Blackbird

Posted on Mon May 30th, 2011 @ 4:05am by Major Patrick Smith

It has been just over a week since I arrived on SB900. It's the first time I've ever had a permanent residence aboard a Star base, and so far it's been a lot better than expected. Huge quarters, most likely designed for someone with a lot more than 2 bags of kit. Maybe it's just me getting older or finally settling down.... But I really need some planets and furniture things.

We had our first staff meeting recently. It was interesting to finally meet the rest of the Command staff. Bit of a surprise with the Professor appearing, though some of the others look like they had heard rumours. I suppose if I hadn't been stuck in one of the bases few Valkyries so much and got to the mess and the bar I might have heard. Ah well. I'm glad that the Admiral approved my request to swap our fighters around. We needed to replace some of the older models for the newer ones quite badly. With 50 Valkyries on board I'm pretty sure there's nothing that the garrison can't do. And with 15 redemption class bombers and 25 Peregrines anyone coming near us will definitely feel it. And of course the Rogues. Nimble little fighters with an awesome ability to reach warp 5 and carry quantum torpedoes. Even just for recon they make the best choice.

As far as I'm aware there is very little happening to be concerned about. Although rumour has it that there is a young guy by the name of Eli Ziyad, a native from the Delta Quadrant, who might have left a small problem behind him. I hardly think anything will come of that though. It'll be interesting to see if he joins the Academy here now that the Professor is on board.

I've been working a bit on my own Peregrine fighter. Dubbed the Blackbird by the maintenance at my last posting thanks to the new outer coating of a special black paint. The fighter was a gift from the CO of the Avalon fleet yards and he had high hopes for the modifications to it. Like the Valkyrie class I decided the Peregrine was a good candidate for a modular load system. As it was larger than its "replacement" the Peregrine while still capable had space for improvement, and that's what the Blackbird was. A prototype refit.