Flight and Flying, Period 5, Thursday 6/19

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

The students would likely notice something very unusual about the Danger Shop today as they arrived. Most notably that it was empty. There wasn't any kind of ship anywhere in sight. There was nothing. Just Murdock with his arms crossed over his chest, looking rather devious.

"And now for something completely different," he droned. "You," he pointed towards the class at large, "will choose your own ships today. I recommend you pick something you're most comfortable with. Because we're going to crash those babies," he grinned deviously.

"The first rule of piloting, is any landing you can walk away from is a good one. So that's what we're going to do. Your primary goal is to make sure you get out safe. If you can swing it without getting a single scratch, even better. Second to that is minimizing the amount of damage inflicted upon your craft. If you ever wind up crashing in hostile territory, you want your craft to be repairable. Or at the very least, have enough working parts so you can retro engineer something else to escape in."

"How you choose to crash them is completely up to you. You can experience engine failure, extensive damage from an enemy craft, or," he winked at Reno, "you can just fly straight into a mountain. Once done, the Danger Shop will provide each of you with an outcome statistic and survival probability." Of course, the safety protocols were in place, so nobody would actually suffer any injuries, but Murdock thought it might be amusing to let them sweat that a bit. Make the whole scenario just that more believable.

"Alrighty kids!" he slapped his hands together loudly, "Let's get our ships and let's crash like you've never crashed before. Oh, and I should add, you'd better crash sooner rather than later. Take too long, and the program will kick in and throw something random at ya. Or heck," he shrugged, "just wait for it and see what you get. Could be a fun challenge," he grinned.

(ocd-edy! in a sec...)

Comments

Re: Crash!

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

A trip to the bar was looking very likely at this point. Yet another student who didn't do as instructed. Murdock was about ready to pull his hair out. What little of it he had. As it was, he fidgeted with his cap several times, finally flipping it around backwards. Felt better that way for some reason.

"Kaylee," if it sounded like there was a note of exhaustion in there, it probably was. "Please tell me why you didn't crash. I know it's rough for this class, all things considered, but it's important to piloting. Not mindless crashing, mind you, but knowing how to handle the situation. Please tell me you know that."

God, he was so tired right now. And really wanting to have to fight another student.

Re: Crash!

[weefeetbigboots.livejournal.com]

"'Cause I couldn't, sir," she said, standing very straight, almost like she was mimicking someone on attention. "This vessel didn't do nothin' to me to deserve that kind of abuse. She's too pretty, and there ain't no reason to crash her. An' I get the lession, sir, I do, but I ain't lookin' to be a pilot, you know that. If my ship's goin' down, I'm gonna be in her engine room fixin' her, not the cockpit. Didn't seem right to hurt the girl to try to learn somethin' that ain't gonna be necessary for me to know in the future, plus, honestly, sir, it don't seem like too fun. I known too many soldiers and stupid kids gone on joyrides who messed themselves up but good. I ain't lookin' to copy that."

Re: Crash!

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

Well. At least she had a concise answer. "Okay. I get that. And that is all a very valid reason. Unfortunately," he could seriously smack himself in the head right about now, "I've already promised repercussions for two of your fellow students for not following instructions. I don't have much of a choice, now. Sorry, Kaylee."

He was sorry. Really. Kaylee was a good kid and just as she said, not going for piloting. It didn't seem fair, but it was less fair to let her off and not Jaina and John as well.

"I'm gonna have to give you detention. Or somethin'. I ain't quite figured out what yet." Because he was too frazzled to think of much of anything at the moment. "I'll have to get back to you on it. Sorry. Really, I am."