| Copy That |
| Summary: | Sitka trains Devlin in the sims. |
| Date: | 13 August 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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| Flight Simulations |
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| It is a room full of fake zoom zoom pew pew. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #167 |
Flight simulation is mostly empty this evening, save for a lone officer in his fatigues slouched in a chair opposite the main console, scrolling through what looks like a list of programs. There's a faintly acrid scent just beginning to dissipate, most likely cigarette smoke.
Devlin shows up on time, heading in with a faint clanking of the hatch. He's left his books at home this evening, it seems, bringing only himself as he heads up and greets the officer, "Evening, captain." A hand is lifted in a casual salute.
Sitka looks over briefly as the hatch slides shut, and flashes the arriving young man a quick smile across his shoulder. "Ready to roll?" he calls across, just a mite distracted as he finishes uploading the program (presumably) to the viper pods. Both 01-540 and 02-541 appear to have been reserved this evening, according to the signin sheet by the door.
"Yes, sir," Devlin says with a friendly smile, glancing over at the console for a moment before looking at the pods. "Which one should I take?" he asks, patting the pair of viper sims, "You have a preference?"
"Nope," Shiv replies, pushing to his feet finally with a scrape of the chair. "Pick whichever one strikes your, uh, fancy. They're both configured as sevens." Which, of course, isn't the Captain's usual ride. "We'll go through some basic gun employment, so you won't have to worry too much about your maneuvering."
"Alright," Devlin nods, tilting his head back and forth indecisively before shrugging and picking the pod he's closest too, climbing in. "Sounds good," he nods at the game plan, flicking stuff on and getting ready.
Since they've already done a lesson on where to find the various flight controls and onboard systems in the sim pods, Sitka doesn't bother supervising this portion of things. He simply waits for Devlin to pick a bird, then veers off to the other one and clambers up into the cockpit. The mock systems are brought to life smoothly, for the most part, though there's the odd one that he's accustomed to being someplace else— or missing entirely in the antique Mark IIs. The wireless headset is pulled on next, his voice crackling over it a few moments later, "We'll start out already launched, since you seem to have that pretty much down pat. Remember your basic flight formation? Close on my five."
As the program begins, Devlin will notice one other blip on his DRADIS: a friendly 'viper-02-541'. There is a moderate amount of 'static' as well, generated from a large asteroid field a few clicks to the starboard bow.
Devlin has got the pre-flight parts down pat as well, having spent enough time familiarizing himself with the controls that he gets everything that should be on, on without trouble or delay. He pulls on his wireless headset next, in time to hear the pilot's explanation and replies, "Yes, sir. Got it." When the program begins, he looks at the DRADIS and and the screen manuevers into position on the other viper's five.
Sitka strafes out just ahead of Devlin's viper, though maintains a fairly tight lateral separation that most military pilots would likely find a bit claustrophobic. "Let's, uh, let's try a little shooting practice first. We're headed for that asteroid field-" Which might be a little familiar, after his practice run with Tisiphone the other day. "-so you can try a few passes at stationary targets. Then we'll pick it up from there." It isn't long, of course, before they're breaching the edge of said field of rocks; the larger ones are the size of houses, right on down to a fine dust that doesn't even register on the shipboard systems.
"Okay," Devlin agrees as he mantains position, looking at the asteroid field up ahead and chuckling briefly as he recognizes it, explaining, "This is the field Tis picked, I've been practicing in it. And sounds good," he adds of the game plan. He heads into the field after the other viper, keeping up to speed as they manuever around the space-rocks.
Though one could hardly call it showing off, Shiv's viper slips through the obstacle course of rocks like a drift racer, confidently marking a path for Devlin through the gravitational corridors. "Good control," he compliments easily over the wireless. And then, "Just remember, when you're confirming an order, to let me know that you copy. It doesn't really matter down here, but there'll be a hell of a lot going on in a real mission, You, uh, you can't talk like you're just chewing the fat over a fudge sundae, all right?" He breaks formation sharply then, engines lighting up as he peels away from Devlin. "Pick a good target, give me the coordinates, and go ahead and practice a few attack runs."
"A— copy," Devlin replies, a little sheepishly, com jostled slightly as he nods. He follows through the field, and then slows a little as Shiv peels off and he's asked to pick a target. After a moment he chooses, and lists off the coordinates of a slightly-larger-than-raider-sized asteroid up ahead, turning on the thrusters again as he heads towards it and fires.
From his vantage point some quarter of a kilometre off to starboard, Shiv cuts his engines and simply observes for the time being. "You'd have hit it if you didn't break so soon," he advises over the wireless link. "Give it another few shots. Don't be afraid to slow it down for now, and wait until you have it in your crosshairs."
"Copy," Devlin replies to that, because…that's all he's supposed to say, right? He's going to play it safe on that front for the time being, it seems like, circling back for another pass at the asteroid. He slows down a little and doesn't break so soon this time and hits it, and then a third, slightly quicker pass results in another, even easier hit. He ups the speed a little further on his last run and misjudges, making a faint grumbling noise into the com as he misses.
"'Copy, Shiv'," the Captain corrects gently, at the end of Devlin's last attack run. "Or 'copy that, Shiv'. So it's clear who you're talking to." His viper pivots with a burst of its thrusters, and arcs back in to meet its compatriot. "But that was much better. You really nailed the second shot. Ready to try a moving target?"
"Copy that, Shiv," Devlin echoes, adding, "Sorry." He doesn't start another run, waiting as the other viper moves in to meet up and then replies, "Sure. Shiv." He sounds unsure whether that's quite the format in which he's supposed to reply or not, but just sort of leaves it.
There's a pause, and then an amused sounding chuckle over the wireless. "Hey. Relax, all right? Before you bust something. If I'm not giving you an order, there's no need to sweat the protocol." His viper's brought up alongside Devlin's, on a shallow trajectory back out of the asteroid field. "Do you remember your pursuit curves and passes?"
"Okay," Devlin replies to that, chuckling a little in return, still faintly sheepish, but relaxing a little as suggested, "I just wasn't sure. And yes," he adds, confirming, "I've been working on them."
"Hey, it's not a problem," Shiv answers over his headset, affably enough. "There's a lot to remember." Once they've made their egress from the field of simulated rocks and back into empty space, he eases his viper into a full burn out and away from the junior pilot-in-training. "We'll start with standard lateral separation. Try.. uh, a lead pursuit, and see if you can tag me. Remember, you're going to have to employ your guns before I'm in your sights."
"Yeah, I guess I sort of neglected the 'coms protocol' section of the book so far," Devlin admits. He doesn't immediately follow when the other viper speeds up, anticipating the drill at least partially. "Alright, copy that, Shiv," he tries. His own engines flare as he picks up speed, angling into a pursuit curve. He adjusts it a couple times as he goes, and again as he nears, finally hitting the trigger to aim a line of KEW fire at where he hopes the other viper will momentarily be.
The other blip on DRADIS snakes out sharply to port before doubling back for the merge. It's moving a fair bit faster than Devlin's viper, but turning on a wider angle in a near-perfect neutral pass. Several shots stitch just shy of Shiv's right wing, and a couple nearly manage to clip his flank before the Mark VII lights its engines and swoops away again. "Not bad at all," Shiv congratulates over the wireless. "Remember what I said when you were shooting rocks: don't be afraid to be a little more aggressive with your firing solution. You almost had me."
"Does that mean I should start firing earlier, or keep doing it longer at the end, or both?" Devlin checks, pulling out of his route to circle back around, even though that's kind of unnecessary in the big empty space they're currently working with. "Copy, Shiv," he replies at the 'try that again', turning towards the other viper and onto another lead pursuit trajectory, faster than before, and this time firing more aggressively.
There are teachers who'll throw you in the deep end and see whether you can swim— and teachers who'll drag you back out after those first few thrashing attempts not to drown. Today's lesson seems to be confidence more than anything else, as Devlin's more aggressive run pays off with his computer registering hits along Shiv's undercarriage this time. Not that the Captain's flying is sloppy; rather, he simply jigs when a better tactic would've been to jag, taking him directly into the nugget's line of fire. "Good closure," he offers over the comms, "though you're going to have to work on how to lead your target. I think that's enough for tonight, let's power down." The blip representing his viper soon winks off DRADIS as he begins shutting the pod's simulated systems off.
"Thanks," Devlin says, apparently not the type to get too excited about his success, at least in this particular venue. He powers down after the other viper winks out, shutting down his systems and, last, taking off the coms headset before he climbs back out. Arms and legs get shaken out, one of the former drawn up behind his head in an absent sort of stretch as he offers, "I'll work on the leading, and the guns in general. Is there a program loaded you'd recommend for that? Otherwise I'll just see if I can get somebody to practice with me more."
Sitka isn't too far after Devlin, his middle-aged creaky bones notwithstanding. Once he's clambered out of the viper's cockpit, he ambles off for the main computer console again. "Sure, I'll give you a disc with a few programs you can try on your own time. Other than that.." His hand closes briefly over Devlin's shoulder as he passes, then settles into the chair opposite the monitor. "..just make sure you pick someone with good habits to practice with. And don't let them push you too far, for now."
"That'd be great," Devlin nods at the offer of a disc, smiling crookedly at the hand and the advice, "I'll try. I know Psyche'll do it, if she's alright, and I can probably talk Tis into it, too. She owes me a rematch at asteroid tag. If there's others I should try to talk to instead, though, I can do that?"
Sitka shakes his head, already in the process of hunting down said disc in the pile of folders he brought over here. "Naw, both of them would be good practice for you. Anything I've said that conflicts with something someone else tells you, let me know.." He leans back in the chair, disc held out between two fingers for Devlin. "..and we'll sort it out. By the way, I think we'll take a couple of real birds out, next time." He flashes a quick grin.
"Cool," Devlin replies, and then his head bobs in a nod, "Yeah, I'll let you know. Hopefully won't be a problem. I'm sure they pay close attention to you, too." He smiles, and then takes the disc with a nod of thanks that's aborted as his head pops up, brows lifting, eyes widening, "Really?" He doesn't quite rein in his grin, "Awesome."
The grin would be hard to miss, really. Shiv's sobers a few nothces, but still lurks at the corners of his eyes, in the faint crow's feet etched there, as he turns back around to pull his fatigue jacket on. "You bet. I'll give you, uh.. a week or so to practice the maneuvers from today, then it's showtime."
Devlin nods, and nods some more, "Okay. I'll be ready. As much as I can be, I mean," he backpedals a little bit, and then again, rephrasing, "You know. I'll work on it." Yeah. He taps the disc in its case against the heel of his hand and nods again, "Thanks."
"Sure, no problem," Shiv replies evenly, finished shrugging into his jacket and busying himself collecting the stack of folders now. "Good luck with the studying." Another quick smile, and then with a glance at his watch, the Captain turns to depart.
"Thanks," Devlin adds again, offering a flash of a smile in return, a hand lifting in farewell. He heads towards the door, too, but lingers to look at that sign up sheet as the captain exits.