[quote]"Good to meet you Austin. I think I passed one on the wall a few hallways over and a deck down, though it might be for official use, but that would be my first bet." He shrugged slightly as he quickly took another drink of the strong coffee, and resolving that at least getting slightly lost had helped someone this morning. "Now where is Stalin, I do believe he offered up to buy a drink." Marciano said with a small grin as he looked around.[/quote]

[quote]"He's right," Scott added with an affirmative nod. "There's one there, and I think there's a couple a ways further toward the stern, near the Ships' PX. I'm sure they'll be busy with other people doin' the same thing, but worth going to see if you can get through. Best wishes to you with it as well - I hope they're both okay, too. Lemme know if there's anything else you need, and I'll see what I can do fer you." [/quote]

"Thanks, I really appreciate the help!" Austin smiled, quickly finishing up his breakfast as his stomach demanded it, his eyes wandering at the group at the table "This'll be real interesting...". After he finished up and deposited his dishes and utensils in the appropriate fashion, he followed the group, keeping every detail he could memorized in his head, especially where the phone was. "Thanks, I'll be there soon!" The pilot told Scott, heading over to the phone.

 "What was Johnson's number again?" The pilot thought aloud as he got up to the phone, wrapping his somewhat slim fingers around the device, pulling it off it's rest and lifting it to his head, getting the all to familiar buzz in his ear "553-32...no....553-327-7828?". It had been quite a while since he actually checked his number, having him on speed dial on his phone, and it would REALLY help out if he actually kept his phone on hand- He left it back in his car. Luckily this was the right number, and a sigh of relief came upon him as he heard the all too familiar voice.

-----

Austin quickly set the phone down with a sigh, making sure it was resting correctly before sprinting down the hall, following the general direction that he saw his squad mates going in. it took him a minute or two to find them, and as he entered the room his eyes laid upon the General. [i]That really him?[/i] He thought, taking a seat in the back- the man sporting a small smile, kinda giving off the news he received. He looked at the people in the room, trying to see a bit more of whom he'd be flying with before the General started to give the briefing.

As they were dismissed the man nearly shot up from his seat,  pushing in his chair as he headed for the door. He needed to check out the rest of the ship, particularly where he'd be sleeping.


----

Luckily, by the time they were deploying his Eagle was functional, it's engines and fuel tank patched up expertly by the maintenance crews on board. "GOOD JOB!" Austin shouted as he approached, helmet in hand - cleaned and shiny- as he climbed up the ladder "I don't like flying my backup, it doesn't look as awesome as this baby!". He slipped his body into the cockpit, helmet quickly strapped on and the visor up as he did the pre-flight checks. The sweet sound of the engines spooling up as he lowered the canopy were music to his ears "SHE'S ALIVE!". Man, this was going to be good.

The F-15C started to pull onto the runway after the Tornado took off, making sure to get the go ahead to position himself on the catapult. His heartrate started to increase a bit,  getting hyped up fro the launch- launching from a Carrier was as much fun as driving a race car over a bumpy road, except this involved water and a 30 million dollar craft capable of breaking the sound barrier. And boy was it fun to rocket pass the crews on board, as he did when he saw the yellow crewman pointing forward. "Tower, this is  Viking. taking off and proceeding to form up with squadron. Don't get damaged, OK?"