Between the Devil and the Deep |
Summary: | The Air Wing is Prepped for launch |
Date: | 05/01/2013 (OOC Date) |
Related Logs: | Warday Logs |
Hangar Bay - Deck 2 - Battlestar Orion |
Each hangar deck is divided into five one-hundred yard sections, each divided from the others by massive blast doors that close vertically from the floor and overhead. Each hangar section houses all of the Vipers, Raptors, and Predators that the wing operates as well as the vital work areas to support and maintain these fighting platforms. Each bay is large enough to accommodate one of these frames and still get heavy work done, though the fore- and aft-most sections are dedicated to overhauls and major work to be done. The bays along the center section are located across from launch tubes and elevators in order to provide scramble and Alert-Five capabilities. The second-to-aft bay provides major elevator and transport access to the starboard bay as well as the major manufacturing facility. Due to the nature of the work, the hangar decks are major hubs of activity at all hours of the day and all but four hours overnight. |
Warday |
Augie was overseeing the decontamination of the wrecked Raptor, but as the address trails off, all the big DCO can say really is, "Frak." And with that, he looks to his team. "Get that deconn done on the quick, boys and gals, we have a long night ahead of us!"
If there's one thing the Brainiac Brigade knows how to do, it's focus on work to the exclusion of everything else. Luckily for the the ship, that means that all of the work that had been going into returning to the surface is easily redirected. Unfortunately for the rest of humanity that the redirect is necessary. And maybe, if they're lucky, there will be time to think about that sometime in the near future. But for now, the only thing that is certain, is that the frieght elevator at the far end of the hangar whines into motion, the door popping up after the one deck journey, Ekho and her contingent moving out, pushing crates full of decon supplies out into the hangar deck. There's no joking now, no manic panic. "Let's get these supplies out to the ships before they get back into the launch tubes." She does pause, stepping up on the side of a crate to peer across the deck and try to find the face of whomever might be in charge.
Four vipers come screaming back to the barn, running hot if only because of the deadline that the Admiral put on them. The flight elevators come to life, popping them each back to the deck. Cole, for his part, shows no signs of exiting his Viper. He's merely waiting for a refuel and then he's destined back for the tubes.
Kreskas is admist a grouping of Marines, all with rucksacks and gear around them. They are roughly grouped into four squads, one full platoon's worth - but not there yet, with people still filtering in - who was on alert, who wasn't, who was sleeping, so on.
With Ariston in charge and handling things, Augustus is filling in his DCO duties. Noticing the crates and boxes, he jobs over to where Ekho is. "Doctor." he greets formally. "Thanks for getting the deconn kits up here so fast. Wasn't expecting to be dealing with this many rads until we went planetside again. But for the moment, can we push them to the side? Recovery, refuel and relaunch is the responsibilities at the moment. Go meet with Captain Kreskas, they're the ones that are gonna be heading dirtside when we reach the hall."
"Did you hear it? Did you hear what the man said?" Khrysos asks as he follows in group to wherever Captain Lin is directing their efforts. Dr. Pindar is a paler shade of his normal skin tone, his eyes round with intensity just short of panic. "This is some kind of cosmic joke, yes? Everyone's been killed, ha-ha, we military folks have a great sense of humour? Right? Please tell me this is just a dream." And at the sound of the Vipers coming screaming in, he gulps. "This isn't a dream."
Phin doesn't get out of his Viper, either, once it's bumped down back on the Orion. Emergency refuel was requested before landing, for the four pilots who'd been out on the ominous yet quiet CAP, so he just awaits that. Before he's likely plunked back in the tubes.
Jess is in one of the other three Vipers that races back into the barn. She pops her canopy just long enough to urge the deck crew to refuel as quick as possible, and then settles back in, hands drumming on the stick as she waits.
Holtz, likewise, stays in his seat as the alert Vipers are pulled back in for refueling. He doesn't even undo his collar or remove his helmet; he doesn't do much of anything, in fact. He simply sits in his cockpit, a stunned and distant expression on his face as the deckies work on refueling his plane.
Bennett is likely one of the first pilots to arrive in the 'bay from the ready room briefing, followed closely by Milkshake. Helmet tucked under one arm, flight suit zipped and sealed, she casts her eyes about for bus she hopes is in the process of being locked and loaded.
"As long as every Viper pilot has a kit in their bird, you're not going to get any argument from me, El-Tee," Ekho offers to Augie. "It may be the Marines on the ground, but if these birds go into the atmo, and they get shot down, these kits may be the only thing that gets them back to us alive." Wkho shoves a crate over towards Augie and whomever he has with him, leaving it to him and his people to get the vipers handled or not. "I'm on the Marine." She does look back towards Khrysos, as she reaches out to grab the supplies he's got a hold of and take it, and the man along with it, with her towards where the marines and Kreskas are waiting. "Captain!"
"Yes private, there's going to be rads, probably. See the NBC NCO to get some details on that. Alright? Just check your gear, son. Iron up, we're going to be fine, we're going to frak 'em up, OK?" the grizzled Marine captain tells a younger soldier, clasping his soldier. "Load up on ammo. Get me ten mags, OK?" A pause as Ekho calls him and he turns around to review the woman approaching him. "Ma'am," he says politely. "What can I do for ya?"
With the doctors handed off to the Marines, Augustus goes back to overseeing the refueling of the hot Vipers and the preparing of the other flights from his damage control stations.
Khrysos follows along, clearly a bit shocked, and he leans up against some of the stacked crates. Clearly he's zoning out until he has to work again, or unless he's addressed directly. His hand lifts to his mouth, and he half-hugs his midsection with the other arm. Blank, thoughtful, shocked.
Spotting a familiar face across the way looking a little shellshocked, and having little more to do for the nonce but stand about and wait for her bird to be fuelled, Bennett breaks away from her ECO and strides toward Khrysos. He may pick up the scent of cheap cigarettes before he spies the captain herself, given how recently she was smoking one.
Ekho pauses, coming up short. Not out of surprise, but out of respect for the Captain, and his current need to talk the 'we're not goin' to die' talk to his men. Once he's done, she's back at full tilt, "You can find room in your packs. Anti-rad kits. One for each of your men, the Doctor here will help hand them out, and as many more as you think you can fit for the people you'll be bringing back." Ekho looks back, reaching out to touch Khrysos' shoulder, shaking him, but not violently. "Rocks, let's get these Marines sorted." She looks back to the Marine, "We're also going to need these raptor's loaded." Meaning, one would assume, the raptors the Marines will be travelling down with.
Crossing the deck with the rest of the Air-Wing, Ceres is stopped and pulled off to the side by Talkshow (who is here but not really). The two slip out of sight to speak but only very briefly before the Captain reappears, fingers lifting up to to fix that braid she almost had complete. Winding ita bout her head, she ties it into place and makes sure that is more flush with the back of her head, giving her more a severe look with how her hair is pulled back tightly to her scalp. She moves towards her birds and speaks with the deckies no attending to it. "What have we got, talk to me. Everything looking green?" She stays out of the their way, but begins to double check her flight suit, tightening it at the waist.
"The Raptors have their own kits, we just updated them during the last protocol after the incident with 994Alpha-Charlie." Augie points out to the doctor. "I don't mind y'all suiting up the Marines, but keep the deck clear for the pilots and in and out flights!" the DCO barks down from his station as he slides down the ladder and jogs over to where the fuelers are doing their jobs. "Keep those connections tight, boys." He climbs up on the side of any pilot staying in their bird. Starting with Cole, he taps on the glass, "Need me to check the oil and air the tires?" he asks down to Janitor. "Kick some ass fer me, Janitory."
Cassie arrives all grim-faced and quiet. Needless to say, the day has stripped her of anything like a sense of humor and she has a near-tangible aura of 'don't frak with me' about her. She looks about before stopping next to a Viper, awaiting orders.
Flight suit on, with nothing in hand but his helmet, Lt. Keller is amongst the pilots crossing the deck heading to a kitted-up and prepped Raptor, eyeing it as he jogs. "Everything in place, huh?" He mutters to himself, pacing around the bird and checking for his pilot with a furtive dart of his head. He grabs a clipboard reading in large black letters 'ORDINANCE CHECKLIST'
Khrysos looks up at Ekho, his eyes not quite reflecting the Captain, nor quite registering the presence of Bennett. "What?" He glances between the two women. "What do you suppose I'm to do? I'm… I don't know what I /could/ do?"
Cole clicks open his canopy as Augie climbs the ladder attached to his bird. With a quick twist, his helmet is popped off. The man is sweating, if purely from the amount of time they've already been in their birds. "Gas the birds and send a jumpsuit up with some water for our pilots. Thank you, Lieutenant."
Phin powers down as much as he needs to, to avoid high chance of blowing up the deckie who's handling his refueling. And himself. His cockpit is popped open so he can receive any supplies the DC crews might consider vital. He keeps his helmet on, and is taking long breaths in and out behind it. Like he's reminding himself there's a life support system in his ship. And keeping himself from freaking out…as much as he can.
Ward is moving at a jog when he enters the hangar bay, crossing over towards where a raptor is parked and immediately beginning to circle it. He holds up his arm, looking at the checklist slotted into the clear plastic sleeve thereon, and then back up at the craft. Check, check, check. It might be a war, but he doesn't want the thing exploding before it even meets the Cylons.
Kreskas is admist Marines, all gearing up, talking low, nervous, amped up - checking rucks, checking weapons. He's currently talking to Ekho, and dips his head. "Alright. I'm taking a platoon in with me - forty four Marines. Figure double that, maybe more, for the continuity of government folks we need to pull out - but I don't know. It's going to be fast and loose." He points at four burly Marines, each pair working on checking a FH M813 light machine gun. "Cruze, Rogers, take your weapons teams and secure your machine guns with your platoon sergeant and help the doctor load the Raptors up. Check with the squad sergeants." He turns back to Ekho, "The Marines are going to be jittery. You got a thirty second 'here's what you do' walkthrough for the officers and senior NCOs, ma'am?"
Jason steps onto the deck, expression a bit stony and steps a bit heavy, as he moves over to prepare the Raptor he's flying for this little happening now. Keeping his helmet with him as he looks around at all of the activity for a few moments, then back to the Raptor now. Shaking his head a little bit to himself as he starts preparing for whatever will come now.
Assuming the anti-rads are stored in a conveniently accessible crate nearby, Bennett scoops out an armload of them and holds out a wad of the military-wrapped packs to Khrysos. She smiles, blue eyes crinkling softly at the corners. "Why don't we start with handing these out? You take the pilots, I'll help with the marines." And she's off to do just that; Ygraine is perfectly capable of keeping an eye on their bus until it's time for pre-flight.
"Ya got it, Janitor." He clamps Cole on the shoulder, and then Augustus slides down to start across the deck, checking on other pilots as they pass by him, but he ends up nearly falling in step with Ceres after she speaks with Talkshow. He leans down for a moment, words quiet with the pilot as he prepares to steady the ladder for her climb in.
Gwen gets straight to doing that ECOs do, the minute she reaches her bus. It's the only way to keep her brain from exploding. Nav, check. Life support, check. Astrogation, check. Targeting, check. ECM, check. This bird is going to be run through its courses thrice before they launch. Nothing is left to chance. Every foible and nuance of character a machine can have is accounted for.
With deckies feilling her in, Redux nods and begins to go through her own checklist. She dips beneath the nose of her bird, running her hand underneath it before shifting her helmet and dropping it to the ground. She bites at the corner of her lip and she shakes of pre-flight jitters that suddenly rush over her. That is when she takes to the ladder, handing off her helmet to the deckie with the ring to secure it as she feels someone grab the ladder, "Thanks.." But then she notes who it is and glances up at him. A nod of her head is given and the pilot lifts her gloved hand to touch the side of the DCO's neck, "Keep the hangar waiting, we are all coming back." Its a soft promise, lost in the shuffle of everything before she begins to climb the ladder.
Jess shoves her canopy open a little further and tugs her helmet off, leaning out to call over, "Ari! Hey! Janitor!" She waves an arm to get his attention, but once she has it (because I am just going to assume she manages), she doesn't really have anything to say, it seems. Instead, she just sort of gestures vaguely, half arms up in a 'what the frak?' gesture, half shrug. Bwah?
"Don't worry, El-Tee, I still remember how that shit works." Yes, it may be a few years since the wings on her uniform were on a flight suit, but Ekho still remembers her combat drilling enough to make sure she keeps the travel lanes clear for the deck and engineering, "Thank you, Captain," thankful, as much for Bennett's quick thinking, as that she seems to be getting a good handle on the poor civilian geologist. "Easy as pie, Captain, spray it on, wipe it off, pop a pill. We'll take care of it," she half turns, waving the other scientists that came up with her to start handing out gear to the Marines.
Duke also appears in the Deck, helmet on his hand and already walking through the lines of birds that are being prepped. He goes up to the end and then turns back, nodding a couple times at what he is seeing. Yep, birds are ready, that's for sure. They know what they have to do, all of them. After some final checks on everything, he marches towards his Viper and takes a couple steps up the ladder, but stopping before he gets in, just to turn around, look, get a view of things from another angle. His expression neutral, he has work to do. He looks at Ceres now and the man offers a nod to the Viper Captain.
Taking Ceres hand in his own after it brushes his cheek, Augie presses a quick kiss against her fingers and a wink. "Course y'all are. Or I'll go out there in a EVA suit and a hand cannon and frak some stuff up myself." he smiles and turns so they can head off to their respective duties.
Holtz still has something of a shell-shocked expression on his face as the deck gang works. Finally, almost as if unbidden, a hand reaches up to fumble with the catch on his helmet, popping the thing off. He inhales deeply, taking a moment to steady his breathing. He looks down out of his opened cockpit. "You done yet down there? Get this frakkin' crate moving already!" he snarls down, his face contorting in a moment of fury that goes as quickly as it came. He might seem at the deck gang, but really, it's just a matter of needing to vent somewhere. It didn't take him long to go from stunned stillness to restless frustration, evidently.
As the teams work, current duty pilots are brought out a bottle of water and a craker wafer, if they choose to put something in their stomach.
"Mmmm. So, ready to make a mess?" Glancing over at Ward with a crane of his head, Keller slings himself up on the entry handle, of the Raptor, his boots impacting as he makes his way inside and takes stock of the ship's supplies. "Oh, that's a damn shame…" he begins, before trailing off, and ambles his way into the copilot's seat.
Janitor only gives Nags a shrug in reply, not bothering to try and raise his voice to cover the distance. He mutters a thanks to a deck monkey that delivers him a squirt bottle of water, treading that thin line between rehydrating and needing to piss mid-mission. Once he hands everything back off, he gives Jess a thumbs-up and a 'you complete me' hand signal.
Khrysos locks eyes with Bennett. "Captain. Where did you come from? A pleasure to see you today," he says. When the anti-rad packs are presented, he nods. "Right. That sounds like a wonderful idea." And he starts following in tow.
"Roger that," Kreskas says to Ekho, 'Thanks ma'am." The Marines start to accept the rads, NCOs and officers helping guide Marines to make sure they each get a chance to get the packs and ask questions if they need to. "Rad packs go into your left BDU pocket, thigh. Just on the other side of your blow out kit," Kreskas calls to the Marines. "Everyone, the same way. Your buddy gets hit with rads, you use -his- kit. Just like the medical gear."
"It will certainly surprise the hades out of them. Be safe." She says to Augie before Ceres pulls herself up inside. That nod she catches from the DCAG is returned, a look of anticipation and adrenaline mixing to bring a bright gleam to her eyes. She turns then, waiting for the Deckie to climb up and help get her helmet lock into place. Phin is noted, the way he's trying to keep himself in check. "Dolly.." She touches the side of her nose to him and nods. A thumbs up to her deckie as the anitrads are handed to her and she downs them quickly, taking only a few sips of water before strapping herself in. "Helmet." She murmurs and waits as it begins to be clasped against her head, sealing her in her suit.
Bennett waggles her eyebrows at Khrysos, but is too far out of earshot to toss back an answer like 'your wildest dreams'. She's soon lost to the press of crew milling to and fro, anti-rad packs shoved into hands both suspecting and not.
Thaddeus seems to be transmuting all his fear and worry into anger. Good for keeping the freakouts at bay; not so good for those in his immediate proximity. "Double check the targeting," he says, leaning into the crew compartment after his second circuit around the Raptor. (This is, naturally, after having reminded her twice already.) "External check is good. You better like wack-a-mole with all this crap they've bolted on." With that, he's up into the cockpit, where his bobble-head is given a flick or three to start wiggling.
"Make it a big one, I'm pissed off," Ward agrees, climbing into the Raptor after Keller once the checks are done. He holds up a hand when offered anti-radiation medication, shaking his head, "Already got my shot in Sickbay when I got back the first time." That said, he moves into the craft and slaps Keller on the shoulder as he passes by towards the pilot's seat.
Phin takes his helmet off to gulp some water when it's passed around. But, after a glance at the wafer, he forgoes eating anything. The sound of his callsign makes him turn his head, and he exchanges a brief, somewhat shaky, smile with Ceres. "Hey, Redux." He can't seem to come up with anything else to say, so he taps a finger against his own nose in pseudo-reply.
Jess laughs briefly, tightly at that hand signal, and returns it with a ruder variation they made up at some point in the past before flashing Cole a thin smile and thumbs up. She sinks back into her bird, grabbing water from the crewman who brings it with a word of thanks. She drinks, and tucks the bottle away in the cockpit somewhere along with whatever sort of rad kits are being handed out, drumming hands on her helmet as they wait.
Like the others, Redeye takes her meds before climbing into her Viper, the way she does so as effecient as she flies. Open pack, pop pills and swallow with very little in the way of wasted effort. Once she's seated and strapped in, helmet on, eerily calm. "Redeye is in her bird and ready to let her spread her wings," she announces, giving her assigned deck crewman a thumbs up.
Duke takes the anti-rad meds that are handed to him and then turns around, finally getting in his Viper. A deckie climbs the stair after him and helps him with the Helmet lock, and for this, the man leans his head forward just a little bit. In the meantime, he looks at his Avionics and checks that his air supply is full. Feet reaching the pedals of the Viper right now, pressing them to test responsiveness. Alright, let's do full pre-flight check on this girl.
"My sentiments exactly." Keller's response to Ward is simple. "We've all got people out there, don't we?" He finally notes, in a very vague statement as he proceeds to run through the keystrokes in the preflight sequence. He looks down at the andi-rad meds and stuffs them in his mouth and a swig of his water. After swallowing, he gives Dropout a thumbs-up.
With things now well underway, Ekho's easily falling into machine mode. Hand out pack, give the speech, move on. It's all background noise, the pilots and ECO's taking front and center, which seems to suit her well enough. She'll go back to open a new crate now and then, but her team know their business and they know how not to get in the way.
Finishing with his check of the Raptor's exterior, Jason heads inside now, working on getting ready to take off now. Looking to the ECO to see if everything's ready on that end. Poking his head back outside of the craft now, to see how things are coming along.
Augie finishes his checks, and at the end of the line, he crawls up the ladder and hands Gwen her helmet. "When ya get back, ya need to learn to play some real music on that guitar, not that shit ya call noise." A smirk down at the small pilot before he starts to climb back down. "Happy hunting, kid."
With her bundle of anti-rad packs delivered, Bennett keeps the last remaining one for herself. She cracks it enroute to her raptor, which Ygraine's already clambered into and started running her system checks in the back seat. She has to dodge a crew member hauling gear onto her bus, and offers the shaken looking young man a warm smile and a shoulder squeeze before vanishing inside.
"Thanks," Holtz murmurs to the orange-suited deckie that hands him a bottle of water. His tone is slightly abashed following his sudden outburst a moment ago, but he doesn't seem inclined to apologize further. He takes a quick pull from the bottle, accepts the rad kit, but shakes his head at the cracker. A pair of fingers drum restlessly on the console. "Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer. Take the fate of your daughter, Allison Holtz, into your hands and keep her safe." Holtz looks up, his expression suddenly going distant. "Bring my little girl back to me…" And then the helmet goes back on, the cockpit is slammed shut. The Viper pilot takes a deep breath and waits for his turn to be moved to a launch tube.
Gwen has double checked the targeting, but does it again without comment. If she runs out of things to do? If there's a hitch in her stride? It will all fall apart. SHE will fall apart. So double, triple, quadruple, redundancy is her best frakking friend. At some point, while a diag runs, she takes a photograph out of her flight suit pocket and sticks it to the dashboard. A beautiful older couple — burnt sienna, amber, and ebony. They're smiling; she presses a kiss to her fingertips, then to the image. The diagnostic concludes. BEEP. Green. Next.
Khrysos fumbles with the packs a bit as he hands them out, not entirely mindful of his surroundings and not quite keeping track of where he places his feet. Still, he does not trip nor does he injure himself, although it might be best to keep an eye on the civilian.
As the Vipers are checked and readied, orange suited deckies start to wave them into position in the tubes. As per the usual, the more experienced fliers are lined up first. Not just for the young ones to observe, but just in case something goes wrong, most of the flight will already be out of the tubes.
Gwen glances up at Augie with a blink and a start. "Keep things in one piece, Gramps," she manages with dry, flat humor. "Let's keep the base in Romeo Tango Bravo, eh?"
Augie smirks. "I'll do my best. Happy huntin'." With that, he slides down the ladder and smacks the side of her Viper. "Spin 'er up!" Then he starts to move back to his station after one more check to make sure there's no problems that need his attention.
Since she brought him with her, it only stands to reason that the civilian is Ekho's responsibility, and once things are winding down (there are only so many ship crews, pilots and marines that need to be kitted out), she heads back to find the geologist, coming up beside him, reaching out to take the last packs out of his hands, "Good work, Rocks. Let's finish these last few up together, and then get out of everyone's way."
When a two-hundred-pound man barrels down the ship's corridors in a flight suit, folks tend to get out of the way. So it is with Leo Tiptoft, who stiff-arms an unsuspecting deckie en route to his Viper's ladder. "Make a damn hole," he growls, leaping into a cockpit that seems altogether too small for his thick frame. And then it's time for the usual litany of pre-flight checks.
Kreskas checks with his Marines - everyone has rad kits now, getting stowed in their appropriate thigh pocket. Senior NCOs and officers begin to check each Marine, going over gear and weapons once again.
"Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless," Khrysos suddenly intones, quoting something that sounds like it belongs in a musty old scroll of scripture or philosophy. He continues handing out anti-rad packs as he does so. "These, now as of ld, are not gifts of the gods; men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly." He hands out his last pack, and turns to look at Ekho. He smiles — kind of creepy, considering how uncharacteristic it is of him — and he nods, getting out of the way. Hello, Dr. Pindar. Anybody home? Nope.