(Wing Commander Taal describes a recent engagement where he had to disable the shields of another ship to disable it for boarding but it fired back at Taal which meant he had to destroy it. Other downed ships we had heard about were brought up for his input on them.) 

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Taal: attention.

Russ: oh, oh, oh, oh. (I stand up and salute) hello Taal, indeed greetings. Taal is one of the pilot leaders if I remember right.

Taal: correct.

Russ: ahh yes.

Taal: officer.

Russ: officer. My former officer and……

Taal: commanding.

Russ: still commanding officer when I get back into a ship here once in a while.

Taal: yes.

Russ: well, how’s life been treating you Taal, any good excitement lately?

Taal: yes.

Russ: damn.

Taal: I have another confirmed victory to my belt.

Russ: hey, congratulations.

Taal: thank you.

Russ: good deal. What was the circumstances surrounding this? You’re not talking about Mark and your guy’s….

(Mark and Taal have holographic flight simulations against each other on the base)

Taal: no, no, although I have challenged him.

Russ: oh good.

Taal: but he did not accept or decline.

Russ: ahh.

Taal: no, this was a vessel that would not yield for inspection.

Russ: oh, okay.

Taal: it would not stop for inspection. I fired a warning shot across its bow, it carried on going. I fired a shot at its engines to disable, it returned fire.

Russ: bad call on his part.

Taal: so I scanned, took down its shield, scanned again. It continued returning fire so I destroyed.

Russ: you gave it plenty of chances.

Taal: we are meant to.

Russ: yeah. Now that reminds me of something Taal, I was reading about an incident that happened back in 1954 where a ship crashed in the deserts of……

John: New Mexico.

Russ: of New Mexico and apparently what had been shown is that apparently it came out of the atmosphere and burned up and the bodies inside burned up but knowing the shielding the capabilities of it, it seems like it was disabled first before it made its headlong plunge into our atmosphere.

Taal: that was not me.

Russ: oh I know that wasn’t you but that sounds like something that would happen.

Taal: yes, an engagement would……the primary function of an engagement is to take out shielding first.

Russ: uh-huh, okay.

Taal: by disabling the shielding, it makes the target easier to board or destroy, preferably board for inspection.

Russ: right. Now, wouldn’t it be a necessary standard operating procedure to make sure that the craft disintegrates before it hits the ground?

Taal: if the crew is alive this would be not……sorry, I do not know the word……practical…..

Russ: practical right.

Taal: thank you Kiri (speaking to Kiri).

Russ: okay so those crafts that were found where the crew had died but the ship survived intact, was that just maybe pilot error?

Taal: possibly yes.

Russ: oh okay. Some of these guys probably flying around here aren’t that great of pilots probably, from some of the other places.

Taal: no, there is no such thing as bad pilot, bad pilot dead.

Russ: that’s true.