Location: YSS Heitan enroute to Battle of Yamatai
Alpha Deck:
ON
Sekai could not believe her ears. This ham-handed fighter jock wanted to mess with the engines of one of her fighters. She had told him the consequences, and turned to yell at a few of the other technicians who seemed to need a nudge to get them moving on reloading the other craft. She assigned one of them to assist the Nepleslian with his wiring changes he wanted, to ensure that they had a clear understanding of what he had done when complete.
Silic turned to Sekai and paused for a few seconds, then he approached calmly. Rather than argue or threaten he simply put a hand on her shoulder. One engineer to another. "Hibiyashi-san," he said softly "Do I seem like I know how to tweak an aetheric-plasma engine?"
Sekai gave Silic a look like she might if a cockroach hopped up on her shoulder and wanted to talk. "To be honest, no. Which is why you asking for the engine cowlings to be opened scares the hell out of me."
Silic simply smiled "I have you here for the engines, I've never once had to directly modify them with your scrupulous attention. However, there is one little thing I want to adjust before take off, if you'll let me?" he begged. Not quite on his knees pleading begging, but of one professional to another simply wishing to do his trade.
"And what would that be?" Something was nagging Sekai, something about this soldier that she had heard about, but could not place at the moment.
Silic patted her shoulder gently "Trust an engineer." he said simply, before walking off to get to work.
"You haven't answered my question fly-boy. What is it you want?"
"Just to remove something the manufacturers left in by accident." he said as he heaved himself back onto the top of the fighter. "If we get back I'll treat you to something." he promised as he got to work. Hiromi put up several volumetric sheets in the air in front of him, he picked one and dismissed the others for now. Quickly uncapping a small cover and putting it aside before plugging in a small datajockey into an access port inside.
Seeing Silic on top of the fighter triggered the memory she was trying to recall. "It was you,.. you're the one who accosted poor Yagami-Heisho on Aqueous." Sekai said as the memory came forward.
Then with a defensive tone, "There is nothing in the engines that was left by accident by the manufacturers or my techs. So what is it that you do not like about the engines?"
Silic blushed at that particular memory, turned out he couldn't act completely cool even in a situation like this. He coughed slightly before answering as he stared down into his datajockey "Someone tried to leash the beast." He said, watching a progress bar wind itself up.
"About Yagami, she, uh..." he paused, face grimancing for a second "She made her objections felt." he said, coughing again in embaressment. Finished with that panel he moved on, leaving it for a tech to close up again as he detached his jockey and moved on to the panels on top of the engines. "Santo-hei, pass me that hammer! No, the bigger one!" he ordered the tool trolley neko quickly before turning back to Hibiyashi, hands splayed in a help-a-guy fashion. "Do I have to do this my self?" he asked her.
"I am not opening those panels until you explain what you want. I told you. You open those panels, and I'll ground the bird and you will miss the mission. So what is it you want to do to my engines?" Sekai said putting emphasis on the last words.
"Surely you know what a proportional control device is?" he said, waving his hands dismissively of the idea "Useless piece of garbage. You never wondered how forty-nine was pushing harder than the rest?" he said, face stony in the manner of someone trying very hard not to look chuffed at their own accomplishment.
"I disabled it and spoofed the system into thinking it was still functional whenever a routine diagnostic was performed. One of my best works, took me weeks to work out. Of course," he motioned to the fighter beneath him "I thought I had another three years before refit, when the entire thing would be discovered and I'd happily be a civilian again." his tongue clicked in annoyance.
"That explains the heat damage to the thruster directional controls, they have been scoring like they were getting too hot. We had to replace them twice already but the diags said everything was operating normally." Sekai slugged Silic in the shoulder, causing the man to grunt.
"You idiot. Sure you increased the thrust ratio, but you could have slagged the last stage of the engine. So you want more thrust. Fine, I'll take care of it, keep your hands off my engines. Got it." she said poking Silic in the check.
Silic put up with this treatment happily, answering with a perfectly serious "Yes, ma'am." inwardly though, he was smiling. Things were finally starting to turn around.
Sekai walked to the tail section and opened the engine cowlings, she took several tools out of her belt and began making the necessary adjustments. She was increasing the thrust output, and at the same time, reinforcing the internal shielding that protected the delicate later stages. Five minutes later the process was complete and she secured the cowlings and walked back to the front.
"Fly-boy, I boosted the output of your engines, and took care of what you forgot to increase the protective shielding for the engine components. She'll give you an extra 25% thrust when you ask for it. But watch the thermal readouts of the compressor. Because at that level, its going to spike and if it goes too high, you'll slag the engines. We survive this, battle. I will see what I can do to add some additional cooling to the compressor but there isn't time right now. Munkata-Heisho, your engines are going to give you more thrust. I suggest you use it sparingly or you and Flyboy will wind up with your backsides roasted." Sekai called out, she then turned to a couple of techs. "No... No... you idiots, you can't hook the missiles like that." she yelled crossing over to the offending techs.
"Excellent." Replied Silic, closing the last panel he'd been working on. His voice turned dead serious, he sniffed loudly and wiped his nose with a hand to signal a job well done. "This aircraft is now rated faster than her Highness's government deemed safe."
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