Ette sighed internally, he'd allowed his emotions to get away from him. He looked st the door the Captain had went through, more in his head than paying attention to the others. After a moment, he turned to the other commanders.
"Gentlemen, I apologize for my behavior, I believe that we are all stressed and tired, and to you Commander Leatel, I believe we are similar people, and that will inevitably lead to conflict, but I hope we can mitigate it and follow the Captain's advice." He said in his usual impassive voice, he stood up "Gentlemen." He said with a nod, put on his cap, and went to change into standard fatigues.
As he was leaving his quarters, he got waylayed by his senior most flight commander, Eric Gurti.
"Well, sir" he asked.
"She doesn't know much, as is to be expected, all she know is were flying escort. Leatel and Vex are presumably taking lead." He replied, he was heading to the flight deck to talk to the flight crews.
"Well,shit." Gurti said quietly.
As they reached the deck, some flight crew men dropped a load of bombs that rolled across the floor, one fetching up on Ette's feet. He sighed internally for the second time in an hour.
"Pick this up, check it out, and make sure my men and I can use it." Ette said firmly. He walked towards the flight crew HQ on this deck, he entered, closed the door behind him, and turned to the man sitting behind the desk.
"Gotta say lieutenant, I am not impressed with your men's work. We are flying escort for a convoy, and we need to be able to scramble in a minute, fix up your men so they can do that for us, I will handle mine. Good day lieutenant." Ette said, barely giving the lieutenant time to process what happened. "Ye-yes sir," came the reply.
Ette walked to where his men were lounging by their bombers. They stood up when he walked in.
"Right, so, we're flying escort for a convoy, the captain wants us ready to go in a minute or less, I've spoken to the flight crew already, so you should have no problem with them. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." They replied.
"Excellent." With that, he walked to his bomber, which w as was closest to the comm station, and sat down reading a book, waiting for a message over the comm.
Ette rubbed at his eyes, looked at his watch, and sighed, internally, again. He set down his book, stood up, stretched, and grabbed the comm link communicator.
"Azure squadron, we need cot and bed provisions on the flight deck for readiness, over." he said.
"Copy, on the way down. Out." came the reply. Ette hung up. He walked over to his men
"Alright, we are staying on readiness," Collective groan "But.... I have ordered cots and bed provisions ordered, so we'll be a little more comfortable that way."
"Why are we on readiness, sir?" Lieutenant Klostern said from his bomber.
Ette turned to him, sighed internally, and answered.
"Because, Lieutenant, the cargo the convoy is hauling is valuable, before you ask, I do not know what it is. BUT, it is valuable, so it is a target for the rebs, therefore, we are on readiness. Understood." He said sternly.
"Understood, sir." the Lieutenant replied to the snickers of his comrades.
"Right, keep it down to a dull roar, pay attention, stay out of the flight crews way, and get some rest. Dismissed." Ette finished off.
When the cots arrived, Ette rubbed his eyes, lay down, and settled into a good, but light, sleep.