“I have a visual on the landing pad,” Rachelle reported. “Two o’clock low, just on the other side of the LLS tower.”
“Copy. Two o’clock low. Changing heading zero-four-zero mark three-three-zero,” Alexy responded from the seat to her right.
Addie was seated in the seat directly behind him in the cockpit of her CS-109 Albatross multi-rule spacecraft. The ship itself was a wide, wing-bodied craft with a large, open ventral section where any number of form-fitting payload modules could seamlessly attach to the craft, each designed for a unique mission. As a payload officer, Addie had been trained to manage every aspect of these compartments—everything from how they connected to the Albatross’s power and environmental systems, to how they affected its weight and balance.
Her job was to manage installation of the payloads, inspect them routinely, and manage their operation during flight. There were twenty-five total standard mission payloads, everything from comfortable VIP transport modules to water bombers for wildfires on forested worlds. In this current mission they were carrying a RM-4A4 rescue and medevac module. It was designed for the rescue of potentially injured individuals from damaged spacecraft and space stations.
Leave a Comment
