Starfighter Command - check-in and planning

[fieldpromoted]

So! We haven't done anything lately! I feel like Starfighter is getting a bit boring, which is nuts because they're hotshot pilots, it should be anything but boring!

I realize I've been a bit lax in organizing and putting up open posts lately, and for that I'm sorry. Before the next big advancement in Plot, I thought it would be nice to take a brief roll-call and also talk over some ideas I have of what we can do.

First of all, if you have a character in Starfighter or someone who'd like to join, please comment here. Anyone who's done a thread with Trudy trying out in a combat capacity is considered in the department if they want to be, and people with piloting experience are pretty much a shoe-in.

Second, what would you guys like to see more of? Training exercises? Pilots shooting the breeze with each other in the mess hall? Regular PT or drills? I'd like to hear from everyone else in the department.

The idea I had was for a joint training exercise with the Task Force when it gets implemented, a kind of 'worst-case scenario' modeled to look like the crew is practicing repelling another Space Pirate invasion. In reality, the mooks' abilities would be modeled pretty closely after what the crew knows of the Kessek and the Daligig, secretly training the military to repel a Daligig invasion in case the whole thing goes sideways.

And as a last bit of kind of sad news, I've pretty much lost Wash (flieswithdinos)'s voice so unfortunately I'm dropping him. I had a lot of fun with him on the meatship but I think I'm much stronger with my other characters and I haven't done anything with him in months. That leaves us without a pilot and, effectively, without a bridge crew for the Macross Quarter. Consider this an open call for another pilot and more bridge crew :)

So now that I've posted an unorganized tl;dr, please check in and let me know your opinion and any ideas you have for getting this department out of the land of handwave and into something fun again.

Comments

[zouichi]

Zouichi is still hanging out in Skull Squadron. I think I'd like to see more CR between people in Starfighter. Just generally doing things together. I'm presuming that they do training exercises and so on, but it doesn't look like they really hang out together in their off-hours or have much cohesion as a group.

It doesn't even have to be a big complicated thing, even, just maybe going out as a group to party on shore leave or hanging out at Hunter's Pad or something.

[fieldpromoted]

Hunter's Pad does seem like it would be the go-to place for the pilots to hang out, since one of their own manages it and all.

I agree that I've been mostly handwaving their daily activities. I mean, they're a military, it's basically drills and training exercises which are boring to thread out.

[its_me_curzon]

Ezri here can do pilotty/bridge-crew things! I'm pretty sure she took the comm most often during the show, but Jadzia was pilot and she's pretty equally capable of doing both.

Also echoing Tetra. Mess-hall stuff, Starfighter parties, that kind of thing seems like it would be good to make it seem like a more cohesive unit. screenings of Top Gun maybe

[especially_the_lies]

The Defiant

[fieldpromoted]

That would be awesome. I need to look up the Quarter's relative size next to Starfleet ships, but it's the same principle as piloting a very large warship.

That can also transform into a giant robot.

[shroudedintent]

From what I recall the Quarter is 500m long so roughly 4-5 times longer than a defiant and about as long as the Enterprise D, a bit smaller than the Enterprise E though. It is quite the agile assault carrier though.

Here's a technical look at it.

[shroudedintent]

Echoing Farasha that having her as an officer on the Quarter would be awesome! She'd definitely be welcome as pilot for the Quarter.

[expendable_mind]

Favoritest pilot ever reporting in! XD

Actually the last post with Trudy was a lot of fun, and I agree that it'd be really neat to have the troop hang out more once in a while. I mean I'm sure they do every so often, but it'd be nice to thread.

Also a drill or an over all 'We're the cool kids in the mess hall' type of deal would be cool, Top Gun kinda deal you know?

But I'm game for anything and everything, you know me ^^b

[fieldpromoted]

I love the mess hall idea. Logically they all have lunch hour at the same time so they'd come to the mess together, probably eat together and leave together. That's got a lot of threading opportunity in it.

[expendable_mind]

Aye, would be a great way to show the comradery between Starfighter Command and how they interact with the rest of the crew. Might be the same, might be different! But the image certainly seems really cool, like one of those cheesy 90's military crew photo finishers where they're all huddled up making faces or looking badass in the picture at the end of the movie XD

Starfighter Command represent!

[chosenfamily]

Sam's still around!

I don't have any ideas at the moment, but he's still being his fanboy self in Rogue Squadron.

[punchedoutdestiny]

Still here - dunno if Simon ever really got assigned to any squadron, though. Would he get chewed for lashing out against the Daligig like he did at the Punishment?

I like the idea of training against pirate-daligigs, though.

Maybe a thread for a little booze and sharing some of their stories from their experience might work for some getting along. Perhaps disguised as a random extra set of training until everyone actually shows up. Get marched off to some area to lounge - maybe Hunter's Pad that Tetra mentioned - and then "hey okay let's hang out".

[fieldpromoted]

The idea of Trudy marching them into Hunter's Pad and then telling them their assignment is to get wasted is too funny not to pass up. This has to happen now.

Simon would've been assigned to Blade Squadron, since that's where the mechs are.

[punchedoutdestiny]

ALRIGHT BOYS AND GIRLS, TIME FOR A TEAM-BUILDING EXERCISE, WITH OUR GUEST INSTRUCTORS JIM BEAM, JOSE CUERVO, AND CAPTAIN MORGAN!

Ah, okay! Thankee.

[poorlycopingstrategist]

Jamie's still in Rogue Squadron, though I've been thinking about pulling him out.

That notwithstanding, I do like the idea of logging out lunch in the mess hall or hanging out at Hunter's or the tavern or someplace. I was thinking about this subject a couple months ago and thought about the entire org getting sent on a mission off-ship somewhere, but I didn't get much further than that.

[fieldpromoted]

A lot of people like the mess hall idea so I'll be putting up an open log for them all to hang out and shoot the breeze sometime next week. Work sucks so IDK when it'll be exactly.

[17thangel]

Maria's a pilot of a big damn robot and spends a lot of time in the hangar, but she's not exactly sure who she has to talk to about actual official combat piloting.

[fieldpromoted]

That would be Trudy! If you want to handwave her trying out for Starfighter, which basically just involves running a flight sim so Trudy can make sure she knows what the hell she's doing, we can get her into the department. Or if you want we can log it out, or if you want she can catch Trudy either during one of the open logs I'm going to put up or in a closed log between the two of them. Up to you :)

[17thangel]

Given how her robot works, I think I'd rather have her meet Trudy first. I'll definitely keep an eye out for her.