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4.2 - Old Hands
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0600 - Hoki awoke with near second-perfect accuracy, before promptly beginning her morning routine - Today was likely to be an important occasion. She made her way to the wash rooms before having a light breakfast and heading back to her quarters.
Her uniform today was a sight for sore eyes. IAFS being a collation group didn't have an overly formal dress sense, with it being easier to allow x-soldiers from the likes of TSU and Remembrance to wear parts of their old attire, instead of trying to regulate things too stringently. Considering her previous life as 'TSU Vijaik Cadet Hoki Bachika' her dress-sense had little differences in this regard, wearing for the most part an edited TSU uniform, with all its old insignias delicately removed, in their place instead was the IAFS logo; One would be forgiven for thinking IAFS, an ad-hoc rebellion group would be without a mass-produced logo - However despite the organisation's lack of some fundamental structures like an admiralty or country of origin, their largest financial backer had insisted on having a logo. A simple affair of a rectangle portraying the 4 letters that stood for 'Independent Alliance of Free States' in embossed writing on the back of a plain metallic background.
These lapels were handed out at nauseum and while Hoki was no doubt glad to have something presentable for her gear in lieu of her old official markings, there was a very commercial air about the priority given to branding.
This was especially prevalent now as Hoki finished straitening out her best dress uniform. It had until recently seen regular use when she had been an instructor, as well as spokesperson for the organisation - Now an official pilot, it was the first occasion in some time she'd had cause to don it.
A slick get-up, from a high rimmed collar all the way down to a lengthy dress skirt, buttoned with serene silver catches up the torso region, to contrast the black of the material - With a similarly silver belt of sorts around its centre point.
All finished off with a pair of smart jet black boots and a military issue cap.
Even with the somewhat odd IAFS logo dotted about it, the uniform conveyed a sense of poise and formality, that if anything made Hoki a little uncomfortable as she looked over herself in her rooms large wardrobe mirror.
It wasn't that it didn't suit her, indeed she was almost painfully aware that it suited her perfectly, rather she disliked the fact that it was such a perfect match.
Combined with her hair, now tied in an appropriately short, single brown ponytail, her narrow yet well formed face, along with her tall stature - And Hoki looked the picture of a perfect up & coming military-officer.
Sighing once more she straightened the edges and messed with the cap's angle a little more before exiting her room.
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0649 - Hoki's room, like all the pilots, was held with-in the officer's block of the warship.
She had at first been displeased at being given a room easily large enough for 3 bunks, all to herself but as had been pointed out to her, if she was the only pilot to sleep in the barracks that would probably make her stand out even more then getting the single room. In fact aside from Una (who herself only had a single roommate) all four of the ship's other pilots resided in this one corridor, a narrow lane of blank metallic walls with periodic doors into rooms and a roof height little more than said doors.
All along everyone of these pale surfaces was a symmetrical lining of visible rivets, ever present to remind everyone whom walked those halls that they were on a spaceship and not some nice hotel.
Hoki's room was to the far end of this corridor, to its right lay Scarlet's room. Separated by only a narrow wall both Scarlet and Hoki had (subconsciously or otherwise) made a point of stacking furniture against
Across the hallway from where she now stood was an identical door belonging to some Junior officer she had never been properly acquainted with. One more beyond that, to its right, stood the door to Kolme Niles's room which she now made her way over too, standing at attention to one side of the door.
Although she had only been inside a half-dozen times to deliver reports and what-not, Kolme's room tended to leave an impression on people. It had the regular officer's bed with large suspender field, as well as a fairly regular office desk and indented wall terminal. There was also a fairly normal storage unit for clothes.
The rest however stood out a bit more.
Unlike most aboard the Fluchtig who kept possessions to a minimum Kolme seemed intent on leaving no space untouched. Inside a fairly small space, he had added in a large handmade bookcase, a tea trolley along with other kitchen utilises (like a toaster and microwave) - A wide armchair, an entirely useless hat-stand and even a ragged & slightly singed rug, bolted down to the floor to prevent its floating away.
This was foremost of all highlighted by the hole: A window shaped object, like one might have between a living room and a kitchen in an old fashioned building - Except this one gave a direct window into the neighbouring room of Sabban Vint.
Sabban seemed impassive about the whole thing, when Hoki had asked if he felt his privacy had been infringed upon, the young man had simply shrugged saying he was more used to shared accommodation to begin with and that he believed Kolme probably felt the same way.
It was this man that Hoki now waited for. She had arrived 10 minutes early so she stood quietly outside the door to the infamous room. People passed sometimes giving her dress-uniform an intrigued look but no one in-particular felt the need to strike up a conversation, all busy with their own duties.
At one point Miss.Cally passed and the two shared a passing nod before the younger woman hurried along to her own destination.
'I really must thank her some time for treating Una so well.' Hoki mused to herself as she continued waiting.
0710 - It had in actuality been Kolme's idea to meet for 7.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
At an hour before the meeting proper began, it would give them ample time to go over the agenda in more detail as well as arrive with plenty time to spare. That had been what he had suggested atleast....
0718 - Still standing in that same hallway Hoki suppressed an urge to shuffle about on her feet. Things were getting a little more awkward now that a couple individuals had passed by her more than once, that moment when you politely nod at someone for the second time in one day, was not lost to her.
'Is this how my students used to feel when I asked them to wait after a lecture?'
0729 - Still waiting patiently in that same corridor, Hoki's mind began to wonder. Thinking about the lieutenant and wearing her best uniform while standing at attention, had reminded her of what life had been like up until just recently. She thought back to her time on Abhaile as both a speical instructor to x-cadets like Sabban and Una, aswell as her duties as a spokesperson for IAFS. The many endless dreadful conferences and bureaucratic functions. Of course such a role had never been her intention.
Trained traditionally at Eastern Bhaile's premiere piloting academy, the daughter of the Eastern-Front's most famous war hero, heir to a line of ancient warriors - Piloting had always been her goal. However after IAFS was formed was when it had gone awry, her father and his people arrested, with only her and a handful of TSU secrets and just two 'retainers' managing to escape into space.
Well after such a dramatic turn of events it was no wonder no one would take her on as a regular pilot. Everyone was too afraid, the rate of Vijaik-pilot casualties was morbid to say the least and no ship's Captain wanted to be the person who got 'Thee Hokuai Heir' killed.
That was until a certain square faced man had appeared.
A man built like a small bungalow, with a blond head of short hair that had already begun balding in places. A man who had looked more like a bodybuilding advertisement for middle aged men, rather then the captain of any warship:
'Commander Nate Novel', Captain of the good ship Am Fluchtig.
Apparently the man had no qualms with having Hoki aboard and before long she found herself tasked with putting together a dossier of potential pilots, to form a new experimental team to replace the Fluchtig's, at the time depleted compliment.
First had been Scarlet, who Hoki had thought a great find... Until being informed by the higher ups that she was by no means to be given any authority following the end of her recent stint in a military prison - Something Scarlet herself seemed to be a supporter of.
So with Scarlet out of the picture as a leader and having been made aware the ship's actually team leader, Miss.Emilia was loaned on secondment to the Battleship Tradech more often than not - Hoki had set about finding a suitable recommendation for acting squad leader.
There had been many a candidate of course, but almost all the one's she interviewed or contacted ended up declining, after all anyone with experience already had a posting and a squad of their own, with no good reason to throw that all away to join some potentially dangerous test group.
But then the candidate had seemingly come to her just when her search was growing most desperate. A request from a man at the time known as "Petty Officer Kolme Nilas."
Well to say 'a' request was putting it lightly. According to the records she could find, in the months since the war's beginning the man had requested a transfer off of the Tradech atleast 4 times a month, every-month.
Even more interestingly his most recent letter (and they were bizarrely physical letters) had included an extra stipulation that a "Crewman Sabban Vint" should also be allowed to transfer.
It was Sabban's name that had initially caught Hoki's eye, as one of her best former student she had already planned to have him join the team but now she had 2 volunteers.
Further this 'Petty Officer' had all the qualifications she could of asked for. Around a decade of combat experience in Vijaiks, a veteran of 'The First War' and the 'Remembrance Incident', aswell as one of the very first people to be issued the current Neo-Type Vijaik - Supposedly the third none prototype unit to ever have been produced, labelled 'Unit 03' - Moreover, while his stats were nothing asountding, they had been more then suitable for the role.
That in a roundabout fashion was how Hoki had come to meet Kolme Nilas. It was in reality little more then a month ago, although it felt far longer. Her initial meetings with him had been...trepidatious, the man was scruffy, loud spoken and brash. She had quickly grown concerned that while he would be fine as a member of the squad, she would need to continue her search for a suitable command figure.
Yet during the first interview between Kolme, herself and the Captain, Nate had taken an immediate liking to Kolme, putting him forward for the promotion and officially assigning Sabban as his wingman. Hoki remembered how her hopes had sank, she'd been convinced at that point Nate Novel was a buffoon who had picked Kolme solely on his potential as a future drinking partner.
To her Surprise however, as time passed Kolme had proved to be not quite as unsuitable as she had first thought.
True he seldom dressed like an officer, or talked like one and his paperwork was haphazard at best...
And yet In spite of it all he was an attentive leader, he made sure to keep everyone on their toes, always came for the more important weapon tests, participated in practise sessions, knew just about everyone on the ship by first name (which was an achievement in itself considering the size of the vessel) and was generally aware of everything that went on.
'Sure maybe not a conventional Commander but it could certainly be worse.'
0739 - 'Well punctuality isn't everything.....'
0742 - .............
0744 - .......
0745 - "Alrigth this is getting out of hand!" Hoki proclaimed aloud to no one in-particular.
She glanced at her wrist mounted screen once more before finally deciding to make a move, turning to the door she had now nested patiently beside for so long, rose one fisted hand and knocked with 4 perfectly symmetrical beats against the light metal roadblock.
THUD!
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