| Ground Up |
| Summary: | Bran steps up to bat for his dual qualification. |
| Date: | 05 May 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | None posted, I think. |
| Players: |
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| Flight Simulation |
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| A training room specifically dedicated to honing aerial skills, this area is equipped with several flight simulator pods that allow the pilots to practice maneuvers and tactics without being in a real live plane. The Viper-pods are installed on one side of the room with a little space between them, an attempt to provide a realistic feel for close-range wing training, while a smaller number of Raptor sim-pods are installed on the opposite side of the room from the Vipers. A central computer terminal and overhead display screen sits at the head of the room, where one can input exercises and data to be run in the sims, scroll through score records, and control the training modules. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #433 |
Dual Efficacy is what Bran is calling it. He's to learn the up and up when it comes to piloting Raptors, thanks to CAG orders. Those mean working more intensively with Cidra and Leyla, as per the same orders, and earn those qualifications as a pilot as soon as possible. That's why Bran has left a note for Aydin explaining things. He's merely a touch late on the requested time and is sliding into the training room with a huff of a breath. "Diapers." He says. That's a shitty reason to be late.
Thankfully, Leyla isn't waiting for the ECO to arrive. Rather, she's programming the simulators to accept the flight parameters for the handful of raptor approaches she's been working on for the return to Gemenon. The sims, however, aren't running. Instead, she's sitting by the central computer terminals, working out the proper sequences for each run. Off-duty time, from the looks of it, as she's wearing sweats, rolled down to sit low on her hips and her sports bra. her jacket's on the chair next to her. Bandages are off, but the fact that her skin is still healing is very much in evidence, "No need to apologize." She finishes a line of code, before she turns to study the dark-skinned man, "Toast tells me she wants you flight qualified."
Bran clears his throat a bit and rubs at the back of his neck before figuring out that he can relax about things, which leads into lightly smiling as he steps deeper into the room. He calms down considerably and somewhere along the way he finds where his winded breath had disappeared to. The man comes to a slowed stop when Leyla turns to address him and her question gets a stiff nod of his head. "I ought to blame you, where blaming is thanking, so thank you." Time with her on the Stussy has left him better qualified for this piloting plus countermeasures role than the other ECOs. "And I know you can mold me into something to make the Lords themselves jealous of."
"I suppose this is the part where I tell you I'm glad to take the blame." Leyla doesn't settle back into the chair, because…that would be a bit painful, so instead, she shifts, falling into a habit she likely picked up from Poppy, rising long enough to spin the seat around and sit back down with the back of the seat in front of her, her arms folded on top. "I don't know about the whole Lords thing, but if you do graduate from pilot training, you will be fully qualified to sit the front seat and not make Maggie ashamed of you." Which has more to do with Maggie being the best stick in the wing than being the mother of Bran's adopted child. "Think of yourself as a test subject. if that would make you feel better. We simply cannot afford for our people to be qualified in only one area anymore. We simply don't have the personnel for that. Being able to switch up when we need to will make us much more versatile. I myself could use some serious training with ECM."
"Something like that," remarks Bran good-naturedly. He looks to her backside and then to the computers as he comes to stand next to her, leaning forward to spy over the algorithms and simulation information presented there. He grins. Then he grins just a bit sharper a moment later, "Test subject, gotcha. I may not be the best of the best when it comes to ECM- something the CAG made sure to point out during the little shindig," where he received his promotion and awards, "But I can share pointers here and there. It's only fair and I think you'd enjoy yourself about the same as me flying… frak, I never told Maggie about this."
"No, you're not," the best that is, "But you're alive, which says something for you. So don't underestimate your abilities, either, or allow someone else to make your doubt yourself. We all have room to improve, myself included. So long as you're willing to put in the work. And I wouldn't mind those pointers." Leyla pushes back from the computer, allowing Bran to look over what she's working on. Raptors do not do stealth well, but Leyla clearly does. And what the raptor can't do itself, she's made up for making use of the planet's gravity, electromagnetic field and topography. "That the only thing you have to talk to her about?"
Linus raises an eyebrow questioningly and lowers his chin nearer to his neck before inclining his head to the side in order to consider Leyla's expression alongside the woman's words. He then knits his eyebrows. "Someone's rather hopeful about everything now," and he most assuredly isn't talking to himself since his superstition has always led him to believe the Lords of Kobol have had a Plan for them since the very beginning. Faith is as faith does. However, their talking leads elsewhere and he slowly shakes his head. In returning his attention back forward he speaks up plainly. "I'm trying to find the right time to ask her to marry me. The first time didn't work out so well. I was so out of it with that sickness a corpsman had to remind me about it before I left quarantine." He looks over the data just as well. "This is some fine planning, you know."
"There's never a right time, Sam. Mark and I were waiting too. I don't know why. We talked about it sure, I mean, we planned the tatau, I met with the Matatau, but we never set a date. Figured eventually, you know? Then I almost lost him. When I saw him again on that hangar deck, waiting for the right time just didn't seem important anymore. The right time is right now, Sam. Don't let the present slip away from you. Because you might turn around and find out that it's too late." Leyla turns her attention away from the computers, studying the man standing over her, "Thank you. Boots still needs to give me the list of pilots he wants to run through the flight plans."
"I wasn't trying to make a ceremony about it," because though Bran ought to celebrate and honor his traditions it's just fairly difficult to do everything aboard a Battlestar when the rest of the worlds has been turned to radioactive ash. "Just, you know, make it worth something. As it is, I'm liable to just take her, hold her, and just get it out- again, for the however many times it is now." Visualizing and giving a dramatized act of the event distracts him momentarily from the computers but eventually he is remembering of them and eventually he is agreeing with Leyla about the present over anything else. He leans against the console. "Can you make sure Poms is on the list? He's a good guy. Crazy ideas," like that missile run back against the Areion, "But great ideas. Could easily be an asset. But let's get started, huh?"
"The fact that you love her enough to ask her to marry you isn't worth enough? Understanding that she'll probably say yes. What more do you need than that? Well, a ring or something, I suppose. They do that, the ring thing, on Aerilon, right? I don't know that we have much in the way of precious metals down around here, but I could probably make something for you." As for getting started, well, Leyla rises, moving over to one of the storage cabinets and pulling down a selection of textbooks, "He's a rook. And it's for Boots to decide, at the end of it." The books are carried back and set down on the terminal in front of Bran, "That's lesson one."
"I have no idea." Now Bran has to figure out how people on Aerilon get married too? There must be someone in this fleet that does not want to stack on more duties to the man. Perhaps he ought to seek them out for a moment of solace. Then again, he welcomes the challenge. It's a double-edged blade. "This is not what I was expecting. In fact, that," he points out the textbooks for Leyla to know just exactly what he is talking of, "Is rather anticlimactic. You really want me to start over on the basics?" He's still fairly bemused and dubious about the notion of having to read but he begins to take up the first textbook in order to slip it open and idly peruse. "What's lesson two?"
"You're a pilot trainee, that means you get the same training all of the others do. I can't make allowances, or else they'll all be clamoring about how I showed you preferential treatment. You start at the bottom and work your way up. That's how I learned it, that's how you'll learn it too." Leyla doesn't seem in the least upset by it, "Once you're finished, we run practice simulations to see how capable you are at basic raptor flight and maneuvers."
"Means I have to start all over," murmurs Bran under his breath in a mock whine. He's not one to shy away from such a thing and he can read just as well as any other. Ultimately, he nods in understanding and snaps the book gently shut just so he can look to her face. There's something near a grin brightening his expression and he holds up the textbook to his chest. "You won't get mad if I become a better pilot when I'm finished with these? The student finally surpasses the teacher. It's a classic tale of growth and respect, or accomplishment." Levity, thy name is Linus when he lightly teases. "I do have a good feeling about this, though. Thanks, Leyla, really. This means a lot to me."
"My job is to make you the best pilot that you can be. Not to make you a pilot who's good, but not as good as I am. If that means that you end up becoming better than I am, then I've done my job." Leyla rises, moving to retrieve her hoodie, settling it back onto her shoulders, "Starting from the beginning is the best way. It ensures that you recall everything you might have forgotten, and gives you time to unlearn bad habits."
Bran lowers the textbook if only to settle it with the others and being hoisting the lot of them up with general ease. He holds them to his offhanded side and glances over a shoulder to look over the computers one final time before using his free hand to gesture off into the beyond. "What's a bad habit between close friends?" He meant the thanks though and that's good enough for him as he moves to exit the chamber.