fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

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flight and flying

Flight and Flying [Friday morning]

Anakin was leaning against the reconfigured flight simulator when the flight students arrived.

"Today we're going to do something a little different," he said, walking over to the television from his room and pushing a few buttons. A three-dimension projection of a world rotated in front of them. "We're going to complete an entire military mission. This planet is being slowly starved to death by the blockade set up by these donut-looking control ships and their army of droids."

Anakin gestured to the projection. "Working in pairs, your job will be to take off from the planet's surface, fight past the enemy's droid fighters and destroy the control ship." On the projection, the target glowed red. "The only way to destroy the ship, unfortunately, is to blow it from the inside--its shields are too powerful for the starfighter's torpedos to take out from space." He put his hands behind his back and paced. "You're up against a deadline as well. On the surface there's a battle taking place: your people against a droid army that doesn't get tired. Taking out the control ship also powers down those droids. Take too long to blow it up and you won't have a reason to go back to the planet--the enemy will have won through battle what they had been trying to achieve through blockade."

He pointed at the simulator. "You'll be flying the Naboo N-1 Starfighter," he said. "They're a little more sensitive than the F-16 from last week, but not quite as twitchy as the Jedi starfighter. And remember that once you break atmosphere, you won't be fighting gravity any longer so you don't have to yank on the controls quite as hard. The droid starfighters are faster than you are--and there are a lot of them--but they're also pretty stupid. Watch each other's backs and you'll do fine."

He grinned. "And in case you're wondering, yeah, this was a real battle. And the exercise can be accomplished." He tossed two deeply silly-looking helmets into the flight simulator. "Those will allow you to talk to each other. Plus, they're terribly stylish."

He put his hands together in front of him. "When you successfully complete the exercise, you get a donut to make up for the ugly one you've just removed from the sky." He gave them all an excited look. "Oh, I hope to see you all on Sunday for the field trip to the Air and Space Museum, but more importantly, I've heard from home. I'd asked for permission to have an actual Jedi starfighter brought here so you could get some non-simulated flight experience."

He smiled. "They've done me one better--inviting you all to come with me to Coruscant for a few days and see how the simulated stuff measures up the real thing." He turned serious. "Of course, I'm not going to bring you all to a new planet and have you blow up because you weren't paying attention, so this week--and next, which will be an actual flying experience--I'm going to be watching your technique to see if you're ready to fly an actual starfighter."

He waved them towards the simulator. "So impress me, all right?"

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"Sounds like a good plan. I'm Blair Sandburg." Blair bounced and grinned, sticking out his hand.

"Peter Pevensie," Peter replied, shaking Blair's hand. "I have to warn you that I'm pretty rubbish at flying."

"Nice to meet you, Peter." Blair put on the hat and shrugged. "It's good that you're taking this class then. I don't know that I'm any better, I just like the spinning part."

"You have a good point there," Peter said with a grin. "And the spinning is definitely fun. Though I rather prefer the shooting down part."

Blair took a seat in the sim and shook his head. "Well you're one up on me there, I don't care for the shooting part. I tend to be more of a peace-loving guy."

He thought about the battle simulation they were about to attempt. "Do you think the donut ship would respond to a picket line of protestors?"

Peter shrugged. "I'm with you there, but sometimes you have to fight to achieve peace."

He blinked at Blair's suggestion. "Umm... You mean respond in a way other than blowing us out of the sky?"

"That's true, although I believe that people tend to fight first before trying other alternatives." Blair looked at him seriously. "Ya think? What about a spinning picket line of protestors? Peaceful and distracting!"

"Sometimes, yes. I think that responsibility rests on the leader though. To explore all peaceful or diplomatic options before turning to war," Peter answered thoughtfully.

"And it's up to the people to choose the right leader, or overthrow a bad one. However you want to look at it." Blair nodded.

"That's a rather Yankee way of looking at it," Peter replied with a grin ~~as his mun just realised Peter and Blair have talked before and apologises whole-heartedly for being an idiot~~. "I'm still not convinced that protesting the attacking vessels would really get us anywhere other than dead."

"What can I say?" Blair grinned back. "I'm hopeless."

"Okay, no protesting then. Should we get started?"

[ooc:Honestly, I couldn't remember either. I knew that Abby (my other character) had met Peter but I couldn't remember if Blair had. No harm done!]

"At least you're not German," Peter replied with a wink.

"Right then, let's go."

As the simulation started, Peter maintained a fairly steady position off Blair's right wing.

Blair concentrated hard on trying to fly straight. He wasn't sure of all the reasons behind it yet, but he really wanted Anakin to think he was good at flying.

He watched as bright flashes of light streaked towards them. "That...is them shooting at us, right? It's sorta pretty."

[No feeling silly! We'll just have Peter and Blair keep introducing themselves every week. ;) ]

Peter was concentrating on keeping light hands on the starfighter's controls. If he thought of it as a very sensitive mouthed horse, he was able to use the right amount of pressure.

The flashes of lights seemed rather far away even as they flew nearer the doughnut ship and its defenders. "I'm fairly sure you're right," he replied. "And they do look a bit like shooting stars." Looking to the right, he saw several droid fighters coming to close with them. "To your right, Blair. They spotted us."

"I suppose making a wish is not the right tactical solution here." Blair jerked hard on his controls and started spinning. "Try and shoot me now, little robots!"

He idly wondered if he was supposed to be covering Peter or something and tried spinning in his general direction.

Peter grinned. "It couldn't hurt."

He reminded himself that up and down were valid directions for attack as well and said, "right then, we'll keep an eye out for one another and remember that the other ships are faster."

He watched them come in on almost a straight diagonal with a bit of tactical disapproval. "Though Anakin was right saying they're stupid." Pulling his fighter up a bit above Blair's so he could keep an eye around him, he shot at the approaching ships."

Blair cringed at Peter's shooting but kept his eyes peeled. "There's an opening over there." Remembering what sort of situation he was in he tacked on a military term. "On your 11:43...maybe 46. It's hard to tell."

Trying not to think too hard about where exactly 11:43 would be, Peter looked around him. Seeing the opening, he started to dive for it.

Blair aimed towards it as well and accidently hit the button to fire off a shot at the droid starfighters. "Oh crap! Sorry!"

"Don't be sorry!" Peter replied. "It didn't hit me and we're supposed to fire at them!" He tried and barely managed a roll out of the way of the droids' return fire.

"I don't want to fire at anybody!" Blair stayed away from the bad button and tried to go faster. "We'll kill less of the robots if we can go quicker. Isn't there some kinda warp engine in these or something?"

"Engage! Speed up! Tally ho!"

"Yes, but the less we shoot, the more chances they have to shoot at us," Peter said as he suited actions to words. He was incredibly surprised when a droid fighter steered itself almost straight into the line of fire and was hit.

"I think if you *insert handwavy explanation here*, you'll make it go faster," Peter called to Blair as he continued to try to maneuver.

"Okay, okay. I'll shoot but I'm not aiming at anything. I really think these ships should come with a stun setting." Blair stopped spinning and followed Peter's instructions to shoot forward. "We're almost to the big donut ship!"

He started firing randomly, keeping a steady stream of "sorrysorrysorry" as went.

"That will work. You'll provide covering fire," Peter said with a nod. Yes, he completely forgot that he wasn't in visual contact with Blair. "We're getting close..." Peter trailed off as he noticed a fighter on Blair's tail. "Blair, speed up more and get to the ship to take care of it. I'll get the guy behind you." He sounded much more confident than he felt.

"Guy behind me?" Blair resisted the urge to spin around to look. "Speeding up, I can do that." He kept firing random shots and winced as one connected with a particulary stupid droid fighter. "Sorry robot dude!"

He got to the donut ship and realized a problem. There were windows. Windows meant people. People meant blowing it up from the inside suddenly meant killing people. Fake people.

Checking the instruments as he spun his ship past more droid fighters he called out. "Um...Peter? How close are you to the donut ship?"

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