and can't have favorites..."  she sighed, "And we're on the same ship, and you're in my chain of command.  There are rules for a reason, and haven't you felt the stress with the crew?"

He was silent for a moment, "I did not mean to give offense."

"Not where the problem is, Star Commander-you're being true to your background and you're open about it, instead of trying to be deceptive, It's just that as the captain I literally can't.  It would be like...forgetting your helmet, or not checking your O2 Pressure sensors, or leaving  carbon scrubbers uncleaned.  The Captain can't have a sexual or intimate personal relationship with a member of the Crew.  it changes a little if they're married, but not much-my mom and dad were both shipsmasters, and that was okay in our culture, because neither of them was subordinate to the desires of the other while on a cruise."

"What if one was not?"

"The one who wasn't would have to stake in to a trading post, burrow, or station and work there. That's actually the majority of people, you know.  it's a little different for Crewers who aren't Captains, or where the mission is setting up a station.  Stationmasters can marry staff, no problem, but Shipsmasters have to be unattached, because a shipsmaster has power of life or death over every member of their crew.  In the event of an emergency, I can't freeze up because someone I love is someone I have to sacrifice.  It was bad enough that Dad had to deal with having a child on the ship."

"How did that work out?"

"I had to claw my way up from lowest tier and win my certifications, only the hard way, no mentors to run interference and everything I did had to be perfect because if it wasn't, it reflected on Dad and caused discipline problems.  I swear he almost put me at the bottom of the well a few times, and I lost meters of skin for minor mistakes until I internalized that.  Thank god I have as good a crew as I do."

"Oh?"

"get a discipline problem, right?  Someone who, say, circulates nasty rumours about their crewmates, or hops bunks after signing a monogamy contract, or Blue Falcons their shifts and causes resentment?  I have a list of traditional means to deal with it, Dad's favorite was corporal punishment, and he'd make the offender clean up the filters on the deck after he beat the blood from their backs...but he never had to shoot anyone, and everyone on a cruise under him got their share-values with bonus...and he never lost a crewman."

"and you?"

"First run after Dad died, I had to shoot my XO.  We'd been...close.  He wanted to skunk a contract because the zone was hot, and tried to mutiny." she shrugged, "I plugged him." she tapped her faceplate roughly where her forehead would be.  "We didn't skunk out on the contract, and his shares went to his kin per the social contract, but I could have docked pay there, too.  I took the loss as 'lessons learned' about sleeping with someone on my own ship...anyway, you can tell your Snow Ravens in the Gunnery department that we'll have shore-leaves available at the next jump.  that should ease off some of the tensions."

[Cannonshop]

Amberlynn was earthlike, point nine nine gees, and through the telescopes, it wasn't uninhabited, but spectral sampling in the atmosphere showed a large percentage of the power on the planet came from coal, and visibly, most of the transportation on the planet came from horses.

"We have found a colony of man...a lost colony, it looks like. No radio traffic, external combustion economy, and no signs of electrification."  Star Commander Foster handled the surface brief, "teams of five, the first team will go down with armor and live weapons until first contact is managed and we can get a grip on the local situation.  In the event that the population is hostile, or threatening, alternate landing sites well away from settlements have already been chosen.  According to the material on the beacon, the colony group headed for this world were North Americans from the Ontario regional zone, so the odds that they speak a version of English are good, but it is likely to have suffered lingual drift.  As we do not know what sort of bacteria or viruses are prevalent, everyone is getting immune boosters."

[Euphonium]

If this is just a gravity-stop, why not just avoid the locals altogether? I can see lots of potential problems for what's effectively a first contact situation but I can't see many benefits apart from trading for food instead of hunting.

[Nikas_Zekeval]

If this is just a gravity-stop, why not just avoid the locals altogether? I can see lots of potential problems for what's effectively a first contact situation but I can't see many benefits apart from trading for food instead of hunting.

Because this isn't a one off trip.  If the colony is friendly enough?  The Ravens, and anyone else joining the party, might want to use is as a convenient stopping off point.  Let crew and troops off to stretch their legs before they go squirrelly, pick up fresh food, water, and reaction mass.  Even run non-sim training just before the final push into the Republic.

[glitterboy2098]

plus all the activity (telescopes seeing ships in orbit, and people hearing small craft entering and leaving the atmosphere for example) is likely to be noticed by the locals, and contact would go a lot smoother if you just immediately go and let them know who you are and why you are there, instead of them getting some paranoia induced alien contact rumors or whatever entrenched first.

plus hey, with direct contact they might be able to barter for some fresh food. they'd have to be careful due to sanitation concerns, but theory could fill up their larders a bit.

[Euphonium]

Because this isn't a one off trip.  If the colony is friendly enough?  The Ravens, and anyone else joining the party, might want to use is as a convenient stopping off point.  Let crew and troops off to stretch their legs before they go squirrelly, pick up fresh food, water, and reaction mass.  Even run non-sim training just before the final push into the Republic.

I see the value for the Ravens in establishing friendly contact (fresh food, future waystation,) but I got the impression that wasn't what this specific ship was intended/equipped for. Making contact is a distraction from the main mission of finding a way round/through the Wall.

plus all the activity (telescopes seeing ships in orbit, and people hearing small craft entering and leaving the atmosphere for example) is likely to be noticed by the locals, and contact would go a lot smoother if you just immediately go and let them know who you are and why you are there, instead of them getting some paranoia induced alien contact rumors or whatever entrenched first.

It depends how widely the colonists have spread and if they are still watching the skies. The ship has already picked out alternate landing sites well away from settlements. Unless the colonists have spread out over the whole planet it's quite possible that with BT shuttles not needing to aerobrake, you can land discreetly 1,000km from the nearest settlement.

If all you want to do is give everyone a couple of days groundside and you can avoid complications I'd think it better to do so rather than shock the planet by appearing and disappearing in less than a week.

If they're already planning on stopping for a month then yes, go ahead and make contact if you can. Just have plenty of contigency plans to avoid getting drawn into local problems.

[JA Baker]

I have a sneaking suspicion that I know how that colony got there...

[Cannonshop]

Sindra kept watch from above, as they shuttled down to the planet.  She could not tell Foster, especially, what really motivated her fear of being trapped 'down there'.

The jump dreams.  always the same, always trapped on the ground while bad things happened.

plagues, massacres, famines...always on the surface of some world...and the pictures from this one? many of them looked like the world in her hyperspace-induced nightmares.

While Clanners and Crew alike visited the surface, she monitored their signals, tracked their locations, and adjusted her calculations and the data for the jump that would put them on the road, they hoped, to Earth.

Crew rotation to the surface would follow Snow Raven practice, seven day periods barring an incident, groups of fifteen.

She knew from the stories she grew up with, the Pathfinders never had it this good, and when they founded the first crews of The Folk, they passed down their own procedures.

It's 00:00:00 hours shipboard time, midnight.  Tallie came up to the CIC to relieve her.  "I'll be by the chapel for an hour or so, if I'm needed." Sindra told him.

"Ayeh mum...get some rest yah? Nothin' in Chapel's too pressing mum."

"It's part of my rest." she climbed down the P-way and headed for the ventral lock, donning her helmet as she did.

She set her helmet to receive only before cycling to walk outside.

"Hi daddy." she addressed the endless black, "Hi momma.  well, I've got a lot to talk about tonight, I know, I never call. It's a big universe out here and full of...I'm sorry I missed check in, so where to begin...well, I got the ship fixed, best as-new work, Clannahwallah hired us for a legit mission, pathfinding, and they paid in stores and repairs, but it's a charter, so you know, passengers and I've had to add to the Crew from the Strangers.  They are learning, slow, I admit.  I'm not half the skip you were dad, but they're not unintelligent, and we've had no accidents...so far.  If this was the days of old, well, i'd sign them off as Crewer Apprentices-even the big ones." she smiled and her helmet's scavenging drew her tears away.

"I miss you dad.  I'm gonna be going where everyone has gone before, by routes nobody takes.  I'm scared.  I'm sorry I'm scared, but I'm scared.  We all stay clear of Sol, generations of us...and that's where I'm going...where the job is taking me."

she shuddered a breath, "Foster likes me.  He's built like a tunnel bore or lifting exo, and I can't return his attentions...but I want to. I really do, even if it's just for a night.  I'm worried, daddy, what if that impacts my judgement?  Crew obeys Captain, Captain serves crew, mission comes first...for the first time in my life I'm wondering if I'm really qualified..."

[Cannonshop]

the stay was longer than expected, but after a month and a half, the Crew were back aboard.

"I take it the contact planetside went well?" Sindra asked.

Foster grunted and nodded, "It went as well as it could have.  The planetary polity is divided along religious lines, but they have not had a religious war in decades."

"Yikes." she shivered, "Glad I stayed up here."

"Progress with your course plot?" he asked.

"It's done, we burn for the nadir point in half an hour, seven days from now, we make the first jump."

"Seven days? it will only take a few HOURS to reach the Nadir point from here!"

"Yeah, but the window doesn't open for a week." she explained, "I think I have figured out what the Republic did. If I'm right, then your invasion fleet will need to hold to precise timing to get past the wall...but they won't be ready for it."  she sighed, "At any rate, I will be navving from the conning tower."

"Conning tower?"

"Outside the hull." she explained, "where the KF field is thinnest, it's...it reduces the perceptual time distortion of the transition, I can make course corrections mid-jump from the tower...at least, according to Joachim's Journey.  I spent the last five days setting it up."

"Joachim's Journey?"

"Perdition's Flames." she stated, "I've been reading his actual text, not just the second-hand stuff.  He rigged the drive controllers to a position on the hull of his ship to get past the singularities.  What they're doing, why that Combine vessel came out with the worst of it? they're creating singularity effect and bending hyperspace.  It's something discussed in some of the old KF theories, you can theoretically create the equivalent of a whirlpool in Hyperspace, it basically thrashes the atoms of a ship with a field, so...we need to be able to steer in mid-jump to get past it."

"You are oversimplifying."

"Yes." she nodded, "I am.  It would take me five years to explain what's going on, or we can make the run in seven days."


"And if you're wrong?"

"Then we're all dead." she shrugged, "Pays your money and takes the chances-we're in a binary solution set-either what I intend will work, or we'll all be too extinguished to notice that it failed, either way..." she led him to a section of the smallcraft bay, "I'm dropping a beacon here with my plan and intended course, so if we fail, someone can pick it up and try something better, I used the add-on gear your yard people installed on my jump core, and sent an HPG missive to Lankeneau explaining what my observations are, where this planet is, and what we're trying, and got a read reciept-your tech people are great, by the way."

"They can be yours, too." he said.

she chuckled, "Foster, You're a handsome man, and a compelling speaker, and you make such nice, charitable offers...but you and I both know, I can't, I wouldn't fit with your kind any more than most of yours will fit with ours-we're too different, but I appreciate the sentiment, I honestly do.  The truth of it, is that your kind value Sol and Earth, 'holy terra'...and mine have no use for the joint, except as a navigation marker for 'avoid whenever possible'."

"Yet you took this job."

"I needed to get yard time for the ship, gainful employment for my crew, and a desperate need not to be executed for botching a job." she smiled, "And I liked the company, though I'd have liked it more if we weren't linked professionally."

"If we were not...'professionally linked'?" he asked.

"If this wasn't a professional relationship, I would show you exactly what two people can really do in null-gee and ruin you for dirtyfeet girls for the rest of your days." she stated firmly.  "But..we are in a professional relationship, so recreational fornication is off the scope, and I'll just have to ride you in my fantasies." she beamed at him, and then added, "OOH! Blush!!"

[Intermittent_Coherence]

So the Snow Ravens either snuck a mobile HPG on board and she figured it out anyway.... or she jury-rigged the KF-boom the Snow Ravens installed to be act as an HPG antenna.

[Cannonshop]

"all hands, all hands, this is the Captain speaking, seal up and prepare for Hyperspace transition.  Crew to stations, crew to stations and secure all hatches and passageways."

Sindra checked her own anchor points on the 'tower', really just a service railing with electrical connections and fiberoptic runs to the core and drives, but positioned outside the hull.

"Department heads, report?"

"Helm and CIC secured."
"Engineering secured"
"Boat Bay secured"
"Gunnery Stations secured, and May I point out this is insane?"

"Yep.  YOu can point it out, transition in ten..nine...eight...seven...six...fife...four...tree...two...one..."

The flash of transition washed across the hull, and Sindra was alone in colorless night.  I was right!

The distortions were visible to her naked eye in the absence of...well...everything.  Twisted tornadoes of spacetime distortion, spreading from a dozen points, rippling the flow of hyperspace with the shockwaves of pseudogravity.  she adjusted the path, using the turbulence from one to deflect around the turbulence of the next.  we couldn't have used Minh's course!  They must have stations powering those...

the exit flickered ahead, and she saw shapes moving, and heard the chorus howling in discordant anger and distress.

the hours ticked by, she made the course adjustments manually, while the crew and most of the ship under her boots sat in frozen unknowingness, spared the passage of hypertime, the sensitive ones trapped in visions of past or possible futures as she guided them through the maelstrom.

The exit was small, tight, dangerously so...but the Captain serves the Crew, and if she hit it just right she wouldn't be sheared away as they re-entered normal space.

please guide my crew to safety.

and then...

Discontinuity

newtonian reality reasserted itself.

but Sindra was gone.

[Cannonshop]

Epilogue, Olympus Mons Prisoner facility 19

Officially, the Republic of the Sphere doesn't have gulags or secret prisons.  Then again, officially the Fidelis don't exist and weren't on New Earth.

Unofficially, it's a different tale, as Lincoln Foster was finding out.  The emergence into the Sol system hadn't been entirely quiet, and it hadn't left Melisune entirely intact and ready for combat, either.

"...how did you get past the hyperspace barriers again?"

"Captain Hayek found the gap in your coverage."

"and where is it?"

He shrugged, "I do not know, I am not a navigator, check the log."

"The log contains no navigational information, and there are no stored data in your ship's jump computer."

"she left that in? surprising."  he held his stare level with the young lady from the RAF's space arm. "I would guess, she calculated it by hand."

"Impossible!"

"eh, well, suit yourself..."

"Where is this 'captain Hayek' now?"

"You haven't found her?  not a surprise, perhaps.  did you check behind the lavatory? she suffers from a titanic case of TDS and her nausea can be quite multicoloured."

"look, I'm trying to go easy on you, the bosses say we want good relations with Clan Snow Raven!"

"Well, I doubt there is a real problem of that, as soon as you allow me to contact my government..."

"we can not do that."

"then, we appear to be at an impasse.  Release me, release my crew, and we will be out of your hair."

"I can't do that! HOW did you penetrate Fortress??"

"Try doing some math. it's relaxing...or so I've been told by the most intelligent and gifted woman I've ever met." he seethed right back, "Be aware, Centurion, Your perfect defense is imperfect, even if you kill me, the secret to penetrating it is known to others, and like the course through Perdition's Flame, it will be legendary."

[ThePW]

I was totally giggles at the mention of 'Blue Falcon'. Personally i never heard the term used in my circles of travel so i suspect it is a recent invention, possibly specific to Naval Aviation Squadrons (Again, its not a term I've heard used in or around AIMD circles but I've been retired for over a decade now)...


So what now?

[Sharpnel]

Fair winds and calm seas, Captain Hayek.

[Artifex]

May your spark never go out in the dark, Captain Sindra Hayek, for you managed what no one else managed. o7

[cklammer]

Excellent!

I am hoping this is not an end but a new beginning ... please, pretty please CS!?!

[Cannonshop]

[Out of Story]

Sometimes the failures can be heroic too.  I don't know what became of Sindra Hayek after she was ripped from her ship's hull to tumble backward into hyperspace, falling eternally in colorless chaos, but who knows?

Will she be a legend or a footnote, or even forgotten?

who knows?

that's kind of the point.  Sometimes those who dare greatness and even come within touching distance simply...fail, even while they succeed.  It doesn't make it any less heroic for the failure, because they dare to reach for greatness, and how many people do that?

[EAGLE 7]

  was totally giggles at the mention of 'Blue Falcon'. Personally i never heard the term used in my circles of travel so i suspect it is a recent invention, possibly specific to Naval Aviation Squadrons (Again, its not a term I've heard used in or around AIMD circles but I've been retired for over a decade now).

Blue Falcon has been around the Airborne/ Ranger community for a long time.
From my time in service, and from reading going back to at least Vietnam.

[Ajax_Wolf]

Geez, and here I thought you were referring to the 80's cartoon.

[PsihoKekec]

I reckon she is somewhere in the hyperspace, waiting for a passing ship to hitch a ride.

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Will she be a legend or a footnote, or even forgotten?

If the Ravens with her every get a message back home, she'll make their copy of the Remembrance.

[Euphonium]

I reckon she is somewhere in the hyperspace, waiting for a passing ship to hitch a ride.

I'd love to see a fic of that:

"Captain, you're not going to belive this but there's someone in a space suit banging on the viewport and I swear they weren't there before we jumped!"

[vianca]

Well, there is the SLS Mannassas, you know.
So who knows, when she will turn up.