JCC [Image heavy]A thread for art: See note on page 776

Gamiel · May 25, 2020

Riding at Anchor By ColorCopyCenter

A Wingman scout-aviatrix of the Kommersant's Colonial Air Corps and her Silverwind III floatplane at anchor off the Black Orchid Conglomerate's Na-Sanhua coastal trading post. Such barefoot pilots, or kaalvoetvoel in the Afrikander tongue that serves as the lingua franca of the colonial north, are a common sight in backwater frontier trading posts and major Djong-Kok port-cities alike and have earned their moniker through their frequent spurning of flight boots, as they are liable to spend more time in and around the water than most flattop Wingmen aviators. Although nominally trained and qualified to serve as combat pilots, the same as any other Wingman aviator deployed to a posting in the northern hemisphere, the Kommersant's scout-fliers rightly consider themselves a breed of their own, as they are granted a degree of independence unheard of in the regular combat squadrons of the Colonial Air Corps. Though scout-fliers are nominally attached to specific Mobile Squadrons and other Kommersant fleet elements during their deployments to the frontier areas of the northern hemisphere and do regularly participate in fleet maneuvers and exercises in order to maintain their spotting and observation skills, in practice they are widely scattered in ones and twos across the many archipelago chains and sea routes which crisscross the colonial frontier. There they serve as the eyes and ears of the Kommersant's Trade Commissioners, Corporate Chairmen, and Executive Admirals, particularly in those far flung and remote outposts and settlements of neutral and allied Djong-Kok states beyond the periphery of the Kommersant's sphere of influence, where they work in conjunction with Kommersant corporate agents and registered privateers to provide accurate and up-to-date military, political, and economic intelligence on the volatile colonial fringe.

The superiority of the Red Empire's signals intelligence and decryption methodology, in combination with the astonishing ability of Red espionage officers to set up hidden listening posts in the hold of just about any apparently innocuous Djong-Kok sailskimmer, means that Kommersant radio transmissions broadcast from the northern hemisphere, coded or not, are liable to be intercepted, broken, and translated within a matter of hours. Thus, it falls to Wingmen scout-fliers to safely transport highly sensitive dispatches, orders, and other confidential materials by air from the far frontier to the nearest Kommersant fleet command station. En route from destination to destination, scout-fliers also serve an important role as radio relay operators for uncoded Kommersant radio traffic of a civilian nature, such as meteorological reports and market index updates. Although most Kommersant fleet officers would be more than happy to micromanage the activities of the scout-fliers from afar, the highly dispersed nature of their deployment gives such reconnaissance pilots an unparalleled degree of individual latitude when not specifically engaged on a certain assignment or order. Some pilots prefer to spend as much time as possible in the air, reporting on hostile fleet movements and pirate activity in their operational area, while others prefer to lounge about the rough and tumble frontier ports, keeping an eye on outbound commercial cargo traffic and logging any unusual arrivals or departures. More profit-minded pilots will collaborate with Kommersant-affiliated privateers for a share in their prize bounties, prowling for heavily laden trade convoys as aerial spotters and even participating in raids themselves by providing close air support.

The unmatched independence entrusted to a Wingman aviator in a scout-flier posting ensures that many of these positions are filled by Wingmen of the Third Wing, who call themselves the Fliegervolk in their archaic tongue. Unlike the aviators of the old First and Second Wings, the airborne tribes of the defunct Third Wing are not primarily descended from the North American stock that typifies the cultural heritage of the average Wingman. Though they have been partially assimilated over the centuries by the more numerous Inglic-speaking squadrons of the First and Second Wings, the tribes of the Third Wing still doggedly cling to many of the distinct traditions of their forefathers' ancient Jagdgeschwader Europa. The Fliegervolk worship a different pantheon of sky gods and deities from that of other Wingmen; Boelcke instead of Yeager, Guynemer rather than Glenn. Their native Duitse dialect bears only a faint resemblance to the common Inglic tongue of the Three Wings and in fact shares many similarities with the Afrikander lingua franca of the northern hemisphere, which naturally makes an aviator of Third Wing descent a good candidate for a colonial scout-flier posting. In fact the cultural rift between the Fliegervolk of the Third Wing and their Inglic-speaking compatriots of the First and Second Wings has been intentionally widened by successive generations of Kommersant Trade Commissioners and Executive Admirals since the subjugation of the Three Wings, as a calculated measure to split the unity of the Wingmen and deter any general revolt against Kommersant sovereignty over the airborne tribes. The once marginalized Fliegervolk of the former Third Wing have proven generally receptive to such Kommersant overtures and for their loyalty they have been granted privileges denied to those grudgingly subservient aviators of the First and Second Wings who still harbor thoughts of rebellion and independence. In addition to being allocated the lions' share of scout-flier postings, Fliegervolk aviators are generally given preferential selection for deployment with the more prestigious and distinguished combat units of the Colonial Air Corps, and in fact a majority of Fliegervolk pilots on colonial duty select combat postings. And to the great envy of other Wingmen, Fliegervolk aviators are permitted to adorn their fuselages with the squadron emblems of their ancestral tribes in addition to their personal markings.

Thus, the depicted Silverwind III floatplane bears the ancient signs of the Black Eagle and the Wreathed Cross, emblems of two of its Fliegervolk pilot's ancestral squadrons. The venerated White Blossom of the old Jagdgeschwader Europa replaces the usual winged star in its place of honor mid-fuselage. Combat mission tallies are marked on the rudder in distinctive Fliegervolk fashion; non-Fliegervolk Wingmen mark kill or mission tallies on the fuselage beneath their cockpits. The emblem of the modern Seventh Squadron, a Colonial Air Corps element attached to the Kommersant's 392nd Mobile Squadron, is visible on the tail, indicating the unit from which the aviatrix is nominally seconded for scout-flier duty. Except for occasional visits to the Squadron's fleet tenders and hangar bays for nanodust refueling and maintenance overhauls respectively, it is unlikely that the aviatrix will ever see much of the Squadron outside of major fleet exercises or maneuvers.

The Silverwind III itself is a rather old, if reliable, airframe that has long since been withdrawn from frontline combat service with the attack and interdiction squadrons of the Colonial Air Corps. In its floatplane configuration, the Silverwind III is the final culmination of the Zephyr-series of biplane airframes first fielded by the squadrons of the Three Wings just prior to their subjugation by the Kommersant. Slower than modern monoplanes like the Rapier I and II, while carrying lighter payloads and inferior weapons packages, the Silverwind III is an easy target for modern anti-air incendiary shrapnel barrages and even vulnerable to massed conventional musketry at lower altitudes and speeds. However, its relative ease of maintenance and impressive fuel efficiency compared to its more modern successors make the Silverwind III an excellent aerial mount for the scout-fliers of the Colonial Air Corps on detached duty far out on the fringe of the frontier.

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