| Flowers in Her Hair |
| Summary: | Cidra, Leyla and Wade meet at the cement plant. Old bets, homecomings and old times are discussed. |
| Date: | 13 Dec 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | Strength in Numbers is referenced, as is Ghosts of Picon and Metastasis. |
| Players: |
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| Taeryth Concrete Plant - Grounds |
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| The yard is large enough for more than a couple Raptors and Vipers to land comfortably, and surrounded on all sides by either buildings or a tall chain-link fence topped with loops of rusting razor wire. Concrete pavement extends from the gate to the warehouse entrance, cracked and crumbling in places, split by tufts of dry grass. The rest of the space is packed dirt and scattered gravel, with chunks of cement spattered here and there. Wheelbarrows, spades, and various odds and ends of equipment sit about the yard, all broken down and rusted out. One whole side of the yard is bordered by the enormous main warehouse, and a path along the side of it leads to the loading dock. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #290 |
There's always a general buzz of activity around the Cerberus' surface camp. Raptors, occasionally with Viper escorts, coming in from and going out on search flights. Marines and medics processing, and tending to, the slow trickle of people being recovered. Fewer so far than were found on Aerilon. But Tauron was harder-hit by the Cylons when the worlds fell.
The CAG is logging some time on the surface today. In her flight gear, which means she'll likely be taking a turn on SAR duty, though she's presently engaged in ground-based activites. Cidra's standing over where the planes are arrayed in the yard, talking with one of the mechanics on duty. About atmospheric maintenance versus the relatively more forgiving environment of space, if one is listening.
Sweet Pea, for her part, is not in her flight gear, though, likely as not, it's stored somewhere safe, and handy, in case of need. For the moment, she's dressed in the black ground gear most of the crew who spend enough time boots down were issued. She's just gotten off a round of survivor duty, translations, mostly, for those who either can't speak Colonial well enough to get by, which is rare, or more likely, for those who prefer to dialogue in their native tongue. She's standing, not far from where the CAG is positioned, watching the line of civilians being offloaded from one of the raptors that's just touched down. The expression on her face isn't blank…exactly, but it's trying very hard to be.
There's a subtle side tick to Cidra's blue eyes in Leyla's general direction. The younger Raptor driver has, perhaps, been spotted on her periphery. She finishes her business with the mechanic with a polite, "My thanks, Petty Officer" and takes her leave of him. Striding toward Leyla properly. She pauses beside her to watch the civilians being offloaded. Observing them with a grave sort of curiousity. "Sweet Pea." The greeting is given without any other immediate dialogue. Just watching.
"You know, Baruk used to drive through Arkon at least twice a month, when he was doing long hauls. When we started doing a SAR there, I almost asked Pony if I could take Piper's spot on the raptor, but I thought I'd better not. Now that I see everyone getting off, I have to wonder if maybe he'd be on there if I had gone." It's a rare thing, for Leyla to relate anything relating to her innermost thoughts. Perhaps its being home that's brought it out.
A shake of her head, as Leyla looks away from the offload, turning to face her CAG, "It's good to see you flying again." CAG's duties being what they are, it's not often that Cid seems to get to be able to do anything as mundane as SAR duties. Sure, she does CAPs and whatnot, but it seems she gets left behind more and more often these days, tied up in red tape and 'command duties'. "I'd say I wish you'd seen Tauron before the bombs fell, but I don't think it'd look so much different." A hand reaches into a pocket, pulling out a pack of smokes, which she offers over.
"I am never more…right than when I sit in a Raptor cockpit," Cidra says, faintest of smiles crossing her lips. "There is the duty of it, of course. Always duty. But it still feels…free somehow. As if you were one with your ship, and it could take you just anywhere in all the worlds if you treat it right and proper." A little shrug follows that abstraction, and she turns to regard Leyla properly. "Your family?" The names tug at her memory, though she might not have the woman's peopel committed to her mind. "If you desire to go look on the flights to the places you know here, for the people you know, none would stop you. Indeed, I would feel driven to it, were it me." A pause. "How long since you were home, Sweet Pea? Before…everything."
"That's how I feel about Bertha. My hands are her hands, her eyes are my eyes. She's a part of me, and she knows what I need her to do, sometimes before I do." Not really, but Leyla really is attached to her little raptor, Harrier-307. "I didn't fly us out of those recons, she did." Leyla glances back to the raptor, now devoid of its passengers and being refitted and refueled. "My youngest older brother. He drove trucks, you know. Long distance. Probably the only one in my family who could say he'd seen all of Tauron there was to see." There's a pursing of her lips, at the offer, "I told Boots I wanted to go home. I want to be able to say goodbye to them." There's little hope that any Aydin that was still in the BC made it through the carpet bombing of the region. "About six months or so, when I first got my transfer orders to the Cerberus. The next time I got leave, I went home to have my Kaiwhakairo write the end of my journey and the beginning of the next. Figured I could use the time to heal up. It was mostly scabbed over by the time I got back to the Stussy, but I tell you, I couldn't sit comfortably for weeks, and I had to borrow a larger flightsuit. I looked like a kid wearing their father's uniform."
"If you have the will to do it, you should. Everyone deserves a chance to say their goodbyes, if they can manage it," Cidra notes soft. Her eyes follow the last of the off-loaded civilians as they're led into the warehouse. She gets a soft chuckle out of Leyla's description of her post-tatt return to duty. "I only set foot to earth on Tauron once, before all this. The Battlestar Columbia was tasked to this part of Colonial space when I was a J-I-G in their Logistics squadron. I managed to get a week of shore leave at the same time as my husband. Took it in Hypatia. I do not care for cities normally but it had been so long since I had put my feet on the ground I did enjoy it much. What little of it I saw."
"I will try to get back, if nothing else, so I know what story to write when the time comes." All the history that remains of the Aydins is what's inked and incised into Leyla's skin. And this is likely the final chapter. "The stories tell us that it was a beautiful place once, rich and green, alive and full of life, the end of our long journey from the sea. Perhaps, now that we've gone, it will become that way again." A sniff, as Leyla considers, "Though it's not likely to sort much life greater than vermin and cockroaches." Such is the way of the mostly industrialized colony. "I don't imagine you spent as much time looking around at the scenery as you did looking at him." Leyla looks back at the CAG, "You miss him very much." An observation in Leyla's typically logical fashion. "Did you get to say your goodbyes?"
"I bet my Daedrek I could find a flower growing wild outside the city gardens. But I did not," Cidra says, lips curving in that faint hint of a smile again. Touched with sadness now. "And no, I must admit. We spent little time outside our hotel block. He has been gone a long time. Near ten years now." Not that it's a denial. Her tone carries more emotion than she typically allows herself to display as she speaks of him. "He was a Viper pilot. He was flying drills out by the asteroids around Canceron when…" Rather than finishing the sentence, she snaps her fingers. "…all that skill, all that precision, you are off just once and none of it matters. There was nothing left to say farewells to. But I did try." Another pause and she asks, "Did you ever think of marrying?" She and Leyla are standing near where the ships are landed, talking. A Raptor has recently returned with a few survivors, though they've all been off-loaded and taken into the warehouse to begin procesing by now.
Leyla's lips curl into a faint smile, at Cidra's story, and she lifts a hand, forestalling her end of the conversation, as she wanders over towards the edge of where they're standing, close to the fence. Reaching down, she plucks out a stalk of grass, long since forgotten by such as thing as a lawn mower. Once she has one plucked up, she walks back to the CAG. "There are flowers here…if you know where and how to look." The stalk of grass, looking more like wheat's baby cousin than any flower most people would call such a thing, is indeed in 'bloom'. Grass is a flowering plant. Just, like Tauron, not a pretty one. "A body is a cage, a fixed point in space. I told Bunny once, that we were all made of stars." And so, to the stars Daedrek Hahn returned, "I never could understand the idea of that sort of intimacy. I don't really…" Leyla shrugs. She doesn't grok people in that way, something, quite likely the CAG might have noticed. "Get it."
One Viper soon becomes visible in the sky, it's coming at high speed towards the ground in what it seems to be a 45 degree angle. Soon, the pilot levels the bird a little bit and does a low altitude sweep over the landing spot. A few clicks away now, he turns around and comes back, slowing down to gently touch the landing platforms after that. LTJG Wade "Drips" Duncan can be read right below the left side of the cockpit. Inside, Wade takes off his helmet while he does post flight check. Everything seems to be ok so he kills the main power and opens the cockpit. His attention moves around while the ground crew gets the ladder next to his bird and he does spot Leyla and Cidra. He steps down the ladder now and pats the shoulder of one of the ground crew, smiling at them "Thanks guys…yes yes, I'll see if we can get some cigars" There is a small laugh shared between the group and he makes his way towards the LT and the CAG. An easy salute is offered to them while he walks and he says "Major, El-Tee" he nods after that and shows a soft smile. Finally, he stops where they are and takes a deep breath, helmet under his arm, still showing a soft smile. "Enjoying the day?"
"I did not know where to look," Cidra confesses, reaching her fingertips out to gently take the bloom Leyla plucked. Holding it up to look the little thing over close. "…all made of stars…" It's murmured to herself, as if she can't quite decide whether to be chilled or comforted by the idea. It's a mix of both. "Some days I wish we had never met. Then I would never have lost him. Never felt the loss. And yet…I felt right with myself then, too. Even righter than flying…" A slight shake of her head, as if to return her thoughts to the present. And her focus goes back to Leyla. "Well. That was two lifetimes ago at least. Those from the Outside speak of Gemenon has a harsh place, too. And it is, in a great many ways. But there is beauty there if you know where to look for it, strength those who do not look long do not appreciate. Perhaps Tauron is like that." Gaze goes again to the skies as the Viper returns from patrol, watching its descent as it lands. Wade's approach earns an inclination of her head in greeting, and fluid acknowledgment of his salute. "Drips. Good hunting up there, yes?"
"Life is like that, isn't it? We look and look and look, and in the end, what we were looking for is always in the last place we expected. The place we thought it would never be." As for whether or not she should have met her husband, well, "If you had spared yourself the loss, you would have lost the rightness he brought with him. There is bitter and sweet in every life. The taste of one doesn't always overwhelm the taste of the other. Sometimes, you have to taste bitterness to appreciate the sweetness that came before, to embrace the sweetness that can come after." Leyla takes a moment, once her flower has been handed over, "I would gladly take you back to Gemenon, if you wanted to go." Cylons be damned. "I would like to see it. I'd never been, before." Her own eyes rise, following Cidra's to watch Wade settle down from the skies to the solid ground, and as he approaches, for old time's sake, perhaps, she answers his greeting, with a right and proper one of her own, "Midshipman Second Class Duncan, sir!" And then, more easily, "More survivors are coming in today." A good day.
Wade of course did not hear what the conversation Leyla and Cidra were having was about. "Yes sir" offers Wade to Cidra with a nod of his head "No enemy contacts so far and we still have time to search for people" There is a smile on his lips when he says this. His attention is stolen by Leyla and while he can't help to smile, he does put a straight face after that, stands in full attention and offers another salute "At ease, Midshipman Fourth Class, Aydin" His hand is lowered once again and smiles to Leyla. His eyes travel back to Cidra who perhaps, at this moment could be asking herself 'WTF?'. "More survivors coming in today? Fantastic…" Now, he tilts his head and looks from one, to the other "Did I…interrupt anything? I can't stop wondering about this innate skill to always fall in, in the middle of something" It seems that he is in a good mood today.
"Its hardness is different from here," Cidra says, as to Gemenon. "There are flowers there. Very few large places. I was from what was accounted a 'city' there, but it would have been swallowed many times over by a good many of your Tauron's 'towns.' Here the harshness is on the surface. There it is just beneath. But I pray someday to see it again." She adds in a low tone, which she may not mean to be as audible as it is, "Though I fear what it shall look like if I do…" She pulls her mind of that, however. And, indeed, does flit a somewhat 'Huh?' look between Leyla and Wade. Though she does not ask what is up with the 'cadets.' A shake of her head to Wade. "Nothing of great import, Duncan. Just…idle talk. I am heartened the skies remain clear today. More time we are spared, the more we can perhaps save."
"It sounds like a place worth going back to. I hope we will get there soon." Sanctioned or no. Never give a Taurian ideas. They never let them go. Leyla does, indeed, put herself at ease or at least parade rest, and then something slightly more comfortable, once Wade answers her greeting. There's almost a laugh, as she looks back to Cidra, "Drips was one of the middies in charge of my class, the year I entered the Academy. I will admit, the fact that he had a car was one of the reasons I ended up a pilot." Not being able to escape the grounds on her own, she often tagged along on Wade's trips off campus, "I got tired of waiting for him on the tarmac when he was off flying." A shake of her head to Wade, "I've been monopolizing Toast's time, and picking flowers for her hair." Sort of an ugly flower for anyone's hair, but the grass bloom is what it is.
Wade arches both eyebrows at the conversation at hand and his attention is placed on Cidra for the moment "Gemenon? I would very much like to go there, to be honest. We can even tie an FTL to the belly of my Viper and I get to go along" There is a soft chuckle at this and nods "Gemenon sounds like a good place to go" Regardless of all the Cylon activity there. Now, he takes a deep breath and nods "Agreed…and there is still a lot of ground to cover, so hope is up when it comes to finding survivors" A soft smile at that and then he looks at Leyla, laughing softly "Indeed, and if I remember correctly, we almost crashed a couple times. I always had a bit of a heavy foot" He winks at Leyla and then looks at Cidra "And what a fantastic pilot she ended up to be, am I right?" He looks at Leyla again and smiles "Flowers?" asks the man and looks around for a moment as if trying to decide if he is to help or not. "Ah yes, that would be a good touch" he adds, smiling to both of them.
Cidra's lips curve almost whimsically, and she *does* tuck the little sprout Leyla plucked her behind her ear. Indeed it's not much of a 'flower,' but she seems happy enough to wear it. "I remember the upperclassmen seemed like demi-gods back in flight school. So you two knew one another then? Such ties are a blessing in these days." As for Gemenon, her smile fades. "There is a…beckoning toward there. Like there was to Leonis before. Yet the Cylons still hold it tight, for whatever purposes they are still working upon my homeworld. I confess I fear for it." She clears her throat. "Well, the tides carried us to Leonis, and may carry us to Gemenon yet. For better or worse. If you will pardon me." She steps a little away from them. "I should go have a look-over the patrol schedule. Clear eyes and steady hands to you both."
"We were talking about going back home. Cidra gave me permission to head back the the BC, if I could manage it, see if I could get back to where my family lived." And that's all she's really going to say about that, "Heavy foot? You mean the lead foot welded to the pedal? It's half of the reason I'm so short. The g-forces in your car compressed my spine." A snort, but more humour than anything else, before she turns to offer Cidra a salute, "Clear skies and full sails, Toast." Once Cidra heads back to the grind, Leyla steps in closer to Wade, "Haven't seen you much around lately. I suppose the family's taking up your time between shifts?"
Wade tilts his head at Leyla's comment, about going back home. He takes a deep breath to this "I say do it. I would give anything to go back to Picon, to see my house again. While I know it was nuked pretty badly, we lived far from the cities, small mountain town actually. Curious enough given that Picon is mostly water." He smiles at this and then laughs "It wasn't welded to it, I just had no good reason to stop pushing it as far as I was able to" The man smiles once again and tilts his head, lifting one hand to place it over Leyla's head, but not touching her "I say this size fits you well, actually" There is a nod to that and then he looks at Cidra "Clear eyes and steady hands, Major" Now, he looks at Leyla again and takes a deep breath "A lot of stuff going on, a lot of patrolling indeed and yes, I spend some time day to day, with my nephew and my sister in law. It was the weirdest thing, to find out that I had a nephew." Now he looks at Leyla again and says "But how about you? It's not like you've been easy to find, what have you been up to?"
"And what if you went back there and found only corpses?" As that is quite likely what is waiting back in the tenement for Leyla if it even still stands. "Picon will be very difficult to go back to. Flasher and I barely made it out of there alive on our recon." Leyla, give her some credit, doesn't move when Wade places his hand over her head. Likely, in the years she known him, she's learned to trust that he wouldn't touch her without her permission. "Working, mostly. Couple of projects. When I do have free time, I've been over on the freighter. Payback lets me sit the pilot's seat, now and then when I visit. I don't like to just sit idle."
Wade takes a deep breath at her first words and nods "Oh I know I will find corpses, but not my parents' corpses. They died in Leonis" He swallows at that and then nods again "Yeah, I know it's a long shot on that one…but you know, maybe one day" And yes, he does know Leyla and yes, he wouldn't touch her without her permission indeed. After all, they've known eachother for years now. "Same here as well, working with the Nuggets as I learn to be an Instructor" He man runs his fingers over his hair and then rubs both hands over his face, as if waking himself up a little more. As for Payback? He arches both eyebrows and smiles "Oh? The pilot seat huh?" He smiles and nods "I'm glad you've made a new friend Leyla. And I know what you mean, idle time is useless. Tho I will admit that sometimes, sometimes…it's nice to just, sit back and relax"
"If I went back to my home, in all likelihood, it would be my family's corpses I would find there waiting for me." That's said with a decided lack of inflection, "They're getting ready for something. I don't think it's setting up shop in the colonies, that's for sure. If it is, they wouldn't have left so many of them abandoned. Who knows how long they will be here….or how long we will." They are, after all, running out of colonies to visit. "Well, the freighter won't fly itself, and he's got a good crew working with him, but it'll be a while before they're really able to settle in and have an easier pilot rotation up there. So nobody really complains when I take over for a while." Besides the retired raptor stick, all of the freighter's other pilots are washouts from nuggethood, or people who couldn't make it as nuggets to begin with for whatever reason, but can still pilot something as big and lumbering as the civilian's new home. "I don't do well with sitting and relaxing."
Wade looks at Leyla as she speaks about her family. He offers a very light nod and doesn't really smile at that. "The Cylons? Right you are, I believe. I have no clue what their plan is but they are gearing up, and that's something to be worried about, in all honesty." Moment of silence "I would like to know what we are going to do. Right now it's pretty much a search for survivors in the Colonies that don't have an extensive Cylon presence" Now, the man clears his throat and shakes his head "Not complaining of course, finding survivors /is/ and important thing to be doing right now, I would just like to know what else is being planned" Now, he does smile a little bit and says "You know, I actually wouldn't mind piloting that ship for a couple hours, for old times sake." He chuckles and adds "I actually still have my pilot license, got it when I was 16…" He speaks fondly of that, it's one of the few things he got to save.
"I don't think it does any good to plan too far ahead. Perhaps that's why we haven't heard anything about where we're going after the Colonies have all been scoured for what survivors we can find. Or perhaps the reason we haven't heard anything, is because it isn't safe to let that sort of information out to the general public. We still don't know who may be listening. And knowing might make people focus less on the job that needs to be done now, which isn't going to do anyone any good." Leyla, clearly the sort of person who does things a day at a time, sometimes an hour, "The next time you have free leave, head over there, ask Payback if he'd let you. Just don't try to do any hot dogging. Tat old thing is held together by spit and willpower." Well, to be fair to the crews that worked so hard on her, she's actually quite stable, but still old as frakall.
Wade considers Leyla's words for a moment and says "There's nothing wrong with strategic planning" he smiles at this and then nods "But I agree with you, we don't know who might be listening" As for flying the civvie ship, he laughs with some amusement and says "No rollercoaster rides, check" He nods to this and winks at her, crossing his arms over his chest "Yeah, don't worry, I just want to remember what it feels like to fly civilian craft." Wade clears his throat and adds "And…whenever I get free time? I'll see if I can get to go to that post where you guys are getting all the clothes from. I need to find something for myself, because I have /nothing/. The clothes I got to Cerberus with were badly burned and got incinerated and I just military stuff right now. Plus, I know other people might want to go and get stuff before everything is handed over to the Civilians"
"He's got great stories, Payback, you might learn a thing or two." There's a slight smile, at the thought of the old codger. "And not just about flying that freighter. He's been flying longer than both of us have been alive." A lift of her hand as she indicates the raptor, "The Providers are doing a lot of the recon over there. Just ask Pony, he's not going to turn down an extra set of hands for salvage, I'm sure." Not that she knows the Provider's SL that well, but there's a crapton of richie stuff that needs sorting and carting and loading. Willing hands don't usually get turned down, "I never thought there was anything wrong with the way you looked in your uniform."
"Well, you know what they say, one never stops learning." says Wade, smiling at this. Now, he tilts his head as he looks at her "You speak highly of this, Payback." He nods "I trust your judgment, he must be a really great guy then" Wade looks at the Raptor that belongs to the Providers Squadron and back to Leyla "I'll ask. I don't mind helping, and if I can get a couple things for myself, the better." Now, as for the last thing she says, Wade says "I…" he goes silent for a couple seconds and then smiles "Ms. Aydin, is that your way of saying that I'm dashingly handsome?" To this he chuckles with amusement, remembering the old jokes between them when they were back in Picon "Don't get me wrong, nothing against my uniforms of course. It's just…" he stops as he considers his next words "I don't know, I just would like to see myself wearing something outside of the Military sphere, if only for little time"
"I like his company. He got his wings back in…um…'96." A nod, as she checks her mental locker of information. And yes, she does mean 1996. And yes, it is almost 2042. Leyla moves, heading over to hop up on a slab of something that used to be something else, before it was a block of cement tumbled down in the yard, pulling out a bag of jerky, which she offers in your direction, before she pulls out a smoke for herself. "You know that operation to demine the debris field? He was piloting the raptor that Pens was in." The one that nearly got exploded, and would have, if the old man didn't still know his shit. "I couldn't have gotten us out alive." A tilt of her head, as she looks in Wade's direction, "Of course you're handsome. You'd have to live under a rock not to be able to see that." She takes the time to light up her cigarette, before she continues, "What little I had, I gave away, I didn't really see the need for it, when the civilians already had so much. I do have a pair of pink flannel sheep jimjams, however." Rescued from Aerilon.
Wade listens with interest, he nods from time to time and he can't help to smile a little bit "You seem to like him quite a bit" He nods at this and repeats "Ninety-six huh? Long time ago…" Now, he follows Leyla with his gaze and approaches her a little. When she offers the bag of jerky, he smiles and takes some for himself "Thanks" Now, he takes a bite from some jerky while he keeps listening. "Wow, so he still has it then" says Wade, impressed by that of course. However, he presses his lips together and takes a deep breath "Leyla, I know, that you are a great pilot. Don't kick yourself like that. We've known eachother for years and I've seen you do some really amazing things with a Raptor, and you know this" He smiles at this and then adds "And you my friend, are very good looking as well" He nods to this, because he considers it a fact "Well, I'll make sure to bring you something if I go hunting for some clothes"
"I suppose I do. He's like…how I always imagined a raptor pilot should be. How I always thought maybe I would be one day." Though it's unlikely that day will ever come. Attrition in war time is a hard thing. "Welcome." She tucks the bag back into one of her pockets, before she starts in on her smoke, enjoying it as she always does, with time. Not a fast smoker, is Leyla Aydin, "I'm not kicking myself. But I know what I can and can't do. I've only been flying for….less than five years. I just don't have the skill and experience yet to do the things better pilots can do. Like Toast, like Ulixes, like Payback. I'm not ashamed to admit that. Like Decoy. He's a good pilot, but he's young. He's not as good as you, or Poppy, or Bubbles. But he also doesn't have as much time on the stick as they do. Even if his instincts might one day prove to be as good as theirs, as yours, he just doesn't have the time in the seat to make use of it. Like me." Puff, puff. Ash-flick. "Thank you." To both, no doubt, the compliment and the offer to find her something to wear.
"It's always good to have someone to look up to. For me, my former wingmate and pretty much my best friend…we were in the same Squadron back in Chimaera. The best Viper pilot I've seen…" says Wade, taking a deep breath after that. "Well of course, with experience comes skill." adds Wade, nodding after this. He of course, agrees with that statement "However, I know you have a lot of potential and that is something of infinite value Leyla." He smiles at the woman "You'll get to that point you want and with your potential, I'm sure it'll be sooner than you expect" The man now looks down at this helmet, remembering a few things. He chuckles softly and looks back at her "You know, I always wanted to be an SL, and maybe CAG…" he shrugs to that "Perhaps one day, when all this is over" Now, there's a ground crew guy that approaches them and says "Excuse me, Drips…" Wade turns his head at him and offers "Hey Evan, what's up?" The man nods and offers a smile to both "The bird is ready to go" and after this, he turns around and walks away. Wade looks back to Leyla and smiles "Well, that's my 'get back to work' sign" There is a smile of amusement and he adds "I do think we should hang out more, maybe plan to find some high power car in the next Colony we go to and do some dangerous driving, for old times" There's a wink for her and now he stands straight "Midshipman Fourth Class Aydin" He salutes and adds "I'll see you soon. Clear eyes and steady hands out there" The man smiles and then turns around, heading towards his Viper.