Spaced Asteroid Invaders

Date: 14 Oct 2029

Summary: Fleet practices his piloting skills, much to the horror of Catechism.

(Upgrade RP for Fleet. Tech stat from 57 to 65, add skill Trick_Piloting. Total cost: 27 AP)

IHQ Training Room

''This large, heavily armored chamber lies between the Troop Hall and the Officers Hall. Large double doors lead to either hall, so that the high command might enter at their leisure to watch the training bouts. Two small stairways lead to armored observation areas, one above each of the entryways. A standard training drone waits next to the troop entrance until activated. The walls, while heavily armored and shielded, also contain holo-projectors, weapons mounts, shield generators, and cameras, allowing for any opponent or environment to be simulated, while also allowing those present within the armored observation area to watch and record what goes on beneath them.''

Fleet stands at the console and enters in a new program. Most of the simulations the training room is capable of revolve around combat of some sort or another, but there is the rare need for training of other sorts, and Fleet is now putting together a scenario based on that. He finishes making his adjustments, then activates. The room takes on the likeness of an asteroid floating in space, and on the same asteroid that Fleet is standing on is a space shuttle.

Catechism is basically here to monitor Fleet and tell him that he's doing it wrong, despite knowing nothing about the subject at hand. In short, she is a superior officer. She stands around with her arms crossed, watching impassively.

Ohhai! There's a superior officer in here, watching Fleet impassively!

The yellow and blue Seeker nods towards the conehead. "Well, it's time to get started." He opens the hatch to the shuttle. "If you'll please join me, Catechism?"

Catechism shrugs and enters the holo-shuttle, replying, "Sure." She looks out a window. "Do you fly through asteriod fields often?" It's odd. Asteroids are always supposed to be crazily spaced out, but whenever they run into them, they're all jam-packed together.

These are the more jam-packed kinds of asteroids.

"No, Sir, I don't," Fleet answers Catechism's question, entering into the shuttle behind her. "But it's not the stuff that you fly through often that tends to lead to crashes. It's the stuff you don't get much practice with." He moves to the front of the shuttle and sits down, but does not strap himself in. Please. Like the spaceships in any space opera worth its salt have seatbelts!

Catechism looks dubious over the lack of safety-belts. She, however, sits down and leans back in the spare chair, grumbling over chairs that are awkward for coneheads. She remarks, casually, "So I'm thinking about buying a swivel chair for my office." She watches Fleet closely for his reaction.

Fleet taps his controls, lifting the somewhat tri-angular shuttle off of the asteroid. He nods hs head as Catechism remarks on the chair. "A stool, I take it?" the Seeker asks. After all, what use has a down-wing for a high-backed swivel chair?

The controls on this shuttle seem a bit touchier than normal. Fleet adjusts the direction via four keys, and can move forward by nudging a joystick of some sort... but this shuttle seems to lack a reverse. There is also a large red button that says, "For emergancy use only!"

Catechism can sit on chairs with backs. It's just that it gets awkward when they also have arms. She can do one or the other but not both. She replies carefully, "A stool? Have you been thinking about this a lot?" She just said 'chair', after all. Catechism looks over at the red button curiously and asks, "What does that one do?" She points at it, to make it really obvious.

"Only since you mentioned it, Catechism," Fleet answers her first question. He lets the shuttle slow down... which it does at a faster pace than one would expect in frictionless space. Then he jams another button, one nearer the controls, and in the process fires at an asteroid coming right for them. "Not sure about the button. This is a hodgepodge of several older simulations."

Catechism looks rather dubious when Fleet claims he has not been thinking about swivel chairs. Then, her attention drifts back to that red button. It's so red and button-like. A button like that isn't trying to be inconspicuous and keep its nose down, no. A button like that is just begging to be pressed. She stares at it, leaning forward slightly, as if to reach out and touch it. Then she yanks her attention back Fleet, and she points out, "You're a pilot. Shouldn't you know?"

"I should," Fleet replies, nudging the ship forward just in time to avoid another asteroid. As the vessel continues to fly in that same direction, he adjusts the bearing, so the nose spins one way as the ship travels in a different way. In this way, he blasts three more asteroids in quick sequence.

"However," Fleet adds as the vessel slows down and he checks the sensors for more asteroids, "ours don't come equipped with anything like that standard."

Catechism demands, "Then why are you using this simulation? Shouldn't you be flying something you'll actually use?" The Seeker again starts to lean toward that button. Slowly, slowly, when Fleet is busy blasting asteroids and isn't paying attention to her fixation.

"Learning a variety of systems helps you improve the ones you use regularly," Fleet points out as he nudges the vessel forward once more, spinning both up and down to blast several asteroids in a row. "You don't get as full a mental work-out sticking only with one set of controls, and you generally learn things that you can then apply to your more usual types of work."

Fleet is totally not paying attention to how close Catechism is getting to the button.

Catechism inquires, "So who does use systems like this? Do we steal ships from them? It could be useful to steal a ship and have you pilot it out." Of course she's thinking of practical applications. The Seeker continues to edge closer to the button, her fingers twitching slightly in application.

Fleet frowns thoughtfully as he considers the answer to Catechism's question. "The Nintendtrons? No, not them. The Sagorians?" He shakes his head, then mutters, "I think maybe the Atarians. Largely extinct, but their technology used to be very common, and you can still find their artifacts and other signs of their old empire from time to time." By this point in time, Fleet is getting a lot more confident with the controls, sometimes picking up speed, then bleeding it off as he twists about, even changing directions mid-flight to avoid the asteroids.

Catechism muses over Fleet's answer and suggests, "I think you should learn how to fly pirate ships." She grins happily. "Now that might be handy." See example: when they were stuck on the B-SOD. Finally, she gives into temptation, and she heeds the siren call of that ostentatious red button. That's right. Catechism presses the red button.

"I'll make sure to add that to the list of ships to practice on," Fleet answers as he accelerates the shuttle, twisting the nose back and forth to fire asteroids all the while...

And then the button is pressed, and suddenly, space goes black. Moments later, the stars can be seen once more. "What th-" the yellow and blue Seeker exclaims. He starts swinging the ship around, trying to investigate their new location...

...but before he can complete a full circuit, an asteroid hits the vessel, grumpling the sides, pushing both against the wall...

...And then the scenario is reset, and the two are sitting in a completely undamaged shuttle that's sitting on an asteroid.

Granted, pirate ships are usually just normal ships that have been stolen, so they could be from any fleet. Catechism is jarred by what pressing the red button has wrought, and she presses back into her seat, as if hiding. She looks rather sheepish but does not apologise.

Fleet's optics open wide at the jolt, and he's very still for a moment. Then he just turns and /frowns/ at Catechism before refocusing his attention on the controls. "Perhaps that's enough of that scenario. Hold on." The Seeker tilts back his head and commands, "System: cycle!" With his order, the shuttle morphs. The controls are once more different, and now, instead of in an asteroid field, they are hovering over orbit.

Catechism looks over the new set of controls, looking to see if there is a new red button that she can push when Fleet least expects it. She smiles innocently over at Fleet, silently denying everything. Catechism is a good little Seeker! Isn't she?

Sadly, there are no red buttons this time. Actually, the controls are rather simple. Speed, and direction, and for some reason the directions provided are limited.

The planet below is getting larger quickly, and Fleet's fingers move gently over the controls, guiding the ship downward through turbulance and a rather unusual gravity field. Other obstacles force Fleet off his path, and they seem to travel back and forth, forth and back for some distance. Before long, however, it becomes quite clear that they're being fired on!

Catechism cries out, stating the obvious, "They're shooting at us! We must smite them." She attempts to get up, if there's enough room, and she looks for the hatch, if there is one, apparently intending to fly out and shoot back. It would be a logical thing to do if she wasn't in a video game.

"Gravity fields here are odd," Fleet reports. "I can't reverse, but I can't speed my approach by very much, either." He jinks the controls, twisting out of the way of a shot just in time. "On top of that, we're only armed with bombs." Fleet lets one fall, then frowns as the viewscreen reports that it's been absorbed by the defender fortifications. "Blast," he murmurs.

Catechism does not find a way out of the ship. For a moment, she raises an arm gun and appears to be considering shooting a way out of the ship. Then, she looks over at Fleet and suspects that he would disapprove. She sighs and leans back in her chair, grumbling, "They said, 'Guided missiles will be so good, you won't need guns.' Yeah right."

Well, this really is intended as /piloting/ practice. Fleet drops a few more bombs, and as the forth one hits, he manages to blow a hole in the defender's defenses. A hole through which they fire back up, hitting the ship. Things flicker, black out, and then they appear to start back at the beginning. Fleet frowns. "On the up side, we seem capable of moving faster... on the down side, I couldn't take it slow if I wanted to."

Catechism scrunches up her face, one optic narrowed and one optic wide. She asks, "This is an improvement?" She feels that guns on their ship would be an improvement, not moving faster!

"No," Fleet answers. "This is to make it harder. I failed, so now the task gets harder." He drops a few bombs, zigzagging around several enemy shots. He even manages to destroy one of the defenders! (Which, oddly, is rolling back and forth on a rail that occasionally passes under the defense fortifications, but sometimes is completely uncovered.) However, as Fleet nears the surface, he's eventually unable to dodge a shot at the speed they have available. Things flicker out. Things flicker in. They appear once again in orbit, moving down faster still.

Catechism suggests, stating the obvious, "Stop failing, Fleet." She says it as if it was just that easy.

"I will, I will!" Fleet protests, annoyed. "Now stop distracting m-" BOOM!

Things flicker out.

Things flicker in.

They appear once again in orbit, moving down at a faster pace than previously.

Catechism looks a little pale, despite being made of paint and metal, and she sink into her chair, silent again. Oh Straxus, she is never going flying again with Fleet. He keeps getting them exploded!

They are now moving fast. Very fast. /Amazingly/ fast. In the blurr of the passing landscape, it's a wonder Fleet keeps control at all, but somehow, this time around, he manages it. He drops a few bombs, destroying a few defenders. He jinks, he zigs, he dodges, he avoids shots. They are in one piece, but the ground is getting larger very quickly. They're going to crash!!

Catechism covers her mouth with a hand, stifling anything she might have to say as they go hurtling toward the ground. She squirms in her chair, fighting her instinct to shoot out a wall and fly away.

At the last moment, Fleet's fingers dance nimbly over the controls, and instead of the shuttle-shattering boom one might expect, the craft touches down lightly, and so gently that those inside can barely feel the contact. A brief look on the viewscreen confirms it, however: the space invaders have landed. Victory is theirs!

Catechism audibly exhales, her internal turbofans whining. Her hands unclench, and she leans forward a little. Catechism murmurs softly, "Good job, Fleet." She still doesn't qant to go flying with him, though.

Fleet is piloting on that next mission to Alkor Zephyr. Catechism knows that, right?

Catechism knows that they are taking Fleet along as their 'native guide'. She is not so aware that he will actually be piloting.

Fleet nods his head, and stands up. "Thank you, Catechism." He looks down. "I'll be doing some more practicing, on and off, but I'll have to move on to actual space flights soon.

And Fleet is totally piloting.

Oh Straxus. Catechism is doomed. Again. Truely, the only export of Alkor Zephyr is doom, as seen in the Fleet-format doom that is standing next to her. She looks a little baffled that Fleet is thanking her. Confused, she replies, "You're, uhm, welcome? Good luck with the practise." She resists saying 'you need it'.

Fleet was thanking Catechism for the 'good job' remark. He nods, then heads over the controls, preparing to adjust the scenarios.

Catechism looks for a way to exit, stage right, before Fleet notices that she is gone.