PHD #067: Kahuna On the Job
Kahuna on the Job
Summary: Bannik pulls Raf into the Centurion ECM project and both talk to Sitka about the condition of the Deck.
Date: 5 May 2041 AE
Related Logs: Needing a Game Changer and Seeing Without Seeing.
Players:
Bannik Raf Sitka 
Hangar Deck - Port
The single largest rooms on the Cerberus are the hangar decks. Each flight pod consists of two stacked landing bays with adjoined decks and hangars, which along with computer-assisted landings results in a faster Viper recovery rate. Mirror images of each other, these two huge areas are located on the flight pods. The inboard sides of the deck, closest to the ship's main hull, are lined with parking and maintenance bays for Vipers and Raptors based aboard the battlestar. The outboard side of the deck contains the launch tubes used by the Vipers for standard deployment. Huge blast doors seal the deck into four sections, each one containing an elevator that leads up to the flight deck directly overhead. The fore-most section contains an elevator system that leads towards Aerospace Fabrication.
Post-Holocaust Day: #67

Despite the explosion investigation, Tyr Bannik is still on the flight line. It just shows how desperate they are. Or perhaps how the investigation is going. "I want this bird in ship-shape," Banniks is telling one of the aircraft handler apprentices. "It's Money Shot's first flight in a long time." And that's when he notes Raf. "Sir!" calls out the crewman.

Another pair of boots on the deck isn't anything new, but if the boots belong to Raf, and he's working - willingly working - that's another kettle of fish entirely. Carrying a hand-held computer, a stack of notes, and a wide grin on his face, Raf's march is taking him directly toward Crewman Bannik. Something si definitely afoot. He's not even running, or otherwise horsing around - which is no doubt a pleasant change from the usual.

At two minutes past the hour, the current patrol is just about spot on time for its return. The initial roar of two sets of viper engines touching down fades to the somewhat less raucous industry of orange jumpsuit-clad techs jogging over with tow lines and fuel hoses. A short while later, the canopy of the smaller Mark II is swung open, a ladder rolled up, and the pilot inside busies himself unbuckling his seat harness and unfastening his helmet. Another rough landing, from the sound of it; the portside landing gear on this particular bird has been trouble for the past few flights.

No running. Good. Raf knows how Bannik feels about running. But the crewman meets Kahuna half-way, telling the handlers working on the Viper to keep at it. "Sir. Glad you came by. Did you get the memo from the CAG about our little project?"

"Indeed I did, Crewman! And I aim to give you whatever kind of help I can. Sick'a feeling like a fifth wheel around here when I'm not sitting in a bird, you know?" Raf says, gesturing with an emphatic thumbs-up. He adjusts his belt, peers around the deck - perhaps searching for some sort of big secret project or the like. Finding none readily visible, he nods again: "Yeah, you just tell me what the heck it is you need, and I'll get it done to the best of my ability."

There are certain things Raf just can't do. One of these things is look calm when he's excited. He tries all the same, but it just doesn't take: despite his valiant efforts at maintaining an appropriately ranking veneer, his mouth keeps twitching and he fidgets. "Heyyyyy," he says, "That's a pretty awesome idea. Jam up the ground crew, like, so they can't talk to each other. I'm betting I can shed some light on that. I dunno what your signal strength is, but I think I got some pretty good ideas for close range muckery. What… ah… what do we have to work with, exactly?"

Completely oblivious to the shop talk going on between tech and countermeasures officer, Shiv's finally got his helmet off, clambered out of his viper, and has been handed his post-flight checklist— which he's in the process of running through. Looks like he's writing a bit of a novel there.

Bannik glances over at Sitka, a flash of — something — behind his eyeglasses, maybe guilt, perhaps, and then he's back to Raf. "Well," explains Bannik, in a low voice. "We have an intact Centurion to work with, but that's under your hat for now, okay? I figure we have two real projects. First, figure out if Centurions are susceptible to interfere. And then, two, if we can get a device that generates that interference small enough to be squad portable."

"Lips are sealed, dude," Raf assures with several magnanimous waves of his hand. Probably not the most reassuring way to let Bannik know he'll keep quiet, but he's trying. "That's some pretty bad-ass news, I gotta say. Let me see here… Well, I can already think of two sure-fire ways to frak with any Centurion in a hand-held size, but they're pretty brute force and might end up being just as bad as letting 'em talk, come the right situation. I'm betting we can get something workable with a little skull sweat." Sitka does not go entirely unnoticed by the ECO, either. He lifts a hand, waves to Sitka, and calls over, "Hey, Cap'n!" Apparently the idea of 'subdued tone after life-threatening accidents' is lost on him.

"Shit." It's muttered fairly quietly, as Sitka realises he's run out of ink. He attempts a couple of loop de loops to no avail, then lobs the pen into a nearby trashcan, and starts patting down his flight gear for a new one. Bannik's brief glance might go missed by the Captain, but the hearty greeting from Raf most assuredly does not. His head jerks toward the younger officer, and he flashes him a small, hesitant smile along with a lift of gloved fingers before resuming his search for the writing implement.

"Great. Well. If you can pull what info you have on spaceborne electronic warfare, we can meet as a group and get on it. It's not a hugely time-sensitive project, but it'd be good to have, Command says." Tyr then notices Stika's plight. If there's one thing Bannik has, it's a pen. He slips the writing implement out of his clipboard and makes his way over to the Petrel, handing it over cap first. "Sir." He offers up a small smile. "Tough ride out there today?"

Hands are stuffed into pockets, and Raf follows Bannik in his walk over to Sitka and his Viper. Raf really ambles, or perhaps meanders - pausing, of course, to eyeball some ordnance, a forklift, and various other deck items. He does seem interested in hearing about the CAP, though, because once he's arrested behind the Crewman, he tilts his head up as though Sitka's opinion was about the only thing worth listening to in the world.

Sitka turns at the sound of approaching footsteps, to find.. a crewman who could literally be his kid, standing there and holding a pen out to him. There's a second or two's pause before he accepts it, scissored between two fingers. "Hey, thanks," is murmured, eye contact dodged as he slides the cap off and resumes scribbling again. "Oh.. yeah, bit of a rough landing. Kept it in one piece for you, though. I think the left stabiliser's still off, maybe the trim too. I've uh.." He flips back to the first page of his checklist, where he's crammed a fair amount of text into the 'problem description' box. "..got it all right here, if you want to have a look at it." Raf is briefly observed in his meandering closer, though not directly addressed.

"We'll definitely let Mechanical know, sir," Bannik promises, letting the crewman who was running the post-flight checklist have the clipboard when Sitka's done with it. Of course, that doesn't promise that Mechanical will do anything ABOUT it, but it's something. "Maybe. Uh. Our upcoming op will get us some good salvage? Maybe?" It's been the talk of the ship, for sure.

Raf really just hangs out by Bannik, curiosity over the Captain's report evident. For a guy who doesn't really do anything on the deck unless he's ordered to, it's a peculiarity, but perhaps even he can't shake a minor amount of paranoia after the other day's events. "Heard tell," he ventures, "That a lot of the Vipers aren't in the best of condition, what with bein' short-handed all the time. Minor glitches, secondary systems not quite up to snuff. That about the shape of things?" The question is equally addressed to Sitka and Bannik: he's not picky.

"Thanks," Shiv answers again, switching back to the second page briefly in order to scribble his signature at the bottom in messy Captain-ese. "Sure hope so," he concurs with the second thing said, blowing a weary-sounding breath out his nose. After he's handed the clipboard off, he starts pulling away. Raf's question gives him momentary pause, while he's tugging off his gloves, to answer, "Sounds about right. Parts are limited, manpower down here's limited, I guess the only thing we have a surplus of is jocks right now." His mouth twists into a grim facsimile of a smile.

"It's just about as the Captain said," agrees Bannik. "We don't have a whole lot of manpower down here, and even when we have the people, we don't have the parts necessarily." He sighs. "So we're getting creative and making do with what we've got."

"Huh. That sucks, man." Raf scratches his stubble, nose wrinkling in distaste as he mulls over this news. After a long moment of pondering, he squints up at Sitka, then at Bannik. "So even the Viper fab facilities aren't cutting the mustard? Do we just not have enough junk to feed the machines? Cuz if that's the case, maybe the Raptors oughta be looking for likely astroids we can siphon off of," he asks, concern now registering on his expression.

Sitka shakes his head, already trudging off to the stairwell when Raf speaks again. He half turns to glance at the younger man over his shoulder. "I'm not the one to ask, unfortunately." His eyes tick over to Bannik for a second, and then rove away entirely as he ambles away. "Take it easy, el-tee. You too, Crewman."

"Viper fabrication is still down from the attacks," explains Bannik, raising his hand in farewell as Shiv heads off. "Even when it's back up-and-running, we don't have a ton of raw materials to put into it. We'll need to do some more salvage runs, for sure."

Raf looks quite crestfallen at this news, and repeats: "Well, shit. That sucks." After a moment of mourning for the Viper facilities, he perks up, however. "All right. So I should get you the basic freqs I've noticed the Cylons using, right? And basic ideas for how we could make ourselves a wee hand-held ECM unit, or at least a man-portable one, yeah? Anything else?" he asks.

"Well, what freqs that work best to disrupt them, yeah," confirms Bannik with a nod of his head. "And then we can start our testing on that unit we have down there in Engineering." He grins. "Sound good?"

Making a couple of quick notes on his hand-held, Raf nods once, quite emphatically. "Sounds awesome, Crewman! I'll get that data to you ASAP. I dunno if we'll be able to get anything smaller than a pretty big box, but we can definitely get some kind of jamming going on for the ground troops," he says, tucking away the small computer. Definitely excited about having something to do.

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