[GrimWulf]

Serge's eye's light up as he see's yet another friend. "Escher! My god, it's good to see you again."

He waits until Leia finishes talking about the new drives before piping in.  "I'm all for human pilots myself. When the shit hits the fan and you need a snap decision I want a real mind there to make that decision, not some set of rules that can't be adapted to the situation."

[Mithlas]

The hangar that Slicer walks into has much more of a cramped feel than dedicated carriers, diagnostic equipment attached to hoses scattered around one of the four manned fighters in docking cradles. Similar to the atmospheric fighters they evolved from, minus the need for aerodynamics, access plates to equipment and the armored cockpit give it an appearance like the ruffled feathers of birds. The drone fighters line the docking hooks in the walls, less than half the size of the manned fighters but with exaggerated shaping intended to give them the same signature to sensors as the manned variety. Instead of separate doors to separate the hangar, the 'roof' terminates where the innermost layer of the Matsukaze's armor begins, the honeycombed material shining like waves of stars as Slicer paces in.

Crates of spare parts and equipment trunks are arranged into a horseshoe shape. A woman in standard officer fatigues and Star Lieutenant stripes chats with a technician in the slightly bulkier and more pocket-laden suit of a technician. The technician nods towards Slicer and heads back to the open Velociraptor. The lieutenant tilts her neck to stretch out a muscle, the motion jostling her short bobcut hair over the RCC extending from the back of her head. "Evening, spacers," she greets to Slicer and the Alliance pilot following him into the hangar.

In the mess, Leia shrugs and digs at her chowder. "I don't mind having a pilot, just the idea that there's no backup. At least I've got an AI or two looking for rogue planets or other things I don't want to plow into."

Andrew nods, then blinks at a corner of his ARO and starts wolfing down his chicken and rice.

[Scawire]

Evening Mam, I have stopped by to get synced and have a shot at virtual training. Slicer bows at the commanding officer on deck as he greets her. Eying the space fighter hoping to get his body into one.

[Mithlas]

The lieutenant nods, giving a shallower bow in polite response. "Lieutenant de Gaulle. Commander, when we're deployed outside the Matsukaze." She closes her eyes and after a moment of the organs darting back and forth under their lids, open again and she gives Slicer a once-over, then glances over his shoulder.

"Good to see at least some of the mercs consider a first impression important. If you'll take a seat," she gestures to the semicircle of boxes, "we'll get synching completed and get a few paces in before we come out of warp." De Gaulle waits sternly while the handful of new entrants, mostly Alliance spacers coming in seconds before the 18:30 deadline, stride in. After waiting through some chat and introductions, she talks through the final computer synchronizations and sits down to lead the pilots into VR training, starting with basic familiarization and proceeding into a training simulation against Halpa raiders.

[Scawire]

Slicer might like the flow of information the matrix gives him, but darting around space in your own star fighter with weapon fire all around does get Slicer juiced up. Slicer does his best to get use to the Star Fighter he is piloting hoping he can keep his skills in it sharp, since one day it might be needed so he can live and breathing another day.

[GrimWulf]

Hauling ass down the corridor, Reese bounced off the bulkhead opposite the entrance to the hanger, where it's evident the briefing has already started. Cursing louder than necessary, he quickly joins the session, knowing that the dressing down will either come after or that his ship will suffer some 'accident' and he'll get some 1 on 1 time with the LT.

Strapping himself into the simulator, he quickly syncs with the machine and the rest of the squad, letting the VR take control and leaving his body behind.  A quick prayer for guidance from the spirit of the machine, and then his fighter launches with the rest of the squad.


-----------------------------

Serge strolls into the Medbay two minutes before shift change, he clasps Henri's hand in a warm handshake, smiling at the old friend.

"I was worried they were pulling the old guys onto the 'kaze and that's how I got posted here." He gives the hand another good shake before letting go, "But, seeing you here means they must have really been looking for the pensioners, guess that means I'm here by mistake!"  Chuckling at the poor joke he smiles again.

"But seriously Henri, it is good to see a familiar face. Seems to be a few I recognize around." Glancing at the time, he frowns a little. "They don't have you pulling a double on account of us transfers do they?"

[Mithlas]

Star Lieutenant de Gaulle turns a lidded gaze on Reese, but only gives the clipped, no-nonsense instructions to sync with the ship's flight simulator server before setting down into a small folding chair and leaning against the back to prepare for the VR portion. Inside the sim she sets everybody through the usual familiarization and then loads a common xeno-defense program.

"Slicer, you were first in the hangar. Take red command. I'll watch your performance. Everybody else, take your standard positions and let's see how well you can really manage when the fire goes live." The cockpits and AR displays materialize, and a sense of weight from the insulated pilot suits appears in the virtual scape. "Don't take this lightly just because it's a simulation. You boys who've flown with me before know what I'm talking about. For you mercs, I run sims as seriously as the confeds. I'm not allowed to run sims as hot as I know some of you privateers do, but if you get yourself shot I want you to feel it. What doesn't kill you the first time should at least hurt enough for you to know better the second."

Two of the eagle fighter jockies laugh, and the squad begins running through the pre-combat checklist when sensor ARs blare warnings at incoming tangos and the radiant ripple of a frigate in the distance coming out of hyperspace flashes in the simulated distance.

---

Henri smiles at Serge. "If it was just ya eagles I'd probably be strapped 'n bed ba now, but with tha mercs, Uriburu wan's a good an' thorough shakedown befar anythin' hits tha fan. Dunno if she's jus' cautious or ambitious and wants a good rec'rd. I'll be here for tha first simmed injaries, but I've got anotha coupl'a hours ta go."

The shift begins as slowly as usual, the chief of medicine walking the new transfers through the ship's equipment and medical technology and the unit's procedures until a fire drill in the forward missile bay starts, leading to four Alliance spacers coming in with simulated injuries complete with AR biomonitor warnings.

[GrimWulf]

Serge goes into action, checking the bio monitors as they come in and preforming triage for which injury needed to be taken care of first and which would benefit best from his personal attention.
19d6.hits(5) → [6,6,2,4,6,3,6,3,5,3,4,4,5,6,6,2,5,1,3] = (9)

He marks the most serious injury for himself he quickly gets the other medical staff assigned to the rest of the wounded. Once the others are assigned Serge gets to work on treating his 'wounded' soldier. Calling out the procedures as he would normally have performed them an inputting the process into his medkit for analysis of the simulation.
19d6.hits(5) → [5,1,4,5,1,1,3,3,5,3,6,2,5,2,1,6,1,5,4] = (7)
While he waits for the updated status of the spacer, he looks up to see how the rest of the group is handling their load.

[Scawire]

Slicer does his best to get a feel for the controls, he decides to try and stay with his red group but at the same time learn how this fighter flys. Keeping with his group of fighters Slicer does a few rolls to test out how the fighter reacts to his commands. Then he pulls away just for a short check on the abilities of the fighter.

(OOC Pilot Areospace (Deep Space) 4(6) + Reaction 3(7) = 13
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4542057/ 5 hits)

With a few pulls of the stick Slicer starts to feel what this military fighter can do. With his test of the equipment done he pulls back to the group and waits to see what the sim has to throw his way.

[GrimWulf]

Reese watches as Red Leader pulls away from the pack, performing some manoeuvres. "Where ya goin' boss?" he calls out as he slip into formation behind Slicer, trying to match him move for move.
13d6.hits(5) → [6,6,1,6,2,1,4,4,3,6,1,1,2] = (4)

Reese finds himself falling behind Slicer  when the alarm goes off. "Red 5 here. I have incoming bogies. Shifting to defensive posture." He calls out in a clear unaccented voice. It's almost as if two different people had been talking, the new voice showing little to no humour and straight professionalism. He brings the fighter around and opens up his sensors trying to get a better picture on what's coming in.
7d6.hits(5) → [1,6,5,3,3,4,3] = (2)

[Scawire]

Slicer was to jazzed about the new ride he had to notice the incoming threat. Red leader here. When we hit the target remember to stay close to your wingman. Too often pilot fly off with out back up then there cooked. Slicer was really hoping it was going to be a few minutes before the hostels appeared. Guess the fire has hit and I get to learn this machine well blasting bogies. Slicer makes sure he is back with the group ASAP so they team could take down the incoming.

[Mithlas]

Serge sends the spacer with AR broadcasting plasma burns to the intensive care slab and Henri directs a few of the rookies looking wide-eyed at the variety of equipment and trying to figure out how to work with healthy men and women acting with varying degrees of success and instruments broadcasting a variety of burns, breaks, and punctures.

The spacer with Serge initially tries to be helpful (and just get the drill over with) by walking to the bed on what his broadcast says is a critically burned leg. His eyes scroll over an internal message, then roll and he stops to reach out a hand to Serge. When close, eh leans in to whisper, "When...will the...bureaucracy stop..."

---

Slicer's Velociraptor hurtles ahead, twisting into a corkscrew, almost over-responsive as his filter struggles to adjust for the simulated latest generation of interceptors. The ship flies fluid, thruster pods twisting it with agility impossible for an atmospheric fighter. The other fighters flare and accelerate, though Slicer pulls ahead of the pack. As the simulated enemy appears, the fighter formation spreads out in standard procedure, mimicked by the incoming simulated enemies.

Reese's sensor sweep tracks the infrared signatures, the feed buzzing through the library and discarding silhouette after silhouette until narrowing down to something beneath the size of known fighters. With an EWar suite breaking up its energy signature and an irregular surface including absorbing and reflective facets, the computer can't narrow down whether the incoming signatures more closely match missiles or smaller varieties of fighterbots coming in at what might be afterburner rates of acceleration for fighters. The ten tangos zipping closer pass within missile range and continue to pour on the speed as they close on particle cannon range.

[Scawire]

With Slicer pulling a bit ahead of the group he decides to do a scan of the incoming threats. Best to know what our group is up against.

[Mithlas]

Between adjusting his ship's filter to improve precision of control and seeing how much he can push the new fighter, Slicer almost forgets to take a sweep of the incoming tangos. The haste gives him the count of ten incoming tangos again, but only tells him that the targets are somewhat small and routing ECM, at a level common to Terran PMC and lower-level Halpa military units. They pass within missile range and continue to close on standard cannon distance, less than 20 seconds at current acceleration.

[Scawire]

Slicer watches his sensors for a short time then sends a message to his Red squad. If any of you get a good reading of what is coming our way let the team know. Slicer wonders what is speeding their way. Maybe if I knew this fighter better I could get a better reading. If those are missiles we should fly a loose formation to make us harder to hit. Just not sure what is heading our way yet.