| PHD #286: No Respect |
| Summary: | Khloe and Shiner have choice words for each other after a discussion about Viper maintenance goes south. Brawl ensues, broken up by Wade. Devlin eats popcorn. |
| Date: | 09 Dec 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | How We Deal With Loss |
| Players: |
    |
| Hangar Deck - Port - Midship - Battlestar Cerberus |
|---|
| 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: #286 |
Shiner is taking part in a time honoured tradition on the deck, reserved for the cheerful youngster almost invariably. That is, he's been asked to make the tea, and thus exits the Chief's office with a tray of steaming mugs, carefully easing his way towards the work crews while attempting not to spill any.
Sticking out like a sore thumb is a certain tall and athletic Viper pilot, not because she's doing something odd, but because of what she's holding. Khloe Vakos is busy inspecting a Viper, uncharacteristically dressed in fatigues rather than her uniform blues; a clipboard is in one hand and, of all things, an age-worn repair manual in the other. From the looks of things, she's going over the bird not by line-items for preflight inspection, but by a mechanic's checklist.
Setting the tray down, Shiner calls over the orders one by one. White and two, white and one, black none, and so on and so on, until everyone has a cup in hand and a smile on their face. That is until Shiner nods his head towards Khloe and draws attention her way. "Anyone know what the Captain wants?" he asks of the various assembled deckies, only to be informed that as they're all having tea and are more senior than he, a democratic vote has taken place and Shiner's been voluntold to go ask. Swearing under his breath, he straightens his uniform as best he can and reluctantly heads in Khloe's direction. "Er… sir? The guys want to know if you needed anything? Or if you're just… uh… doing pre flight or what?" His gaze remains high. Must. Not. Ogle. Ass.
"I'm fine, Mr. Shiner," comes Khloe's droll drone. "This isn't pre-flight inasmuch as it's satisfying my curiosity. You know I've never really taken apart and reassembled anything more complicated than a FiveseveN, and that was just to pass the firearms qualifications at the Academy." She glances down at her repair manual, scowls, and flips it upside-down. Or, in this case, right-side up.
Shiner takes a brief look at the manual and smirks. "You know none of these birds actually look like that, sir, right?" he affirms, moving round the Viper to one of the more battered panels, which he proceeds to thump hard with an elbow. First time misses the mark, but the second results in the cover popping open to reveal a mess of wiring which bears some, but only a little, resemblance to the diagram in her book. "There you go. Is this what you're looking for, sir? This one's not as stiff as some, though. You just have to kind of give it a yank." Cue snickers from the other side of the Viper.
Scowling, likely more at herself than at Shiner's inelegant mashing of the Viper, she peers into the open compartment. "Frak, how do you people make sense out of that mess?" She asks, alternating between staring at the rats' nest and the orderly diagram. "It should look like this," she says, indicating the held book. "You people don't use nylon ties or anything to keep that orderly? And… the colors don't match," she observes, holding the book up to the tangle of wires. "Red is not red with a black-stripe, nor is blue blue with a white-stripe."
"That /is/ pretty orderly," Shiner immediately defends his colleagues, straightening and lifting his chin. "And red's red, sir. Blue's blue. If it works, it works. We're all out of type 7 co-ax, so we're using the type 3 and just splicing it, see?" he explains, running a finger underneath a couple of the wires. He can't resist a faint smirk, rattling off, "Part 3988B-S7, sir. Co-axial cable linking the DRADIS sensors to the HUD. Runs right along the ridges of the nose there. Which is why your DRADIS goes screwy when you bowbump something." A beaming, proud smile, then. Somebody's been doing his homework. Good doggie?
Hmph, goes Khloe. Good doggie, indeed, as her first reaction isn't to reach out and smack him on the nose. "Impressive. Keep this up, Apprentice, and I may have a newfound appreciation for deckies." She one-handed closes the reference manual with an audible smack and rests it atop the clipboard, which gets balanced against a hip, freeing a hand. Dipping her chin slightly, she says, brow knitted in an appraising scowl, "Now, the real question is, how is your flight studying coming along?"
"I've done the first four chapters of that book Lieutenant Duncan told me to get," Shiner replies, squinting as he closes the panel again, thumping it with the heel of his hand. "Well, apart from a couple of nav bits, but I'm working on them. There's this dead smart civvy chick who knows all that math stuff so she's kinda helping out there. Ask me anything about the Viper, sir. I know, like, all of it now. Down to the last bolt." Sketchily, perhaps, but still.
"Now's not test-time," Khloe informs the Apprentice. "That'll come when we sit you down in the sim pods. All the technical knowledge in the world won't help you fly a Viper properly. It might help you get over the hump of first learning stick, but in the end it's about coordination, good reflexes, good timing…" She turns a dubious eye towards the ungraceful replacement of the panel. Pointing at it, she asks, "That's secure, and going to withstand depressurization and tube-launch? Don't you need a proper tool to replace the panel and ensure seal? I think I read that somewhere…"
"I am a proper tool," Shiner tells her. A pause for giggling as he realises just what he's said and he pulls a face. "I /mean/, sir, that you just need to know where to force it is all. It clips just behind here, see?" And he taps one side. "Then the rubber keeps the seal. I mean, unless it's perished." Because that's got to be reassuring. "You trust us, right? We've kept you flying so far, right?"
Khloe narrows her eyes at that. "So far," she says, distrust creeping into her voice. "It just worries me that there could be dozens of procedures you aren't following properly. Just because 'it works' doesn't mean it's a valid excuse… what happens when it doesn't work, that one time? It could result in equipment failure. Even death of a pilot. 'Close enough' isn't good enough to fly in my squadron, Mister."
Shiner reaches for her book impatiently, flipping through a few pages until he's back to the diagram in question. He taps the picture of the clip, shrugging a shoulder. "Makes no difference if you hit it with your fist or with a rounded mallet, sir. Look. Just that you tend to always have your hands with you, and you're less likely to scratch the paintwork. It clips here. It stays shut. Chief'll tell you the same thing, sir. Shit, if you think we're that bad at our jobs, why d'you still fly, sir?"
Khloe raises her voice, now. "That's not the frakking point, Apprentice, and you know it! Regulations exist to be followed, because if everyone did whatever the frak they wanted, we'd be a ship full of half-assed soldiers. The ship would be half-assed, and the Cylons will frakking kill us if we're not on our game." She angrily snatches the book from him - my book, damnit. "If you can't hack it by the rules, then you can't hack it. It's that simple. Shine your boots, march in step, fly by the book. Be any less precise than a machine, and the machines will find you and kill you. Do you understand me? Anything less than perfect, and you're dead. I'm dead. We're all frakking dead." Her eyes burning with an uncharacteristic fire, this isn't just Captain Vakos-pissy. This is something else.
Shiner gives the panel another shoulder to ping it open, gesturing to the wires. "Then we're all frakking dead, sir, aren't we? Oh no! Blue with a stripe! Can't fly this bird, then. Never mind, ground her, let's have a look at the next one. Oh wait! They're all frakking patch jobs! So, what, you want to just stop flying altogether, sir? How about I go get a zero-G suit and a tin of paint and save the toasters time by painting a frakking great target on the front of the whole frakking battlestar, sir?" He pauses for breath, hesitating as it suddenly dawns on his that perhaps entering a shouting match with his potential boss might be a bad career move. "The book's a crock of shit, sir," he continues more quietly. "Written by some guy in a suit at a fancy desk somewhere with a load of blueprints and diagrams, not some guy who's been down on this deck fixing these things his whole life, like the Chief, sir."
Khloe snorts, shaking her head. "Spoken like a noncom who has no respect for the uniform or the traditions he represents," she practically spits. Thrusting the book into his chest, Captain Vakos sneers, "Fine. Frak this. You put it away." She tosses the clipboard aside, aiming vaguely for a cart of assorted odds and ends; it clatters against the side and goes skittering at an odd angle. "I'll be struck deaf, dumb, and blind if I ever see you with a pair of wings on your uniform, Wright. Because you have no respect. No respect for what's important." She starts to walk away, throwing her hand up in the air in frustration.
Shiner screws up his face, giving her a heartfelt middle finger behind her back as she turns away. "If I have to end up worse than the frakking toasters to fly, sir, then you can stick it up your fine, pert little ass, sir! You want everyone to quit being human, sir? Frak, you're worse than them, then, aren't you! At least they only want to kill us! Frak you and frak all your frakking books and regulations and starched frakking shirts and shiny boots! And frak all you frakking pilots who think you can just shit on us all, leave us tied up in birds, and do whatever you frakking want. Screw this shit. I quit. Where do I hand in my uniform?"
"What?! You son of a bitch!" Khloe shrieks at hearing Shiner's diatribe; the aforementioned cart gets kicked out of the way as she wheels around and stalks straight back for him. "I'll rip off your head and piss down your neck you sorry, whiny sack of crap!" That's when she grabs the front of his overalls and throws him up against the aforementioned Viper, looking to lift him off the ground.
Shiner may be a decent size, but rage can lift mountains, and sure, Khloe's pissed now. As he's thrust back against the Viper with the sheer venom of her attack, he aims a solid cuff for the side of her head, spitting as his head cracks back against the fuselage with a clang. "AND you ain't even that hot! It was a /bet/!" he snarls at her, kicking out for a knee to turn it into a proper scuffle.
Taking a crack across the face, Captain Vakos seems undaunted in her assault against Apprentice Wright. The pilot has the deckhand firmly pressed against a Viper's fuselage, two fistsful of his overalls and keeping him hoisted off the ground a few inches. The fist does seem to get her to drop him down to the deck, though, only because she tears away her right hand, busting the strap that goes over Shiner's shoulder. In true street-brawler style, she grabs the man's loose clothing underneath and attempts to drag is over his head so she can pound the ever-living crap out of his midsection while he flails.
"Frak you!" Shiner manages, taking the punishment like a sack of spuds, every blow knocking the breath out of him as he tries to curl to protect himself. One knee comes up to… well… if she were a man, it would be crippling, while he scrabbles for purchase on her face with the other hand, going for the eyes.
Wade likes to check on his Viper from time to time, even when he is not scheduled for CAP. The man is currently wearing his blue uniform, it seems that it recently received some ironing. Before getting to the hangar, the LTJG stopped to have a quick conversation with one of the Deckies, one that is particularly assigned to his Viper. Afterwards, he resumed his slow slow march but soon, he stops. What's that noise? What's that yelling? He hurries his steps and breaks into a run as he spots a group of people surrounding, well…other people. "Hey! Hey!" yells the man and shoves his arms between two deckies, spreading them apart after that to make some room. Of course, there are others there, but he gets to see the Captain beating the hell out of Shiner "Frak!" He pushes more people aside and he yells in a commanding voice "Captain! Break it off!" Not that she would listen, and since nobody is doing anything, he launches himself forward and wraps his arms around Khloe's waist. He pulls from her now, but twisting his body so she doesn't get sucker punched by Shiner.
Going for Khloe's waist was perhaps a bad idea, although Wade couldn't possibly know the details about her life before she cleaned up and entered the Academy: grabbing around the waist was a sure way of losing control of your limbs, and then, well… there's an elbow that lashes out behind her at her would-be aggressor, yelling, "Get the frak off me!!" As she turns her head slightly to get a look at who's grabbing her, Shiner's clawed hand manages to catch across her face, leaving a nasty gouge that just misses her left eye. It naturally illicits another shriek, and the enraged Knights SL lashes out at Shiner with every fist and joint possible as Wade drags her off.
Shiner isn't about to just let her get away with it. Sure, she might be being dragged off, but he's still mobile. Letting out another grunt of pain, eyes misting over and stumbling as one of her frantic kicks connects solidly with his hip, he nonetheless draws back his fist, every ounce of pent up frustration, anger and vehemence going with it as he throws his full weight into a decent left hook, aim less important than enthusiasm, youth and vigour.
That elbow means that Wade is about to get hit, and at this moment, he doesn't try to stop that. The hard blow lands on his ribs and he presses his lips together, wrapping his arms harder around the Captain as he drags her off "Calm the frak down! Both of you!" demands the man again, seeing how other folks are just, watching. Thanks guys. Now, his attention focuses on Shiner who is now launching himself forward to attack Khloe "Wright!" yells Wade at him, turning around just a little and extending one arm out, still holding a firm grip on Khloe. Said arm goes out there to stop Shiner's attack, by either taking a hold of his fist or simply absorbing the hit.
The last furious hook from Shiner is partly deflected by Wade, but it catches Khloe underneath and behind her jaw, which is enough to make the Captain go stagger for a split second; it's a window for Wade to quickly extract her before she comes to and starts flailing again. Shaking it off, she again struggles against Wade's hold on her. "Get… ugh… the frak off me, Lieutenant!" She yells, blood trickling down from the orb of her left eye where Shiner caught her.
And once the crazy bitch is being dealt with, a couple of the watching deckies finally summon up the balls to tackle Shiner back, that final swing for her being his last before his own arms are held and he's being dragged back towards the Viper again. "Get off me!" he snarls at his erstwhile friends, biting and kicking. "I'm going to frakking /kill/ the bitch!"
"Unable to comply" says the man to Khloe in a firm tone of voice as he keeps dragging her away, pretty much carrying her right now so he can move quickly. "You!" yells the man at a Deckie nearby "Get the MPs, right now" Strange that they are not around at this moment, probably on their way. Now, now he gets her on the floor and lets her go, but still standing right there in case she wants to make a run for it. /AND/ in full guard in case she wants to throw another attack at him. :( "What the frak are you doing?!"
Khloe shrugs away from Wade as he lets her go, but it seems the urge to fight has more or less been checked; she glares with the hate of the gods at Shiner. "What the frak does it look like? Putting a pissant backwater knuckledragger in his place." She points at Shiner, much like how she did when this all started: "You ever disgrace the uniform or this battlestar again while I'm in earshot and I will space you myself. Do your frakking job!"
Shiner grits his teeth, shrugging off his own assailants and straightening his clothing as best he can. "Frak you, and frak this job. I quit. You can stick it all up your ass, sir! Disgrace that, you arrogant piece of shit /cunt/."
"By beating the knuckledragger to death….I see" says the man, pressing his lips together after that only to look at Shiner when he yells back at Khloe. And now! The MPs appear, four of them to be precise. It seems that the security cameras showed quite a display of UFC style of fighting. Wade looks at them and says "You two with him, you two here with her." He looks at Khloe and sees her open wound "I want them both escorted to Sickbay, have them checked and don't fraking leave their sides" The group of MPs nod and like requested, two move towards Khloe and two of them move towards Shiner "Let's go, sir" say the ones with Khloe now. Yeah, they saw eeeeverything. "Mister, come with us" say the other two to Shiner.
"Get your frakking hands off me, we're going to the brig," Khloe snarls at the MPs. Shooting a look to Wade, she says, "A corpsman in the brig will do just fine, Lieutenant. I don't need to take up any of Sickbay's time. And I know precisely the regulations, and so do you." Meaning, she really should be taken to the brig first. "It's just a little cut anyway." Cuts to the face and head always look a lot worse than they are, but the side of Khloe's face is pretty bloody. Unclipping her entire belt for her sidearm, she hands the lot to the MP closest to her.
Shiner picks at the tattered strap of his shoulder, wincing just a little as he moves to simply follow his pair of MP's. He does, however, prompted by Khloe's undressing, go through his pockets, handing over an assortment of tools. "I don't need a frakking doc," he insists in kind, then glares at Khloe. How dare they agree on something. "The sooner I'm out of this loony bin the better."
Overhead, a pair of vipers come in for a landing, and a moment later, Decoy and Bell come out of the cockpits. The professor is quick to head off on other business, but Devlin happens to catch site of the bloodied pair against a plane nearby, and jogs over, up towards Wade's shoulder, brows pushed up high on his forehead in surprise and confusion. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," he exclaims, though not too loudly, "Dude, what happened? What's going on?"
Wade presses his lips together for a moment and takes a deep breath "Fine, that way." He looks at the MPs once again "To the brig, gentlemen, and please put them in cells as far apart as possible. I still want them /both/ of them checked, so that will happen there" Now Wade takes a step back for the MPs to do their thing. Now, none of them grab either Shiner or Khloe, they'll escort them. He turns his head around as soon as Decoy taps on his shoulder "Decoy" nods the man "Bit of a fight" Now he looks at Khloe again and then Shiner. "And someone please notify the Chief of the Deck" He'll have to notify the CAG, in order to follow the regulations.
Khloe departs with her pair of MPs, standing tall and her shoulders squared off, refusing to look beaten or show any weakness. After all, it's just a little blood.
Shiner is less with the standing tall, limping along with his own personal guard detail, but it would appear that's it for now. Show's over, kids. Back to your cups of tea.
Devlin just watches as the MPs lead the SL and the apprentice away, and then turns back to Wade, incredulous. "A bit of a fight?" he echoes, "They're both bleeding. What the hell, man? Seriously, what happened?"
Wade looks at both Khloe and Shiner as they are escorted to the Brig. His attention moves back to Decoy now and he nods "I don't know, I got here and they were going at it" says the man. Now he looks at them again and nods "Going to the Berths?" asks the man. And now, he starts walking after the MPs, going to the Brig as well. Dum Dee Dum.
"That's… crazy," Devlin decides, shaking his head, "I wonder what it was about? I mean… yeah, wow." He doesn't seem to have sufficient words to process the bizarrness of this episode, and finally just nods, "Yeah, just got off CAP, so… berths and showers for me. You going after them?"
Wade just nods in silence as he listens to Decoy "That I am…" Now he takes a deep breath and he shakes his head "See you later at the gym?" Heck, they are gym buddies after all.