>>6051581"Our Navigators seem keen to show off their skills so why don't we take this to the flight simulators?" You suggest to the Commander.
"Ha. You're on! Let’s make it two-on-two.” Matthew turns to his crew. “Rika, stop trying to gnaw Neb’s arm off. He’s going to be your co-pilot.”
The tall, Ulveng Tactical officer sets down the comparatively tiny Marrok obediently and gives a solemn nod — immovable even as the annoyed navigator contemptuously kicks at his shins.
“You've flown an AS-24 ‘Foxbat’ before right?” The Commander asks, smirking since he knows the answer already.
"No, not extensively but…Hey, Coen? You’ve competed for high scores with the flight crew in the sims before right?"
“I set the latest record, Sir, yes.” He replies without even looking up from his datapad.
>Coen gains the Pilot(B) Skill.The smile slips from Cdr Cooper’s face as you give him a smug look of your own. It’s not going to be as easy a win as he imagined.
“Well Cleo?” You call to the riled up wolf, “How about it? You and Coen will fly and-”
"Oooh, oooh! SHOTGUN!" Kiro squeaks, hopping up and down excitedly having finally extricated himself from Isobel’s surprisingly strong headlock.
“-Kiro and I will ride along as co-pilots, then.” You glance at your other two crew members but they seem fine with these arrangements. Or at least not too upset.
“Hmmf. You can go pretend you’re fighter aces, then. Comm me if you decide to actually practice on the bridge, you know… our <span class="mu-i">real</span> duties?” EoN flicks her plumicorns in mild disapproval and strides over to your Comms officer with purpose.
“Let’s be on our way,Isobel. Let these hotheads sort out their issues while we do some legwork.”
“I was actually hoping to chase down some rumours about-” Isobel begins, hopefully.
“No, none of that today Ms Buxton!” The Science officer immediately cuts her off, taking charge. “There’s a certain owl who has yet to show his face at lunch and I might need your unique brand of charm to help <span class="mu-i">bring him to the table</span>…”
EoN gives the other woman a meaningful look, and the savvy Comms officer catches on quick.
They excuse themselves and leave the mess — off to convince Finder-of-Zephyrs to help with the investigations — if you’re reading between the lines correctly.
Without further ado, you finalise the details of your competition with the Beta bridge Commander and shake hands. It’s only a short walk down the recreation deck before you find yourself at the sim-pod compartments. Each team takes a free room each, eager to begin the competition, and quickly strap into the pods.
Each sim-pod supports a number of methods of connecting to the simulation, from the slim data jack used for artech wetware like your command implant, to the more robust if lower tech versions the marines and armour jockeys tend to use. Finally there's a simple headset and haptic stimulator which allows for the unaugmented to have a less realistic but still fairly immersive experience.