Guard Dog
Inactive Member
"Yessir, Captain Vega." Returning the taller man's smile, Miranda smartly saluted and headed out of the armory, heading back to the hangar proper to rejoin her Flight. The image of the widowed ring glittering on Nero's rugged hand flashed in her mind as she walked, a twinge of sympathy following behind. The Marauders sounded like a happy squadron, what a shame they had to part like this. We've plenty to live up to, it seems.
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"Pilot Bannings, transfer orders have arrived." Help's voice chimed out from her datapad the moment she stepped into the hangar, the pressurised door sliding open with a hiss to the din of working Hangar teams. Already crewmen were streaming into the facility, harried techs dragging refuelling tanks and assorted tools to get the Flight's vehicles ready for the upcoming transfer. Idly reading through the text scrolling on her datapad, the young lieutenant gave a friendly wave to one familiar engineer on her way back to the Hornet. "We are scheduled for a short-distance transfer flight to the NSS Thanatos, ETA 1 hour. Minimal gravitational influence calculated along the planned flight path."
"Thank you, Help. Warm up the engines and calibrate shields for micro-debris, would you kindly?" Pausing to brush her errant fringe out of the way as an minor jetwash blew through the hangar's walkway, Miranda noticed something odd: Her fellow Pilot, Ensign Knight, leaning against a crate as he stared into his hands. "Are you alright there, Mr Knight?" she inquired as she approached, not noticing the bandage on the man's palm.
Torn from his secluded thoughts, the rookie glanced up at Miranda with cloudy blue eyes, folding his arms more neatly across himself and trying to conceal that bandaged hand as much as he possibly could. Leo broke his fixed expression and decidedly faked a smile towards her, before speaking tenderly in a voice barely above an audible whisper. "Yeah, I'm fine,though I might be even better if you offered me another drink. I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen."
Knight nervously laughed at his own bad joke, before finding it suddenly difficult to keep looking so intently at her after the expression of compassion. The dark, solemn hues of his eyes turneddownwards to look at himself again after only a few moments. "...Thank you for asking."His voice quavered,guilt threatening to choke its way beyond the man's composure and seep into his tone.
"...really now?" Now, Miranda was always taught that it was rather impolite to prod into the affairs of others, but something told her that this was a special case. Nevertheless, she switched to a more gentle tone to deal with the man. Something told her that he wasn't as fine as he claimed. "You're welcome, but I think it would be best if you lay off from the alcohol for a while."
On discovery of symptoms of overstress, avoid applying pressure on affected area and ascertain extent of damage. Observe for telltale signs of the nature of the impending fracture.
A sudden pip from her datapad rung out, a notification from Help that the shield's recalibration was complete. "Ah, yes. That reminds me," the littlest pilot quipped as she settled into a comfortable position beside her compatriot, glancing over to Leo's plane nearby. "I didn't manage to meet with your companion over there. How rude of me." Lifting up her datapad as she spoke, Help's luminous eye appeared onscreen in response to Miranda's nonverbal invitation. "Could you introduce us to them?"
Hearing the recommendation that he not partake in the habitual consumption of alcohol Leo seemed just a little bit perturbed at that thought; far more than the fact that it was abundantly obvious that something was wrong with him. After all, there was an extensive file on his service record,explicitly registering him as relatively mentally unstable. Turning to look over towards his own craft, he observed that it was still being worked on it, although nobody was currently in the cockpit to adjust its avionics.Speaking up abruptly while switching to the depths of his natural coarse tone, the coltish pilot sounded only slightly hesitant in addressing her. "Rachel, I know you're awake, say hello will you?"
"Greetings, Ensign Knight." echoed the feminine voice from the open cockpit of the craft, before Leo's eyes softened partly and he remarked yet again to make a request of the craft's artificial intelligence. "No.. not me, I want you to say hello to my friend here."
"Greetings, Lieutenant Bannings."
Knight stared at the craft being worked on for a long while before lowering his head slightly and started to gently clench his hand a few times, very evidently fighting the frown which threatened to work across his prevalent expression. "I do miss her sometimes though..."
Oh, dear me. Miranda suppressed a cringe as Leo's last words registered. Miiinefieeeld... It abruptly became imperative for her to keep him talking, and to steer him away from his current course. "Greetings to you as well, Miss Rachel." Pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary, she gave the open cockpit a bright smile, discreetly observing the plane's external camera focus on the two of them. "This is Help here, it's a pleasure meeting both of you."
"I am an ACE AI assigned to assist Lieutenant Miranda Bannings, designated as 'Help'." The virtual intelligence quipped in its customary dry tone, electric orb focusing on Leo and the plane in turn. "Greetings, Lieutenant Leo Knight and ACE AI 'Rachel'." The cool light of the AI's gaze seemed dispassionate and judging, a sharp contrast of Miranda's softer expression.
"Ah, please don't mind him. It's a quirk of his. He IS rather new to all of this, isn't he?" Miranda tittered softly at her own joke, in an attempt to lighten up the atmosphere. Now came the hard part. "By the way, it seems like you named your AI after someone you know. An acquaintance, perhaps?" she beamed encouragingly at the brooding Ensign as she posed her question, leaning forward slightly. Easy now, get him to focus on the bright parts."Do tell me more about her. Is she a nice person?"
Staring back into the exterior camera of the Uno for a time, Leo eventually glanced over once again to Miranda just a short distance away, unable to laugh but at least starting to gently smile slightly, despite the fact that as he now thought back on the past, a wave of memories graced him. His azure hues seemed to peer into the distance, despite his attention being focused towards the fellow pilot. "Yeah, she was my lady back at Funky City, and she was a very nice and lovely sort of person once you got to know her; although I guess it was kind of funny that the first time we met one another... We had this mild argument about some brazen generalization that I made, and at the end of the exchange after having explained both points I yielded to her argument for the most part and asked her out on a date... What a strange day that was." for a moment he imagined as if she were still alive, he never talked this much about Rachel in front of the artificial intelligence before.
"She could be pretty bold when she wanted to be, almost to the point of dominating. Yet just under that surface, after we became closer and more in love,she was so very soft and vulnerable; and looking back on things.. I just hope that I didn't offer to much pain because of my own outbursts, my anger expressed outwardly because I lacked the mental fortitude required to handle my own problems. All she wanted to do was be there for me, and... All I wanted to do was burst into a ball of fire and lash out at everything, her, my enemies; the world. Everything. If she was still alive, I know I wouldn't be here talking with you." Leo bit his lower lip and then glanced down idly away from the machine. "I guess naming the AI after her was a mistake, but... I just want to feel close to her again before I die, even if it's only a lie..."
"She sounds like a wonderful person," Leaning her head back against a convenient stack of crates, Miranda sighed as she recalled the many smiling faces waiting for her back in Deleris. Home seemed so far away all of a sudden. "I would have liked to meet her, perhaps all three of us could have been friends."
"...alhough, in my opinion?" Shifting from her leaning position, the shorter girl meandered over to stand in front of the Ensign. Reaching out and grasping the taller man's arm, she clasped his hand and gave it a consoling squeeze. "She must have loved you very much, and I believe you still do. I don't think she would be happy if she saw you like this. She wouldn't want you to suffer so much for her sake."
"So smile then, Leo. Remember the time you had together instead." Miranda murmured as she turned away, looking back at the grieving man with compassionate eyes as she departed, her parting words drifting on the chilly air. "Try to be happy again, okay? For her sake, at the very least."
Leo gazes down at the Lieutenant with dark solemn eyes that threatened to brim over with tears, no way for her to understand that such open compassion forced an immense guilt to the surface, his shoulders started to shake when Miranda offered the squeeze upon Knight's hand. The man took a sharp breath through his nostrils while fighting the urge to cry. Allowing the hand they shared to fall down to his side before watching her depart; thinking before speaking in a barely audible tone under his breath. "I'm so fucking sorry...Forgive me, please"
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"Pilot Bannings, transfer orders have arrived." Help's voice chimed out from her datapad the moment she stepped into the hangar, the pressurised door sliding open with a hiss to the din of working Hangar teams. Already crewmen were streaming into the facility, harried techs dragging refuelling tanks and assorted tools to get the Flight's vehicles ready for the upcoming transfer. Idly reading through the text scrolling on her datapad, the young lieutenant gave a friendly wave to one familiar engineer on her way back to the Hornet. "We are scheduled for a short-distance transfer flight to the NSS Thanatos, ETA 1 hour. Minimal gravitational influence calculated along the planned flight path."
"Thank you, Help. Warm up the engines and calibrate shields for micro-debris, would you kindly?" Pausing to brush her errant fringe out of the way as an minor jetwash blew through the hangar's walkway, Miranda noticed something odd: Her fellow Pilot, Ensign Knight, leaning against a crate as he stared into his hands. "Are you alright there, Mr Knight?" she inquired as she approached, not noticing the bandage on the man's palm.
Torn from his secluded thoughts, the rookie glanced up at Miranda with cloudy blue eyes, folding his arms more neatly across himself and trying to conceal that bandaged hand as much as he possibly could. Leo broke his fixed expression and decidedly faked a smile towards her, before speaking tenderly in a voice barely above an audible whisper. "Yeah, I'm fine,though I might be even better if you offered me another drink. I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen."
Knight nervously laughed at his own bad joke, before finding it suddenly difficult to keep looking so intently at her after the expression of compassion. The dark, solemn hues of his eyes turneddownwards to look at himself again after only a few moments. "...Thank you for asking."His voice quavered,guilt threatening to choke its way beyond the man's composure and seep into his tone.
"...really now?" Now, Miranda was always taught that it was rather impolite to prod into the affairs of others, but something told her that this was a special case. Nevertheless, she switched to a more gentle tone to deal with the man. Something told her that he wasn't as fine as he claimed. "You're welcome, but I think it would be best if you lay off from the alcohol for a while."
On discovery of symptoms of overstress, avoid applying pressure on affected area and ascertain extent of damage. Observe for telltale signs of the nature of the impending fracture.
A sudden pip from her datapad rung out, a notification from Help that the shield's recalibration was complete. "Ah, yes. That reminds me," the littlest pilot quipped as she settled into a comfortable position beside her compatriot, glancing over to Leo's plane nearby. "I didn't manage to meet with your companion over there. How rude of me." Lifting up her datapad as she spoke, Help's luminous eye appeared onscreen in response to Miranda's nonverbal invitation. "Could you introduce us to them?"
Hearing the recommendation that he not partake in the habitual consumption of alcohol Leo seemed just a little bit perturbed at that thought; far more than the fact that it was abundantly obvious that something was wrong with him. After all, there was an extensive file on his service record,explicitly registering him as relatively mentally unstable. Turning to look over towards his own craft, he observed that it was still being worked on it, although nobody was currently in the cockpit to adjust its avionics.Speaking up abruptly while switching to the depths of his natural coarse tone, the coltish pilot sounded only slightly hesitant in addressing her. "Rachel, I know you're awake, say hello will you?"
"Greetings, Ensign Knight." echoed the feminine voice from the open cockpit of the craft, before Leo's eyes softened partly and he remarked yet again to make a request of the craft's artificial intelligence. "No.. not me, I want you to say hello to my friend here."
"Greetings, Lieutenant Bannings."
Knight stared at the craft being worked on for a long while before lowering his head slightly and started to gently clench his hand a few times, very evidently fighting the frown which threatened to work across his prevalent expression. "I do miss her sometimes though..."
Oh, dear me. Miranda suppressed a cringe as Leo's last words registered. Miiinefieeeld... It abruptly became imperative for her to keep him talking, and to steer him away from his current course. "Greetings to you as well, Miss Rachel." Pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary, she gave the open cockpit a bright smile, discreetly observing the plane's external camera focus on the two of them. "This is Help here, it's a pleasure meeting both of you."
"I am an ACE AI assigned to assist Lieutenant Miranda Bannings, designated as 'Help'." The virtual intelligence quipped in its customary dry tone, electric orb focusing on Leo and the plane in turn. "Greetings, Lieutenant Leo Knight and ACE AI 'Rachel'." The cool light of the AI's gaze seemed dispassionate and judging, a sharp contrast of Miranda's softer expression.
"Ah, please don't mind him. It's a quirk of his. He IS rather new to all of this, isn't he?" Miranda tittered softly at her own joke, in an attempt to lighten up the atmosphere. Now came the hard part. "By the way, it seems like you named your AI after someone you know. An acquaintance, perhaps?" she beamed encouragingly at the brooding Ensign as she posed her question, leaning forward slightly. Easy now, get him to focus on the bright parts."Do tell me more about her. Is she a nice person?"
Staring back into the exterior camera of the Uno for a time, Leo eventually glanced over once again to Miranda just a short distance away, unable to laugh but at least starting to gently smile slightly, despite the fact that as he now thought back on the past, a wave of memories graced him. His azure hues seemed to peer into the distance, despite his attention being focused towards the fellow pilot. "Yeah, she was my lady back at Funky City, and she was a very nice and lovely sort of person once you got to know her; although I guess it was kind of funny that the first time we met one another... We had this mild argument about some brazen generalization that I made, and at the end of the exchange after having explained both points I yielded to her argument for the most part and asked her out on a date... What a strange day that was." for a moment he imagined as if she were still alive, he never talked this much about Rachel in front of the artificial intelligence before.
"She could be pretty bold when she wanted to be, almost to the point of dominating. Yet just under that surface, after we became closer and more in love,she was so very soft and vulnerable; and looking back on things.. I just hope that I didn't offer to much pain because of my own outbursts, my anger expressed outwardly because I lacked the mental fortitude required to handle my own problems. All she wanted to do was be there for me, and... All I wanted to do was burst into a ball of fire and lash out at everything, her, my enemies; the world. Everything. If she was still alive, I know I wouldn't be here talking with you." Leo bit his lower lip and then glanced down idly away from the machine. "I guess naming the AI after her was a mistake, but... I just want to feel close to her again before I die, even if it's only a lie..."
"She sounds like a wonderful person," Leaning her head back against a convenient stack of crates, Miranda sighed as she recalled the many smiling faces waiting for her back in Deleris. Home seemed so far away all of a sudden. "I would have liked to meet her, perhaps all three of us could have been friends."
"...alhough, in my opinion?" Shifting from her leaning position, the shorter girl meandered over to stand in front of the Ensign. Reaching out and grasping the taller man's arm, she clasped his hand and gave it a consoling squeeze. "She must have loved you very much, and I believe you still do. I don't think she would be happy if she saw you like this. She wouldn't want you to suffer so much for her sake."
"So smile then, Leo. Remember the time you had together instead." Miranda murmured as she turned away, looking back at the grieving man with compassionate eyes as she departed, her parting words drifting on the chilly air. "Try to be happy again, okay? For her sake, at the very least."
Leo gazes down at the Lieutenant with dark solemn eyes that threatened to brim over with tears, no way for her to understand that such open compassion forced an immense guilt to the surface, his shoulders started to shake when Miranda offered the squeeze upon Knight's hand. The man took a sharp breath through his nostrils while fighting the urge to cry. Allowing the hand they shared to fall down to his side before watching her depart; thinking before speaking in a barely audible tone under his breath. "I'm so fucking sorry...Forgive me, please"
