| Know Your Role |
| Summary: | It's not about what you want to do. It's about what you can do. |
| Date: | 09/01/2013 (OOC Date) |
| Related Logs: | None |
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| Flight Simulators |
| The Air Wing has access to flight simulators to train pilots off the ground in combat maneuvers and situations that are hard to replicate with regular dogfight practicing and this is their home. A rectangular room, the hatch opens up beside the bank of computers that control the simulations and what is seen by the individuals when training sessions are in progress. The sims are actual cockpits cut out of old frames and installed here to function exactly as the real thing, right down to oxygen plugs for suits. In front of each cockpit, complete with armored glass, are LCD screens that cover most of the front view to the front and above. There are two Vipers, two Predators, and one full-cabin Raptor available. |
| January 09, 2005 |
"Frak this!"
Apparently, Zander Sava has been attempting to learn how to fly a Viper. Well, he's been trying to do some self-teaching. And it is not exactly working out, that much is obvious from the way he's dripping with frustrated anger as he climbs out of one of those Viper Simulators. He narrows his eyes at the stupid mockpit and tosses a hand up into the air. "There's no way I should be on this low of a difficulty setting. This cannot be this hard." More frustrated muttering as he makes his way towards the computer banks to lower the difficulty setting. Again.
"I'd offer to help, but I don't know much about the Raptor sims." Jess is on the schedule as having reserved one of the Viper sims beginning five minutes from now, and apparently likes to be punctual. She's finishing up an apple as she heads over to eye the console, lobbing the core into a trash can. She would be reaching for the Viper settings, but finds that contrary to her expectations, Zander is touching them. Brows furrow only briefly, "Playing with the Vipers?" she asks. "I hear you're the guy to code up sim scenarios and stuff."
Zander only hesitates a moment, before looking up from the modifying and coding up of another scenario for him to try. One that, at first glance, maybe be a little too familiar considering the events of Warday. But still, he's not about to stop getting this all set up for his own use. "Yeah. I don't like bein' a one trick pony, so much, anymore." Zander responds with a bit of a shrug. "It didn't exactly help anything." He's pretty sure that he doesn't have to make that any clearer.
Zander does find himself pausing and shaking his head to get himself out of his little funk. It takes a second but there's a smile that's crawled onto his face as he looks up and over at Jess. Pause. Not bad. Cough. "But yeah. I'm your man." Pause. "… for the Sims, I mean. I can hook you up." Smooth.
Jess clearly does understand without the need for additional explanation. She looks for a second as if she intends to comment, or ask a question, or something, but lips press together again and she just nods, "Yeah, I know what you mean."
So smooth. All the guys here are so. smooth. She smiles, just the slightest hint of smirk to it, and then says, "I've actually got a Sim-programming project in mind, if you're game. I could give you a hand with the Vipers in exchange."
"I'm in." It doesn't even take Zander a full half-minute to just agree to whatever it is that Jess is cooking up in her mind. He's wanting to be a Viper pilot so bad at this point that he's willing to sell his sim master soul to the highest bidder if that's going to help him take down Cylons on his own terms.
Zander is taking a seat at the console in that next moment, fingers dancing across it to open up the modification program and override the basic protocols and slide himself into the actual simulator code itself. Easy. "What you got for me?"
Such quick agreement draws a little bit of a look from Jess, skeptical, maybe, or wary. But all the better for her, so whatever. She shrugs, and leans against the edge of the console, watching as he taps into the code. "It may be a bigger project than you can do in one sitting," she says, "I'm not sure. But basically what I want is more realistic cylon ships. These raiders we're fighting," she says, with a shake of her head, a hitch of rueful laughter in her tone, "They don't look anything like the footage we've got from the War, and training against something that outdated's no good. We've only got the one engagement so far, but there's a whole flight's worth of gun cam footage. I'm hoping there might be a way for you to use that to code us up something worth practicing against."
"Homework. You would give me homework. I'm assuming you'll be accompanying me on my research sessions?" That is not Zander Sava trying to lay the mack down. Well, maybe it is. But he doesn't even know that he's doing it if he is. This is more that he doesn't want to have to sit through watching his friends and colleagues get slaughtered by Cylon Raiders by himself. It would just be totally depressing. "I can definitely handle that, though. It'd be easy enough. I may have to mutz around with some of the visualization and response timestamps and what not, but it's doable."
"More important than homework," Jess replies, not sharply, but seriously. She considers his assumption for a moment before shrugging and agreeing, "Yeah, I can go over the footage with you. It will count as training time anyway, so I can fit it in. I can help with some of the raw calculating, too," she adds, "Breaking down how they fly. But the coding will have to be all on you, I don't know anything about that."
'Doable' seems to please her, mouth curving up faintly at one side. "Yeah? Great. I think it'll be huge to get us something more accurate to work with. Stop wasting our time practicing shit it turns out doesn't work anymore. And if you're really serious about cross-training I'll give you a hand with the vipers when we've got time. It's not much like flying a Raptor, though," she warns, "Handles totally different."
"That's what I'm counting on. Well, that and the guns. So I can kill Cylons. A lot of Cylons." Zander almost sounds somewhat obsessed when he starts talking about taking out Cylons. Vengeance is definitely on the brain. He's more than willing to sacrifice hsi position as an ECO to get in the Viper cockpit and blow some toasters to smithereens. Cough. "I'll get my hands on that footage and get started ASAP. The faster I get this done the better off we'll all be, I'm gonna' bet."
Jess hooks fingers in the strap of her tanks and nods slowly, and then more seriously. "Yeah," she says, "Yeah, we will definitely be better off with that. It'd be pretty huge, I think." Thumb drums on the curve of collarbone where it presses at fair skin and she just looks at Zander for a moment, and then offers, "You know, without ECOs suppressing their targeting systems and stuff, we'd all get shot to hell out there. I've seen sims run before with and without ECO assistance and the difference is significant."
"Eh." Zander just kind of shrugs at that. "I mean, I get it. I understand our role. I really do." Zander attempts to backpedal and explain at the same exact time, even while he's backing out of the sim's coding protocols to put everything back the way it was when he found it. "But, it's been my experience, that when some frakkin' robot bastards kill your parents? You Level the frak Up and start blastin' those frakkers out of the sky." Zander looks up at Jess, so she can see the seriousness in his eyes. "So that's what I'm gonna' do."
Jess beats an irregular tattoo against her clavicle, meeting Zander's eyes with equal seriousness. "I mean— I get that," she says, "I don't think there's anybody out here who doesn't want to blow as many of them to scrap as they can. I'm just saying…." She trails off and shrugs, wrist flicked in a dismissive gesture. "Nevermind. I'm not saying anything you don't know." She pushes off the console, straightening up, "Get back in one, and I'll take two, and let's see where you are."
Zander is already frowning. Perhaps Jess is right. Or something. Who knows. Maybe he can do more for taking these things down as a techno-wizard than flying out there and getting himself killed and making the Orion lose another Viper. There's way too many variables to consider at this exact moment. None of which will actually bring his parents back.
"Let's… hold off on the crash course in watching me fail." Zander is pushing back from the console and prepping to make an exodus or something. "I'm gonna' see if I can get this footage and start makin' the necessary tweaks to the Sims. We all gotta' play our parts, right?"
Jess doesn't object, pausing on her way towards the cut-off Viper cockpits and leaning on steepled fingers against the back of the console. "Alright," she says, "I've got a thing or two I want to try out in here while I've got an hour blocked off, and then I'll come give you a hand with the footage. I'm going to see what I can get from Weps and CIC, too, so I can get a better look at group tactics, broader field. But I doubt we can get our hands on that today. I'll meet you in the Ready Room?"
"I'll be… Ready." Zander is grabbing his Scion Delta portable gaming system off the console and shoving it into his pocket, even while letting loose such an epic pun of faildom as the one he just released. Still, though, he's attempting to not be the Sulky McSulkerson that his heart is telling him to be at this exact moment. He's about to do something good. For the entire Air Wing. Maybe the answer isn't fighting fire with fire. It's fighting fire with Zander.
Zander pauses on his way out and then turns back to look at Jess. "Oh and if anyone asks? This is not a date." Wink and Exit. Bam!