| Sturm und Drang |
| Summary: | Immediately after the events of Red v. Blue. Julie and Trask renew an old acquaintance, Evandreus reports a problem with his Raptor, and Words Are Exchanged between Kefir and Laskaris. |
| Date: | February 17, 2041 |
| Related Logs: | Red v. Blue logs |
| Players: |
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— [ 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.
Julie guides the Raptor back onto the Cerberus as soon as she's cleared for landing, "Gods, that name is familar.." Slipping her helmet off as the ship touches down, she heads towards the hatch, looking at Trask so she can get a good look when he takes his helmet off.
"Should be," he replies, starting to unfastened his helmet. "I was…" Trask pulls it off and shakes his head a bit, dark hair already damp from the experience, "the one who was pokin' 'round your bird. Specialized in avionics but can handle the guts as much as the brains." Which is to say, bodywork. The guy has the sterling performance reviews to back up his claim. Yet, here he is, an ECO.
Evandreus's Raptor lowers itself into its spot on deck, in turn, and its hatch opens to let Gasm and the Magazinewoman whose name Evan's already forgotten out again. Evandreus himself is the last one to make an appearance, but he doesn't leave the vessel, just peeks out from the hatch.
One of the many Viper canopies opening does so to reveal the pale, stunned face of one (1) Tisiphone Apostolos, holding her flight helmet in numb fingers. Her appointed deckhand calls a question up to her, waits a second, then repeats it with a slight sound of concern. Tis blinks out of her woolgathering, looking down. "No. No," she calls. "I'm fine. Everything's good." She starts working through her post-flight checklist as if half-asleep.
Well. That was fun. If Sawyer seems a little unsteady as she steps off the wing of the Raptor, that's because she is. Her knees are a little wobbly, like someone who just got off a boat and still doesn't have their sea legs. She's smart enough to get out of the way of those that still have a job to finish and she begins futzing with her flightsuit, but for the life of her, she can't figure out how to get it off. Ever see a cat with it's head stuck in a fishbowl? Yeah, it's like that.
Julie covers her mouth with her palm, eyes rolled, "Oh, for frak sakes, I remember you now." Opening the hatch, she looks back at Trask and winks, "By the way, you still pretty, good call on the uniform change." She shrugs as she steps out, "I'd say don't let it get to your head, but well, I'm sure you had a big head before I said anything."
Kefir pops out in routine fashion, popping his helmet open, but leaving it on, and climbing down the boarding ladder with it still on since there's too many birds and not enough deckhands to take it from him. Once he hits the deck, he pulls the clunky helmet off, and tucks it under his arm. Immediately, he starts looking around, checking the viper fuselages for their numbers. It doesn't take too long to find Tisiphone, although he doesn't seem to spot Daphne. "Ensign, blessed shooting in the end, there," he calls to her. "Minus your early moment of hesitation, it was an excellent showing."
Sitka clambers out of his fighter once it's been towed, tagged, and queued for a refuel, helmet eased off his head before he shimmies on down the ladder. Post-flight is put off for the time being with a gloved hand lifted to the petty officer, and he heads off on an intercept course for Kefir's viper. Laskaris gets a slight smile on his way past, and a murmur of "good job", Julie and her ECO are given a few minutes to reconnect, and Evandreus gets a solid clap on the shoulder as he rounds the pilot.
Bootstrap isn't too far behind his pilot, in a much better mood than when he last was heard over the comms. "It's all an act," he glibly tells Julie, "to mask my deep-seated insecurities and fear of emotional intimacy. For the record, though, I still look damn pretty outta my uniform."
Evandreus takes a moment looking around deck for a certain person or group of people, then, noticing his new pet civvie having some problems, he jumps down, "Hey, here," he comes around to give her a hand. Helmet first, hands go to either side, pulling two clasps in unison while pushing two other buttons, then coming around the front to undo the rest of the safeties. "Now just pull those switches back and push it right off," he guides her hands some to demonstrate, if she needs it. His head turns to toss a grin at Sitka. "Nice lead, bossman."
Laskaris' fighter is brought onto the deck, and he opens the cockpit and yanks off his helmet with aplomb. He's rather proud of himself, having scored each of the three kill shots, but one wouldn't know it from the stony expression on his face. He accepts the postflight checklist from his crew chief, initialing it quickly and handing it back before he steps down from the fighter. Lasher looks around the deck as he runs a hand through sweat stained hair. As Sitka passes, Lasher nods in reply. "Not too shabby yourself, sir," comes the wry reply as Laskaris steps away from his craft.
Daphne climbs out of her cockpit and marches right over to Tisiphone's viper and does nothing more than point at her with a big, groofy grin on her face.
Julie heads out of her Raptor with messy hair and a helmet tucked under her arm. She seems to have just finished saying something to Trask as she steps out and stretches her legs. She shakes her head and laughs, "I'll have to keep that in mind flyboy." Glancing over to Tisiphone, she gives the girl a thumbs up, telling her reassuringly, "Good work out there kid, almost good enough for Raptors."
"I- Th-thank you, Sir." Tisiphone's still sounding poleaxed as she climbs down from her vessel. The salute is fresh-from-the-oven crisp, though. "It was all you and D-" Daphne's point and grin distracts her. "Ensign Kolettis, though. I think I dumped a thousand rounds into that Raptor's engines and nothing happened."
"You ever feel like a bottle of beer with a twist top." Sawyer huffs a piece of hair out of her eyes as Evan comes to her rescue and the helmet finally gets yanked off. "Thanks." A smile blossoms on her features, and she once more looks as cool as a cucumber. All that mess back there? Yeah. She meant to do that. Her gloved fingers push back a fringe of blonde behind her ear, where a pair of dangle hoops hang. Damn civvie wore jewelry in a flightsuit. "That was uh…quite a show."
"You do that," Trask grins in a boyish manner, his own helmet carried in one hand. "Just remember: 3 dates." That said, he opts to give the Ensigns some positive reinforcement. "Good shootin' there, ladies. You, in particular," that being Tisiphone, "are like a cockroach. No matter what people throw at you, you refuse to die."
"Ensign Kolettis' defensive flying was very good," Kefir offers when Tisiphone speaks of her their final team member. "You lead the pair of them on quite the merry chase there through the black." He doesn't seem to have too much additional commentary. And then back to Tisiphone, "But -do- get used to using your visuals along with your sensors. A hesitation like that is very dangerous."
Ibrahim's still-gloved hand is offered to Kefir, once he manages to weasel in close enough, and eye contact almost-but-not-quite-sought in that desultory manner of his. "Nice work out there, Captain. You were right about your pilots, they know their shit." He nods toward Tisiphone, blue eyes doing a brief sweep over the younger woman. "Think you've got some real potential there."
Laskaris pauses around where the Blue Team pilots are congregated. "She did die, Bootstrap," he says dryly to Trask, before looking over at Tis herself. "Took both of us to finally get her, though. Not bad at all." The approval in his accented voice is faint, but it's definitely there.
Daphne grins at Tisiphone, "She's too stubborn to know when to quit." She clears her throat a little bit and runs her tongue over her lip, where she bloodied it earlier. "I didn't really do much but soak up attention there. But the rest? That was, uh… something." Jealous? Daphne's not terribly good at hiding her emotions and she's likely to look slightly awkward, though still genuinely amused as well as happy for her friend.
"Why, are you gonna buy me one?" Evan asks of the civvie, brows raised comically as he twists her words around on her. "It'll have to wait until leave or 'til prohibition gets repealed," he adds with a chuckle, "Here," he holds out his hands for her helmet, "You think you can remember how we got those gloves on you?" he asks her. "And are you the one who's going to be bunking down with us, too, or what?" he wonders further.
"My teamates were our rookies," Kefir offers, turning neatly to address Sitka when he approaches. "But yes, even they are very good. Your wingman is one of the ones I suggested for your maneuvers." Perhaps the other Captain realized that already, but it never hurts to point out a bit of the obvious. But it is a talented squad, on the whole. For a ship of this stature, they have delivered an appropriate compliment of flyers." He breathes a long sigh. Daphne's comment draws his attention. "Drawing attention for that long was probably one of our better assets. Better to have them chasing you than peppering our dummies."
Laskaris looks to Kefir with a raised brow. "Under the rules of engagement, sir, we weren't allowed to engage the dummies. Even if we'd wanted to." He shrugs. "You'd've been better served t' ignore us and savage the Raptors in the beginning while the Captain and I were still finding our aim." Outspoken Lasher is outspoken. "Kolettis here did suck up way too much of our time an' energy, though, I'll bloody give her that."
"Details, details," Bootstrap tells Lasher, dismissively waving one hand, along with offering a humored, lopsided smile. "Anyway, it's been fun, but I have a report to file. Targeting is on the fritz. I'll see you all later." Beat. "Sirs." With a respectful salute, he's then off.
Sitka's hand is left out for a second or two, and then finally withdrawn, along with his booted feet two steps back on the deck. The answer he gets, for some reason, has him raising a brow slightly; his expression gives away nothing, however. "I'd be happy to have him," is all that's offered, a bit curtly. Daphne's the focus of a brief smile from the Reservist, and a polite nod. "Good flying out there, Ensign. You led us on a pretty good chase." And then he's off to tend to his post-flight, gloved fingers run through his sweaty curls.
Julie feels like a fish out of water, surrounded by all of the viper jocks. When she gets a moment, she says cheerfully, "Good flying all, even the nuggets." Saluting the dynamic duo of Captains quickly, she smiles, "Have good evening, I need a smoke." Turning on heel, she heads off of the flight deck in a hurry.
"Or even at the end," Bunny lifts up his voice a little to add to Lasher's commentary. "If their last bird standing had taken me out instead of you, at least it would have been a draw," he points out from there by his boat. "And I couldn't fly, either, so it would have been an easy kill."
The sudden acknowledgement of Daphne's contribution, rather than relax the rookie, simply makes her a little more awkward. She nods a couple of times, "As long as I'm up to snuff, sirs." She runs her tongue over the cut on her lower lip again, "The last time I was in an engagement like that they had us go two students in mark sevens versus two instructors in mark twos and they still cleaned our clocks."
"Sure." Sawyer says to the mention of a beer. Hell, whatever strenghtens relations right. As to her assignment, she offers a shrug that has her flightsuit squeaking with the movement. "I haven't had the chance to find out yet." As talk turns to shop, she excuses herself. "Let me get out of the way. Thank you again." It's offered louder, raising a hand to the other pilots and ECO's who certainly made her evening interesting.
"Oh, was that the restriction?" Kefir nods. "Tt would have hardly mattered. With only kews, the raptor armor was much too much for us to take them out quickly. And you saw exactly what happened when we -all- went for the Raptors, like you suggested - you shot me down easily. Without at least putting some pressure on you two, we would have gone down one-two-three to the pair of you, likely only catching one of the raptors at best before we did." ANd he looks over at Bunny and shakes his head. "Do you think that she could have disabled your barely damaged raptor in a single pass? Did you miss how long the two of them were pounding on the first." And then he offers to the group of them, "You realize, thsi was designed as an unwinnable scenario. Consider your losses."
Evandreus turns back to Mags once he's made his contribution. "Oh, hey, sure. See you later, dude," he tells her. "Nice having you on board," he adds with a warm smile. Then, tipping his head toward Kefir, he shrugs up one shoulder. "One pass? No. But I was parked still over the target zone while you guys exchanged two or three shots. And even if she couldn't pull it off… I don't see the harm in trying, since it was the mission objective for that team."
Laskaris looks skeptical. "Unwinnable? Fah. There was only one ship left standing when it was all over, and it was a single damaged Raptor. I noticed you spent most of your time going after Shiv, and left the rookies t' deal with the bloody Raptors. Maybe the problem wasn't the scenario. Maybe it was your tactics. Sir." He shakes his head, his features taking on a hard cast.
Sitka is out of earshot from the other Captain and his one-time wingman, so probably misses the exchange between them. Besides, he's nose deep in post-flight at the moment, and fielding questions from a petty officer asking him about that left stabiliser.
Kefir glances from Laskaris to Sitka. "I revise my opinion. This one is an idiot." He glances back at Laskaris. "Yes, I could have ignored -both- of you. And then you would have done -exactly- what I did when ignored both of you - shoot me down. Or shoot one of my wingmen down. Moreover, I will be speaking with the Harrier leader - the Raptors could have had the targets destroyed in -half- the time it took them." He pauses. "That said, while you are an idiot, your flying was very good. I did not notice any errors." With that, he turns to depart.
Daphne clears her throat and turns towards Tisiphone, "Hey, let's go celebrate with a few bottles of cold, one hundred percent pure, wholesome, non-alcoholic beverages." She grins sarcastically and, forcing her earlier awkwardness away into some deep recess of her soul where it will probably simmer and grow into something terrible and dark, steps out of the hangar with her friend.
"It's not my fault my backseater decided to stop playing in the middle of the game," Bunny gives a little sulk, through, from the spark of mischief in his eyes, he barely means it. "Oh, hey," he greets a deckie who comes to see him with his paperwork, "C'mere a sec, I need you to look at something," he goes on.
Finished with his post-flight, Sitka hands the clipboard back to the knuckledragger who'd been following him around, collects his helmet, and starts trudging for the stairs. If he just got called an idiot by the other squad leader, he doesn't seem to have noticed. Or maybe he's just used to the jibes from the regular active duty folk. Laskaris and Evandreus get a nod and a smile in passing, and then he's out.
Lasher's eyes are wide as Kefir calls him an idiot and storms off. He stands there, frozen in surprise for a moment before he finally shakes his head with a bemused expression. Exhaling loudly, he smirks over at Sitka and Evan before finally putting his legs into gear and following Shiv off the hangar deck.