westerncontinent | Starfighter AU

Starfighter AU

[Space. A frontier of infinite possibility and resources, desired by Gaia's governments and businesses both. Shinra especially, lodged deep within several countries' energy and military production, was gung-ho about the possibilities of mining in space from the start, and with their money and sometimes expertise, the people of Gaia reached their moon, and beyond.

Space isn't just full of opportunities, however, as they soon found out. No one had actually thought aliens existed, but they did.

Attempts at communication didn't work, and initially, fighting seemed impossible too, the aliens capable of shape shifting and wreaking havoc on the human side. It was, however, slowly dealt with. Methods to find the aliens were found, so infiltration attempts could no longer be easily and even less successfully enacted.

It was then a matter of making sure their planet was safe, and create a buffer zone.

(You want to do what? This is---

It'll go in our ships you buffoon, not the soldiers, though that would undoubtedly be far more successful. Well?

... All right.)

Shinra's technology proved to be the most effective, and they were not sharing their secrets, assuring them great income from various governments and other businesses wanting to protect their assets (and the planet). Few noticed there might be something odd - it was only practical the ships had two crew, one pilot/navigator and one gunner. It was only great luck that sometimes, a pair here and there seemed capable of much greater destruction than those two-man fighters ought to be capable of.

It worked, what did anything else matter?

Cloud Strife has attempted to join West Continent Allied Defense as a gunner for years, ever since he was first allowed to enter the preparatory academy at fifteen (they did not allow you into ships until seventeen at the earliest). He knows he can do it, that he would be good at it.

It seems no one else agrees, because he's consistently put as a navigator in all assessments.

Cloud Strife is deeply, burningly frustrated over this, but he does have a plan. It hasn't gone very well so far - he's has two gunners in four months - but he just needs to prove he can be even better as a gunner than a navigator. He knows he can.]

Navigator Strife, meet your new gunner, Zack Fair. Gunner Fair, this is Cloud Strife. [Commander Lazard stares at them over his raised screen, and Cloud does not glare sullenly at him, just stares with detached annoyance at the wall behind and to the side of Lazard's head. He can feel the disapproving look.] I'm sure you'll get along. Assigned quarters are F376, Deck C. Dismissed.

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[~~Absolutely, 100% SURE, Zack. Thank you.~~

Cloud just stares down, ignoring the stink-eye until he's got a foot in his face and Zack gets a stink-eye on his own as he shoves said foot away. Gently, just to be sure, but shoving it nonetheless.]

Shock can delay pain, y'know.

[Pointedly. But he stands up and holds a hand out for Zack to take.]

[ Zack takes that deserved shove in stride. Then takes Cloud's offered hand next. An actual offered hand rather than the dirty look and the uncomfortable wait for him to get back on his feet.

Zack stares at it for a second anyway before he finally seems to blink himself back into awareness and take it, heaving himself back onto his feet with a grunt. ] It can delay it, yeah, but it would have started bothering me by now. We can keep going.

[ ...Though he's pointedly not hurrying down the rest of the stairs like he once was. Maybe that reality checked him a little bit, too. Reminded him of just where they're going... ]

[He's trying, okay? But also, Cloud was a little shaken by Zack's fall, and he doesn't dislike him enough to not help, even if Zack does seem to be okay.]

Okay.

[Rolling his eyes, Cloud might still let go of some tension, if the way his shoulders droop as he stands up is anything to go by. Zack, at least, seems to have had something of a reality check and doesn't barrel down the stairs again. It'd been impressive, sure, and Cloud had almost been tempted himself, just to prove he could, too, despite his shorter legs, but...

Probably better this way.]

We're taking, a break, before we're doing these squats.

[Because his legs? Are definitely protesting going first up and now back down all these stupid stairs in short order. It wouldn't be fair, to either of them, if they then went into squats as soon as they've gotten down and to wherever they're doing this.]

Guess we could run another simulation in the meantime.

[ He does his best to refrain from making a face at that idea. He really does. No need to make their feelings about their last run or the results of their next ones anymore... Well. Negqtive.

His pace might have slowed the moment they turn the corner and meet the doors back to the simulators though. Doesn't stop him from entering again though. Or registering at a different one, sliding inside and strapping himself in. He starts scrolling through the choices idly. ]

So... What are we thinking this time? Know we should go for open space again...

Edited 2020-02-24 17:03 (UTC)

That...

[Opening his mouth, closing it, and then opening it again before he shakes his head, he follows Zack, but finally, as he's sitting there staring at the blank screen, Cloud grimaces.]

Y'know, this wasn't what I meant. [Because he's not so sure it's a good idea.] Isn't there...

[Frowning, he taps his fingers against the armrest.]

Aren't there some scenarios, that don't have enemies?

[Cloud has no idea what those are for. Do some navigators use those to ease into things, or what? He never saw the use of it.]

[ There's a.... very long pause for an answer at first. And maybe it's far for the best that they currently can't see each other's expression for the look that crosses Zack's face. But... Cloud probably. Has a point if a painful one. And maybe.... ]

Dunno. [ He answers that hoarsely anyway. Clears his throat and then starts tapping through things. ] But.. probably. There ought to be a setting for it. Let me see if... I can remember...

[ It takes a couple little tweaks here and there, but... ] I think that's it?

[The longer the silence drags out, the harder it is for Cloud not to squirm, and he's just about to take his suggestion back when Zack finally speaks up. For as practical as the intent might be - hoping things might get easier for Zack if they simulate doing the thing they have to do and guaranteed having no enemies showing up - it might be too soon. Too pointed of a suggestion.]

Sorr--- [Zack doesn't get out of the pod or pointedly choose one of the regular scenarios, though, and Cloud swallows the rest of his apology. Still, he's tense as he grasps the controls.]

... yeah, that's it.

[He hopes this wasn't a bad idea.]

[ He... really hopes so, too. Even as he goes and loads one up shortly after. It... isn't a space one at least. That just seems too easy. Maybe even insulting. So, a canyon, it is. But there's no enemies or allies to speak of. Just them.. slowly coasting above the clouds and Zack bites his cheek anyway. Almost runs his mouth right out but stops himself. ]

..Hey. Can I just see how you fly for a bit?

[ Admittedly... understanding Cloud's handling might be the first way to go. Even he can see that much. ]

... Sure.

[Making sure that he has control and keeps them steady as the opening of the scenario drops all control of the "ship", Cloud relaxes into his seat. Takes them for a dive - nothing like the sharp maneuvers he'd tried in the first scenario - down through the clouds and into the canyon, frowning thoughtfully.]

If we start with that, what, um... what do you say, to shoot at the rocks, later?

[He's not intending to keep his flying lazy through the whole thing, that wouldn't help Zack in the least, but if they take this in stages, maybe...]

...I guess that'd be a start.

[ He can't really hide some of his reluctance towards the idea, but... he also can't deny it would be probably just as beneficial. It just feels more and more like going backwards, too, but.

One step at a time. Get the basics back and right. He runs his hand across the dashboard and takes a slow breath as he watches the simulated ground and sky zooming by. ]

So, what made you decide to become a pilot anyway?

Uh-huh.

[A start. It's not where they ought to be, but it's where they have to be, at the moment. Cloud focuses on the canyon, speeds up. Turns the fighter sideways - or goes through the motions of doing so, anyway, the pod doing its best to simulate the effect of his chosen maneuver - thundering through a narrower spot between the cliffs.

Bites his lip at Zack's question, but evens them out with firm certainty despite the squirming blush on his cheeks. Nothing had made him decide that, because a pilot wasn't what he'd wanted to be, but---

He isn't, can't, tell Zack that.]

Wanted to, make sure, mom and someone else, um, important to me, would be safe.

[True enough.]

Wanted to show that I could.

[That he hadn't planned to say, and there was an embarrassingly bitter (and honest) edge to the words.]

Sounds like you gotta thing for someone if you ask me.

[ If he's out to prove himself like that? If he's out to show them he can do it? Yeah. That definitely sounds like some kind of crush. Makes Zack snort, feeling a little lighter than usual as he thinks on that. It's definitely not just about his mom. There's no way.

Which is enough for him to egg further. ]

Well, do you?

What!

[Somehow, somehow, Cloud manages not to yank on the controls and risk sending them into the cliffside. Not that it's real, but it'll have effects anyway and Cloud refuses to be the one to mess up. He's done so enough.]

What's that, got to do, with anything?

[Hissing, he yanks them into a sudden loop - he gets proximity warnings for the narrower top of the canyon scraping the wingtips, but no real damage done, so it's fine.]

Edited 2020-02-26 12:48 (UTC)

Well-

[ He starts- and tries really hard not to sound so jarred when Cloud swings them for a literal loop as hard as he does. Something that ends in a half-forced, half-genuine chuckle when Cloud straightens them out. ]

That answers my question. You definitely gotta thing for someone.

N--- so what?

[Furiously embarrassed, now, and well-aware of how much that crush doesn't matter, probably never will, Cloud glares at the screen in front of them and viciously tosses their simulated ship through a series of sharp, more or less risky maneuvers down the canyon, at speeds that wouldn't be (easily, anyway) possible if he had to keep track of enemies as well.]

It doesn't matter.

[Because it doesn't. Why would Tifa ever notice him now, anyway?]

Cloud-

[ He yelps that out as soon as he has to put a hand over his mouth a second. It's- been a while. And an even longer one since he's been on such a jerky ride, simulation or not. Angeal-

But Angeal's not there and Cloud's- ] Okay, okay! I get it! I'm gonna lose my lunch like this!

[ And that would be an embarrassing thing to explain to the higher ups. He's not exactly a novice. ]

[Grunting, he evens them out, coasting along the broad canyon they're currently in. That... hadn't been particularly mature. He doesn't feel particularly sorry about it, but it hadn't been particularly mature. On the other hand...]

... What if I need, to fly like that? Hasn't it... happened before?

[It's kinda odd someone who might end up throwing up, and just in a simulation, has gotten as far as Zack. Not like Cloud can say much - it's taken stubborn work and, early on, some motion sickness meds, to get him to where he is. And admittedly, he sometimes still needs them. Might be pushing himself with these maneuvers right now, what with not having taken anything beforehand. Might, but not necessarily will, anymore.]

It has, but. I dunno... It's been a while.

[ Since he's ever flown with someone else. Since he's ever flown with such a jerky flyer. Since... a lot of things, really, he's starting to realize. It makes him feel a bit ridiculous to think of just... how much he had depending on Angeal's flying in a way.

And just how much he's going to have to let that go.

It has him quiet again, thinking... ]

I'll... space it out?

[Cloud is pretty sure it's mostly a matter of Zack needing to get used to it. He hasn't had any complaints before, no matter how badly he might have gotten along with his other gunners. He hopes it's only that, at least.

Zack's quiet, and while Cloud doesn't say anything either, he also doesn't keep them on that lazily coasting course. He doesn't immediately throw them back into wild, sharp maneuvers either, but he does turn off into a narrower canyon, requiring more thought in how he flies, trying to smother the urge to also speed up as much as possible to make it more of a challenge.

Stages.

Bits and pieces. Right. He can do that.]

[ Spacing it is better than nothing. Spacing mean progress. Even if it feels.... like really slow progress.

But Zack can't say he's about to complain. Not when Cloud goes out of his way. Smooths out his ride some. It... gives him a little better of a feel of his handling. Lets him focus more on that than anything. That also means feeling things out in a better place when he decides to go into that canyon as he does. ]

You know... you really choke your handling when you move.

[ He notes it belatedly. Never mind Cloud might not be looking for that kind of feedback, but. ]

... Anything else you like to comment on?

[No, Cloud really isn't looking for feedback, and his snappy tone probably more than adequately reveals it. It also... just makes him feel defensive. He is good at this, as little as he would actually like to be, so Zack then finding issue with the way he flies grates.

As if even this, too, despite what he knows about his skills, isn't good enough either.]

[ Zack realizes his mistake too little too late. Bites his lip and then sinks into his seat rather than sitting alert like he ought to. ]

No- Just... Never mind.

[ Like he should be talking here. Not with his piss poor scores lately. ]

[Relaxing a little in his seat, though still defensive, Cloud nods sharply even if Zack can't see it. He doesn't... feel that much better, but the lack of further commentary is at least something of a relief.

After a couple moments where Cloud does a few loops out of and into the canyon, he evens out, watching the simulated scenery.]

... Why don't you start, trying to aim for the rocks?

[It's not exactly a peace offering - Cloud still isn't too happy. But it's a distraction, for both of them, hopefully.]

Sounds exciting.

[ The sarcasm dripping off those words is a touch more self-deprecating than he might have meant. But Zack finally does take up the controls. Bites his lip and takes aim. He doesn't shoot immediately though. Just... stares at them. Then narrows his eyes and focuses again.

There's a flit of something that crosses his expression and he jerks suddenly, shooting far off the mark he made for himself. Curses shortly after and just shoots- and shoots. And shoots some more. He might as well take down the entire damn side of that canyon for all he cares at the moment. ]

Don't have to---

[Grumbling, shoulders hunching up a little, Cloud knows his handling gets rougher for a few seconds before he catches himself, smooths out. Don't let him get to you, Strife.

And Zack does start up, even if it is kinda dumb. But it's some place to start, and even if heedlessly firing at the whole cliffside does absolutely nothing for finesse, what the hell. If that's what Zack needs to do, then he can do it. It's not as if it matters; they're wasting neither laser charges nor missiles, and Cloud has nothing against turning the "ship" belly up against the side and fly sideways, along the canyon, giving Zack the most easy exposure to the canyon's wall for the guns.]

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