Welcome to Hellfire Squadron

[Bette Davis]

Flight Commander Bette Davis peeked through the glass insert of the door at the room full of fresh faced ensigns; newly minted pilots with barely enough sim time under their belts to be cleared for the real thing. This was some sort of torture, being assigned as an instructor for Hellfire Squadron.

She took a deep breath, noticing that there were a few fems in the squad. Looked like Empress Tarkin was doing her part to bring equal rights to the navy.

Bette walked into the room, and the buzz of conversation slowly died down as she took her place at the podium in front of the seated pilots. "Well, looks like they sent the cream of the crop this time. Or is it the dren that floats to the top?" She eyed them. "Guess I'll find out. You nuggets are going to pass, or you're going to fail. And believe me, failling in a real live TIE is nothing like it is in the simulator."

[Kidd Smix]

"Uh, Miss Flight Instructor ma'am?"

Sat dead centre in the front row was a young man holding his hand aloft. The Flight Instructor's eyes fell on him and he gave her the slightest of waves before allowing his hand to fall back into his lap. Like the others, he wore standard grey fatigues. He glanced apprehensively at his neighbours then leaned forward, speaking in an undertone with a thick country drawl.

"I have a question: are we to be issued with some of those space sickness pills? Don't get me wrong now, I don't reckon I wanna upchuck on the flight deck just like anyone else, but back in basic those things made me kinda loopy."

[Ryan Adder]

Captain Ryan Adder, call-sign Viper, couldn't help but shake his head. He was leaning against the back wall in the breifing room having been there even before all of the new recruits had shown up. Because of that he thought that at least some of them thought he was one of the recruits. For the moment he was happy to let them think that.

He was dressed in his black flight suit, and for the moment the patch on his shoulder was showing the Hellfire Squadron insignia on it rather then the vaunted Shadow Squadron one.

"Was this kid serious?" He thought.

He was struggling to hold in a laugh, and looking up he made eye contact with Bette letting a playful smirk cross his lips, giving her a silent "Here we go again...".

[Cael Bathala]

<meta http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> Two seats along from the kid with space sickness, Cael Bathala sighed under his breath. He was new to the Starfighter Corps and because of that he had known he would be assigned, initially, to a squadron of likewise inexperienced pilots. Yet, it hadn't occurred to him just how inexperienced they would be. On the upside, it seemed that he would finally get to see some real action soon. This was the moment he had been waiting for.

[Bette Davis]

"Space sickness pills."

Bette gave the kid her blankest look, studiously ignoring Adder in the back of the room. "Everyone will receive a standard ration of nausea meds. If you don't want to take them, don't. But if you puke in your helmet inside your TIE and suffocate during an exercise I will have to tell your mothers that their darling little nugget is dead because he didn't want to take his meds!"

She surveyed the seated pilots and seemed to be taller than her 5'6" frame in her flight suit. "Any more questions?!"

[Kidd Smix]

A heavy silence filled the void in the absence of the flight commander's hard-edged voice. Kidd swivelled in his seat, his head twisted dramatically to the left then to the right, scanning up and down the rows of pilots-to-be but they said nothing, not a sound other than a muffled cough from the back. Now facing forward, he raised his hand again.

"Another question if it's not too much trouble. Oh, double damnit!"

He snapped his fingers, his face twisted with disappointment, and he swept back an errant length of hair.

"Begging your pardon, Miss Flight Instructor ma'am, but I gone forgot to introduce myself proper like: Ensign Smix, Kidd, ma'am. There's been a whole lot of rumours all floating about lately. I heard fighter squadrons in the fleet won't no longer take on clone pilots on account of them all sounding alike over the comm and whatnot. Is this true?"

Turning briefly to a girl on his right, he gave her a friendly nudge and said, "You won't catch me complaining, let me tell you, those clonies give me the willies!"

[Cael Bathala]

Part of Cael wanted to step in and shut the kids mouth. Whether Smix realised it or not, his actions in this briefing session would mark – or rather tar – him for the entirety of his training. The flight commander would remember him and single him out as an example, trampling on his self-esteem as she made him into the squadron jester. On the other hand... better him than Bathala. He'd had his time in the limelight and, whats more, it wasn't down to him to stand up for anyone else. The rest of the 'nuggets' certainly weren't going to, were they?

Sighing, he lowered his eyes to the briefing materials that lay on the desk panel across his knees and shut his thoughts down to a basic level, in an effort to ignore and sense of sympathy that might be stirring inside.

[Kistra Dubreas]

Ensign Dubreas cringed upon contact, maybe not completely outwardly (though she seriously considered taking the briefing materials in front of her and clobbering him with them), but some inside part of her recoiled in absolute detest when Smix had the audacity to nudge her. She'd fought hard to be given the opportunity to be a part of this squad, took that for everything it was worth, and this kid's attempts to get her instantly singled out as part of his little show (whether he inteded it to be or not) wasn't appreciated. Boy was digging himself a hole and like hell she'd get dragged down with him.

She took the moment to give him a rather unfavorable look before readjusting her position in her seat to be leaning just a touch away from him. Boy wanted to make friends that was all well and good, they'd all be working with each other often enough, but for frak's sake this wasn't the time.

Little subtle leave me alone delivered, Dubreas' attention snapped back to the Flight Commander, some part of her secretly hoping the next few moments would involve her giving Smix a good verbal thrashing. Then maybe they could just get past this and on to why they were all actually here.

[Bette Davis]

"The disposition of any clones in the fleet is none of your concern. Any further interruptions you'll be cleaning the head while we take off into the big black. Do I make myself clear, Ensign?" Bette glared at the kid, Kidd, enough that his hair should have smoldered, and then turned her gaze to Adder in the back of the room.

"Captain Adder has your wing assignments, nuggets." She stepped to one side to allow the other instructor to take the podium.

[Ryan Adder]

(OOC: Bette and I decided that this would be a full training squadron. So filling the squadron out with NPCs. They will be referred to mostly, but if you want to refer to them or have a conversation or anything go ahead. If you have any questions PM me on my Xavier Synik account.)

IC:
Ryan pushed off the back wall and walked up to the front of the room and took his place behind the podium with a respectful nod to Bette, before looking each of the nine new pilot recruits in the eyes before looking down at the flimsy in his hand.

“Listen up nuggets. We’re splitting you into three flights. Gaff Barboy, Sallo Wooro, and Rush Dahn. Your Red Flight. Kidd Smix, Cael Bathala, and Kistra Dubreas, Gold Flight. Ban Starr, Lisa Arcturus, and Kaz Targon, Blue Flight.”

He tossed the flimsy he was reading off of onto the podium.

“Any questions?”

[Kidd Smix]

Kidd's excitement was suddenly palpable, his legs juddered of their own accord, sending vibrations all along his row, his fingers drummed the armrests, and when the nuggets were given the opportunity to ask questions, he quickly found something intensely fascinating with the ceiling, a knowing glint in his eyes. Fool me once, shame on- shame on you. Fool me- you can't get fooled again!

[Bette Davis]

"All right then, lets get out there and see if you can avoid flying into your wingmates."

Davis watched the nuggets stand up and file out of the briefing room, and exchanged a look with Adder. "I am a little worried that this is the best the Empire has to offer. I'll keep an eye on Mr. Bathala - we have pretty explicit instructions that he is not to be a training casualty."

[Cael Bathala]

It was inevitable that he'd been assigned to the same flight as Kidd Smix. He'd not had any nerves before, though, and Cael was damned if he was going to let something like this shake his confidence. The TIE fighter was a far more sophisticated machine than the swoops he was used to piloting, part and parcel of that being that the starfighters had a whole host of systems to assist whoever was at the controls. Maybe even a bunch of rooks like these could handle them. As they shuffled down the hallway, hopefully heading in the right direction, Cael glanced down to Smix. He was practically bursting with nervous excitement.

“It's just a practice run.. stay cool.”

[Kidd Smix]

"Oh, I'm good, buddy. I'm good. Cool as a cucumber here- Holy Nerfherder! You're Cael Bathala!"

Emotions tripped and tumbled over each other as Kidd was gripped in a state of star-struck bewilderment. He'd stopped suddenly prompting a chain reaction of collisions in the crowd, curses and insults went unnoticed as the rest of the newbies shuffled past. In his excitement, he'd siezed Cael by the arm and now they found themselves behind the rest.

"Team Tagge! Six seasons! Oh man, I saw you race the Plooriod 940 last year! You sure had a knock-down-drag-out-ring-a-dinger with Bim Fumble on the final lap, I remember it like it were yesterday, shame about the crash-out though. Gotta admit, I'm a Kamino Crossi fan myself. You know, Team Flash SoroSuub? Course you do! Anyways, nice meeting you, man! Kidd Smix!"

He grinned and with piston-powered enthusiasm extended an open hand.

[Kistra Dubreas]

Kistra had decided it was probably best to hang back a few steps behind most of the other trainees since that was where the other two in her flight had fallen back to. Admittedly her heart had sunk a bit when she heard her name follow those of Smix and Bathala, but a forceful reminder that she should consider herself lucky to have even made it that far brought an abrupt end to any sort of moping that may have happened.

Though as Kidd began his exuberant remarks on Cael's past as a racer she instantly found a sigh passing from her and began busying herself by running over all the simulation scenarios from the academy that came to mind.

[Cael Bathala]

It was the first time, since his transfer to the Navy, that Cael had gotten such a reaction. Whatever people thought about his past as a swoop-racer, they seemed to keep it to themselves, although a few sour look glances told him that there were at least a few academy-trained pilots who didn't take kindly to an interloper in their midst. With a half-smile, he extracted himself from the vice-like handshake Smix had planted on him.

“Big on racing, huh?” He glanced at the woman walking alongside them, their flight-mate. “What about you, Dubreas? You into sports?”

[Kidd Smix]

"Oh, Kistra!" Kidd blurted out upon seeing her, "Check it out!"

Eagerly, and buzzing with glee, he presented her unceremoniously before her famous flightmate. He raised his open hand as he announced:

"Kistra, I'd like you to meet Cael Bathala. Three times Repulso 400 champion and former champion in the Imperial 600-Class. Made his debut at the Zephyr-G Narmle Memorial Rally aaand is undisputed master of the Keren City Street Race! Hey!"

Suddenly, he fell into rank alongside Cael and beamed.

"You got a holocam?"

[Kistra Dubreas]

With the attention suddenly shifted to her, Kistra found herself suddenly wishing she had brought along at least one of the flimsis from the briefing room, then at least she could have pretended to be caught up in reading that she hadn't heard them. A small sigh left her as she glanced over at Cael as he was introduced by Smix and she forced a small smile.

"Uhh, sorry... nope. Uhm, to both questions, I guess. Never really could get into any of that stuff..." A small sudden shake of her head came with the realization of how she must have sounded to them.

"Not that I don't understand them. I know the rules of most of them, I have a cousin that plays Grav-ball professionally and my father took me to a few Wegsphere games. I haven't really ever seen any races though..." Her voice trailed off again before her cheeks suddenly flushed.

"Sorry, I'm ramblings... just nervous."

[Cael Bathala]

Smix had thrown an arm around his shoulder, though Cael shrugged it off with a faint wince. A few people passing them in the hallway were casting them looking at them with raised eyebrows. Maybe a few of them recognised the former Team Tagge racer, but he doubted many shared his flight-mates enthusiasm.

“Enough, Kidd. I'm a pilot the same as all the other Hellfire nuggets. Nothing special, alright?”

[Kidd Smix]

"Oh, yeah. No, I mean, of course. I understand. Just one of the normal people."

His middle and index fingers flexed a pair of quotation marks in the air before he gave Cael a hearty pat on the arm and turned to Kistra. He nodded sympathetically, his hair bounced, and hooked his thumbs into the pockets in his flightsuit.

"I undertand, Kistie, I do. You've been partnered up with a couple of handsome, rugged guys and you feel intimidated because you're a girl. It's only natural you don't understand things like sports. And don't be nervous, no-one expects you to keep up with us, it don't matter - we got your back, girl! Welcome to the team!"

He unholstered his hands from his pockets and fired them off at Kirsta like a pair of guns. Pa-pow! He then blew off the smoke and gave her a friendly wink. What a guy!

[Kistra Dubreas]

If her father hadn't taught her better (and if she wasn't already terrified of earning a tongue lashing from their flight instructors) she might have considered slapping Smix. Might have. Well, she certainly would consider it but she couldn't actually bring herself to do it. The men at the academy had teased her relentlessly, but somehow it still managed to get to her.

Kistra offered Smix a weak smile that she forced. "Thanks..." Her father had taught her to never show anyone your weaknesses. Not that she was very good at that most days.