| Cole v Ice |
| Arc: | None |
| Summary: | Iceblade is in the simulator room practicing some manuevers with the Rapier when Cole enters. A friendly sim battle between the two ensues. |
| Date: | 2658.134 |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Participants: | Phillip Cole |
Simulators
Junction System, Humboldt Quadrant — 1552 Hours 2658.134
This room is oddly devoid of decoration, as it's main function is to house the simpods used for practice flights and training of fighter pilots assigned to the various wings of the ship. A control pod is situated near the back of the room with a screen so instructors can watch what's going on inside the pods, and eight simulation pods are located in a circlular pattern in the middle of the room.
Phillip looks in Cole's direction, stands from his pod, and walks over to Cole hand extended. "Hey Cole, how ya doing?"
"Hell of a lot more sober than last night, so I suppose that counts for something" Cole replies, before he gives a little grin. "I'd offer an apology, but I'm sure it'll happen again the next time."
"Apology for what," Phillip responds with a grin retracting his hand. He then turns in head over to the simpods. "I guess you've come to get a little practice in?"
Cole blinks at that hand being retracted, before he chuckles and gives a little shake of his head. "That, for starters" he jokes, before he gestures to the pods. "And something like that. I'd actually been trying to model a few little tweaks I was looking at making to the thruster manifolds to try and get a little better turning radius. Ended up, it doesn't look like it'll do a damn thing"
Phillip says, "really," showing a clear interest. Phillip then adds, "Well you want to go a round? I could use the practice in the Rapier."
Cole gives a little bit of a nod at Phillip's words. "Always looking for some way that I can get an edge," Cole replies with a little nod. "That's the real reason for my paint job, or lack of." he admits. "Stopped seeing the point in it when I was always tinkering anyway." He pauses there, before grinning. "And if you want to go a round, sure. Your funeral."
Phillip says, "Sounds good," throwing a solid grin and pat on Cole's back as he begins moving toward his simpod.
Cole makes a move towards his own sim pod, slipping inside and tugging the top down. Might as well get right into things, and see how they turn out…
Phillip enters his simpod and gets ready, waiting for the sim mission number to popup. Phillip sees the Sim mission pop-up and enters it. Then watches as the countdown to start commences.
Cole grins inside his simpod as the countdown commences, idly keying the little comms unit within the sims. « Time to see how quickly the new equipment breaks… » he jokes.
Phillip begins to move his fighter cautiously towards the 'sword evading incoming gun turret fire and preparing to lock onto the bomber with an IR, being careful with his aiming
The good thing about friend or foe missiles? They really don't care that much how wildly the fighter firing them is being flown… and so, Cole seems quite happy to keep his broadsword weaving to try and play keep-away from the more nimble fighter, letting his missile take care of tracking on its own. If he grins a little as it smashes into the Rapier's nose… well… can he really be blamed?
Phillip jerks the stick as the FoF blasts around his nose. With the ping and a careful angle, Iceblade lets loose his IR as he pulls free.
Phillip readies another IR missile and focuses his shot on the broadsword's cockpit. Locking, locking. Ping. Iceblade hears that sound as he lines up on the broadsword, and he fires.
It might be a gun-heavy slug, but the Captain certainly seems to do a decent job of throwing his broadsword around the sky… waiting until the IR missile is nearly on top of him, before snapping over as hard as the broadsword's bulk will allow, and kicking out a decoy to distract the warhead. « I'll give it this » Cole comments as a second warhead impacts the Rapier. « Tough at least »
Phillip snaps his fingers as his second IR misses. He then pulls away, jerking but still taking damage to his rear. Afterburning and pulling free, Iceblade comes back in and focuses on the Broadsword's engines. He switches to full guns and opens fire on Cole.
Cole just might be giving a good idea of why Kanani called him crazy last night… turning head-on into the second missile attack, before sideslipping it neatly with his thrusters… cutting loose with his forward guns as the fighter completes its pass. Unfortunately, the Rapier's maneuverability means Cole can't get a clean shot in… managing only to clip the tail, instead of delivering the crippling blow to the engines he'd been hoping for. « Come on, Lieutenant. You'll never hear the end of it if you can't hit a broadsword. » He jokes.
Phillip's shots hit home towards the 'swords front as Cole comes in on him. Iceblade then pulls away suffering only a glancing blow on his controls whose armor blocks the hit. Iceblade then pulls around and focuses clean on the Broadsword's controls to finish them and take Cole out of the fight. Iceblade comes in and fires with full burners going.
« I suppose I should be careful what I ask for… » Cole jokes as he turns his broadsword around, grumbling at the lack of responsiveness after the Rapier's guns tear a few choice chunks out of his craft.
As Phillip's Rapier fires away, the Broadsword's armor blocks the hit. Phillip clearly miffed by the failure, does not dodge the incoming blow from the 'sword's mass drivers as they blast his engines causing his craft to spiral out and explode. Iceblade just seconds before the explosion, instinctively pulls his ejection cord. The Sim recognizes his survival.
And over the comms comes the sound of a certain someone humming the first few bars of Waltzing Matilda. « Nice try, Lieutenant » Cole comments simply. « Shutting it down, and we can talk outside » Cole explains, before the simulation fades away. A moment later, the Captain's pod pops open and he steps back out into the room.
Phillip pops out of the pod as well, walking over to Cole with his hand extended. "Not bad, not bad," Phillip says with no distress in his voice. Phillip then adds, "looks like those thruster adjustments worked pretty well."
"That was the stock version, actually" Cole replies. "I'd cleared out the sim programming for the mods once it became clear they weren't going to do anything," he explains, reaching out to shake the offered hand. "And don't worry about it too much, most Kilrathi don't expect to see a broadsword thrown around that way either"
Phillip pulling his hand back. "Well what do you think of my performance, Captain?" Phillip asks hopefully.
"Fair." Cole replies simply. "If you're going to get aggressive with a bomber, make sure you're doing it with your heaviest hits. Get in on him, get your missile off up-close, and get back out. You do not want to knife fight with me. I can shrug off quite a few hits, I don't have to be looking at you to get an FF hit, and if I can't out maneuver you my gunners still have a shot" he explains. "But, my Neutron turrets are also horribly short ranged, and I'm probably not going to be able to get my front in around on you unless you're making a pass. So make your pass, get the shot up close, then get the hell out to where I can't threaten you"
Phillip considers the advice, notes it down mentally, files it in his brain under anti-bomber tactics in subsection 'sword specific tactics, and looks back at Cole with a smile. "Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to keep that in mind when facing the grikath's next time."
Phillip adds, "Oh and it was real fun flying against you, but I think I prefer flying with you more." Iceblade grins.
"Griks are a bit different. You can get in with one of those, just stick to passes at his sides. He doesn't have side turrets like I've got, just one on the tail," Cole explains. "And no worries. I'd much rather everyone does their dying in here than out there."
Phillip responds, "Well at least I survived that one. Unfortunately in real life that ejection would have been so close, I probably would have ended up with broken legs."
"And there's nothing to say ejection's always going to save you. There's at least one Kilrathi pilot out here that seems to think shooting ejection pods makes for good sport" Cole explains. "And then, you still have to hope for pickup from a /friendly/ SAR," Cole adds, pausing for a moment. "There are fates worse than death"
Phillip shakes his head in acknowledgement, showing no clear indication of fear over the news about the ejection-pod shooting Kilrathi. "Well, I need to get back into the sim and see if can't get a better handle on this Rapier." Iceblade starts heading back to his pod, but turns and asks, "Have you heard any further word about the Kilrathi battlegroup?"
"None yet," Cole replies with a little shake of his head. "I'm sure the next I hear of it will probably be when they're asking me to lob warheads into it," he explains, smile growing to a little grin. "Which hopefully will be soon."
Phillip nods his head for a second. Then Ice asks, hopeful, "Say, do you want to fly a sim attack on a Ralari?" Iceblade adds, "I was about to start the battle up when you came in."
Cole can't help but give a little chuckle at Phillip's request. "Some other time," Cole replies. "I think if I spend any more time staring at the screen in the sims today, I'm gonna go cross-eyed"
Phillip nods. "Well, see you around." Phillip then goes back into the Simpod for another hour before heading up to the bunks to rest for awhile.