Stricken || Captain Striker

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

October 2nd
2100 Hours

One thing was a constant in Lieutenant Gilyov's life... flight training. Simulators. These models were the same aboard the Patrolstar Achilles. She ran her hand along its surface, caressing it almost thoughtfully, before she slipped her ID card into the machine to activate it. The monitors both outside and in lit up. She moved to key in her specs for the scenario. In this matter, she was very thorough. She took a good half an hour to set the scene up, very specifically. There was something she wanted to see... something... she wanted to get right.

When she got into the cockpit, she put on her helmet and strapped herself in like it was any standard flight or simulation. She just sat there with the canopy closed, staring at the monitors that encompassed every segment of glass. She saw the atmosphere just over the Aerilon. She was going to play through this scenario start-to-finish.

She and the Mark VII viper were engaged in the atmosphere of Aerilon. The bogeys she'd loaded were at a level she wasn't... and so was the other Mark VII simulated pilot. They streaked together through space, and the computerized pilot flew lead. The entire engagement was short, and the details were a bit off from her memory, but the same damage was done to the Mark VII. A computerized voice announced the ETA for a squadron from Battlestar Hyperion, but in Fox's head, it said something else.

Patrolstar Achilles.

She went down through the atmosphere and she relayed coordinates into her helmet, calmly. Burning through the atmosphere of the planet, through the clouds, until it was all blue sky and sunset, glistening Aerilon sea, and black smoke from the doomed Mark VII. The first time, she continued relaying the coordinates to the Patrolstar Achilles. She looked over into the Canopy, at the simulated pilot with no real features, just a helmet. Her port wing was just above the starboard wing of the doomed vessel. The smoke from the failing engines was true to life. She received the per-programmed distress responses from the other vessel from a generic male voice, but she didn't respond to it. She watched him.. it, go down. She pulled back on the stick to break their descent together as they neared the ocean. This time, according to her specs, the Mark VII skidded along the water. Ocean spray went to either side of the keel, like wings of water, until the nose buried itself in the ocean. The vessel's momentum made it lift, going vertical for a heartbeat, before the ship flipped canopy and all into the ocean. She circled around it, silent where she would have relayed coordinates, and watched the water overtake the hull.

ROUND 2

This time, Fox maneuvered herself beneath the doomed Mark VII. She looked at the keel through the canopy. She moved just past it. The entire simulator shook from the impact. Fox was using the CO2 thrusters for all they were worth, coming up beneath the Mark VII and pushing upward. Cracks formed in her simulated canopy, and the machine was jarring her. The alarms were going wild inside, but she ignored them.

Their descent took longer. They went further, but they were descending. She tried to pull back on her stick, to pitch her Viper's nose upward at an angle. When her Mark VII hit the water, she could see the spray of water on either side. Snakebite's Viper scraped over the canopy, and her screen dimmed to show her that her cockpit had been scraped off. She'd died. The trajectory of the Mark VII, which she couldn't see because it was GAME OVER for her... he wouldn't have made it, likely. She'd prolonged the inevitable swim he would have taken.

ROUND 3

This time, Fox punched it, using her CO2 thrusters to flip her ship end-to-end in a fraction of a second, as the Viper was more than capable to do. She maneuvered to lock wings with the other Mark VII. The alarms in her cockpit were going wild. She was slowing the descent rapidly while pieces of both ships were breaking away. The descent was happening, the simulator was shaking, but she held it. The wing finally snapped, and her Viper took a dive in the opposite direction... arcing into the water and going sideways from the weight of her remaining wing. Her screen went dim.

ROUND 4

Again, Fox punched it, and used her CO2 thrusters to flip her ship end-to-end. This time, she moved up beneath his ship and used the thrusters beneath her Viper to push upward. This descent was rapid, and Snakebite's ship flattened her into the water. The screen went dim and she closed her eyes, speculating in her imagination on the trajectory Snakebite was taking. He was dead.

ROUND 5

For the third time, Fox maneuvered herself past Snakebite.... way past Snakebite, this time, she flipped her ship, and she watched. She watched from a front-row seat while the Mark VII skidded across the ocean. This time, she saw the canopy from the front when the ship went vertical and slapped into the water.

FIN

Lieutenant Gilyov removed her helmet and just sat in the simulator, looking at the screens she'd deactivated and made black. Her hair was disheveled from sweat and concentration, the mental and physical exertion of piloting with the doomed Mark VII. She wiped her forehead against her right arm, but she made no move to raise the canopy. She wasn't ready to see the world outside of the cockpit yet.

[Chris Wilson]

The day had come to a close and with the war game coming soon it was time for Chris to get himself a little practice in himself. There was never to much practice especially when it was time for the war games. This was his chance to go out and mess some pilots days up. That plan changed of course the second he walked in the simulator room. There was another pilot in there getting a bit of training done.

To Chris' pleasure it was his favorite pilot to mess with. He walked over to the simulator and turned on the trainers panel so he could observe and when the timing was right add in a viper going down if needed. Or maybe this time a little something else to add some flavor. That thought quickly changed though as he watched on to see her lock wings with a viper that was going down over an ocean. She was playing herself through the simulation again.

"It ain't going to work." He mumbled to himself as he watched the simulator mark them both as KIA. Again she went at it trying different approaches several more time before it seemed she had given up. Chris' urge to really get under her skin had faded, he had accomplished that a few days back and it was till getting to her.

No she was living the pain enough because of him. He watched on as she pulled her helmet off. Chris stepped up and opened the Canopy to the simulator. "Fox, you doing alright?" He knew the answer to that, hades no she wasn't she was torturing herself. He thought for a minute about changing something in the program to make it where she could save him but then again that would make he feel even more guilt. "Take a break and join me, if you can spare a minute." Chris was actually concerned for once.

Chris didn't wait for a reply before he hopped down and waited for her to come off the thing. The hard part was if she accepted. What would he say, sure being a complete prick or a womanizer came naturally to him but comforting someone, that was like asking him to stop breathing. Maybe a nice friendly pat on the back would be a good place to start. No she would likely bite through his arm or swing at him again. Frak, what was the plan.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

The pilot had no intention of getting out of her seat. She was going to sit there looking at the dark screens and just... let some feeling come back. That is, until the canopy raised. She shielded her eyes against the sudden light in the darkness, squinting up at a figure standing there with a halo of light around him initially. Blinking a moment and reopening her eyes certainly gave her the quick knowledge that it wasn't an angel. Not by a long shot.

Normally, Lieutenant Gilyov had composure. Generally, in all things, she could salute and go her way a professional. This wasn't most things for Fox. This was the worst moment of her life, second only to her mother's suicide. It was something she'd have safeguarded between herself and her file, and Captain Striker knew about it. He knew about it, and he'd thrown her back into that world... and now he'd caught her in a pilot's version of flagellation. She felt humiliated for the second time in less than a week's span apart from him. Vik didn't let anyone see her cry if she could possibly help it – some misguided pride or something... but, Striker had drew that out of her. This... this was crying in a whole other way, with dry eyes and a heavy heart. Striker was the last person she wanted to see now.

In the seconds she'd registered him, she'd expected him to berate her. At this point... she wouldn't have said a word if he'd told her how pathetic she was. She was feeling pretty pathetic in this moment, totally exposed.

”Fox, you doing alright?”

She inhaled a sharp breath and dropped her head. No, she wasn't. She hadn't been. She couldn't answer it, and it was rhetorical anyway, so she didn't bother. She felt like her heart had just melted into a warm puddle in her chest, and that the liquid was seeping into her lungs and choking her like pneumonia. She felt the sting of tears, but flicked her gaze upward and blinked them away. Not a second time. Not in front of Striker.

”Take a break and join me, if you can spare a minute.”

Striker sounded sincere. It didn't sound like her expectation of him – bait and trap. He walked away, gave her space and spared her from having to speak. She took a moment to inhale deeply, fill her lungs with air. They felt atrophied, as if she'd only been breathing very shallowly... barely alive. She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead, clearing it of her sweat, and reluctantly peeled herself out of the cockpit and followed after Striker.

”Captain.”

She didn't salute, only exhaled the word and tried her best not to look at the floor. There was nothing wrong with what she had been doing... not by the book, anyway. But she felt the shame of it. She'd lived out that scenario in her head for a long time... she was now only putting the simulator's laws of physics into her imagination. And, unfortunately, a monitor into her mind that Striker had read into with a simple press of a button.

[Chris Wilson]

As soon as she slipped from the cockpit of the simulator there was no question that she was on the proverbial edge looking down. Chris had spent much of his life on that edge, in fact he had grown fond of being on that edge most of the time. If one spent their life on the edge and not worried about going over it then they lived with out restriction. The trick was not to go over it, that is when you would find yourself worse off then you could imagine. Chris had been there before as well.

Chris turned himself to face the simulator she had been working on just a moment before. He knew this conversation was not an easy one for her. To be honest this whole 'be nice to Vik' thing was hard for him too. "Chris or Striker will do today Fox." He told her as he pulled up the video on the training panel. He didn't start playing the video at first he would wait till she was ready.

"I know why you beat yourself up over this time and time again." He said as he looked over to her to see her reaction. Man did he had this fluffy feel good shit, it wasn't his way for anything. "There is not a damn person in the entire fleet that could have done any better in that situation." Some situations just could be changed no matter how you tried, at least she could look back and say hers was one of those. "Besides doing this to yourself isn't going to change things. What happens if you find a way to change it? Can you go back and change the past Vik?" The last little bit was a little harsh but delivered in his best 'I care' voice. What would it accomplish though looking back on it, was it going to change the past, no. What is done is done and they had to try and move forward and not let their past paralyze them.

"We can't spend our whole lives looking back in fear." Chris told her hinting at the fact that he had his own losses as well. "plenty to look forward and fear after all." The last part was added jokingly in an effort to lighten the mood a bit before they got started on running through what she had tried. Chris was not the type for complete seriousness like Vik was.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

”Chris or Striker will do today, Fox.”

The pilot did drop her eyes when Striker said that. It was hard to stomach that Chris Wilson wanted to help. In truth, accepting anything from anyone was like pulling teeth for Viktoriya. That was never a problem she'd ever had with him. Fox was a private person, slow to warm up, and – in Striker's case – she did eventually close off entirely... except she didn't feel closed off right now. She felt like he'd peeled off layers of clothes and skin, of muscle and ligament, bones, behind everything that composed her and looked inside her, at what was at the heart of her. It was an experience one earned to know about a person, but he was in the unfortunate position of having knowledge of her dropped on his lap.

”I know why you beat yourself up over this time and time again.”

When he looked toward her, she looked back at him. Her expression was mostly stoic, but still with a clouded, guarded side to it. Wilson wasn't a man she trusted, not when her bird was in the hangar and she was aboard the ship. He'd played on her... and at last, on this very memory. His angles were confusing to say the least... he wanted to torture her with her own memory. But he was intervening now for just such a thing... because, no one was doing it to her. A person torturing themselves was relentless.

”There is not a damn person in the entire fleet that could have done any better in that situation. Besides, doing this to yourself isn't going to change things. What happens if you find a way to change it? Can you go back and change the past, Vik?”

His pause let his point settle into her mind a bit, and she stiffened her back a little, standing just a bit taller – were it possible – and losing that attained presence with a ragged exhalation.

”We can't spend our whole lives looking back in fear. Plenty to look forward and fear, after all.”

She smiled when he said the last bit. She listened to him the whole way through, then tilted her head back and closed her eyes. She let the muscles in her throat pull taut, relaxing her neck, then she turned her eyes to him.

”I know, Chris. This is the third time I've come in here to do this.” She tried to smile a little, weakly, then dropped the facade to look at the monitor again. ”I know I can't win this. I never could. With me in the Viper, if there is a victory scenario... it's not one I could have ever reached.”

The next thing, she really, really didn't want to say. She wanted Chris to know that what he'd done to her was wrong. She wanted him to know that he'd crossed the line someone who'd flown, someone who knew what it meant to a person. She wanted him to know that he hadn't come up with some revolutionary form of therapy.. that it was a cruel thing to do, and that he needed to lock that part of his imagination up wherever the idea had crawled out.

”You weren't all wrong about it, Chris.” She chewed her lower lip pensively after she said it. Her cerulean eyes were trained on him, and for once, not hardened by barriers and a layer of emotional steel.

”I'm lost.”

Her words were two syllables for the entire sentence, but boundless in meaning. She said it matter-of-factly, as an observation or a realization.

[Chris Wilson]

Chris was glad she was willing to talk to him. Sure he was an asshole and he didn't fight that fact most of the time, but he did actually care for those he flew with. Out there in the void of space she was one of his own and he would protect her with a ferocity like any other member of his squad. He couldn't believe she had been down here three times working it over and trying to figure out a solution to the situation.

"Don't give up to easy Vik, you just need to find the right conditions to make it winnable." He began to explain but stopped himself. It would be easier to show her then to tell her how to do it. "We all find ourselves lost from time to time. Sometimes it just takes someone else to show us the way. Hades i know I have been there a time or two."

Chris smiled at her again as he reached up and opened the cockpit to the Simulator once more. "I know what you are thinking. Striker lost?" He laughed just a little before he continued. "It doesn't seem possible I know but it has happened." What he wasn't saying is he had felt that way for a decade and a half now.

Chris tapped his hands on the latter to the cockpit of the simulator to suggest her to climb in. "We'll take a moment to look these videos over after, but I think we should give this one more run through. No tricks this time." Chris had a plan, not a bad one but something much more helpful then before. He grabbed himself a headset to communicate with her while she was in there. Of course that was tossed off the second she hopped in and he made his way in to the Simulator next to her tossing a helmet on and setting up comms with her.

"Alright Vik, I'll keep an eye on things as you go and see if I can give advice from a different perspective." What she didn't know was as soon as she started up he would join the simulation just a moment later and see if the two of them can pull it off as a team. The only way Chris could see to do this was with more then one person but even then rescuing a falling fighter just was not an easy task, not in this situation at least. "Take your time and go when you are ready Fox." He switch from calling her Vik to Fox now seeing as they were in the cockpit, even a simulator.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

Each time, she'd given it five goes. It was just an arbitrary number, one she'd given herself so she wouldn't become consumed by the scenario. This would be her 16th true flight trying to solve the scene. When she climbed into the cockpit, she wasn't expecting anything. She tried to be truly neutral, to clear her head, and not to expect defeat... but she wasn't expecting victory.

When she put on the helmet and strapped herself in, she started thinking about what he'd said. ”Striker lost? It doesn't seem possible, I know, but it has happened.” It didn't stop there, though. She started wondering about it... about Striker's personal Snakebite. In this vocation, it wasn't a long shot to think he had one, and probably many others. From the outside looking in, everyone else seemed composed... as composed as they wanted to be seen, in Striker's case. Hades. She probably did, too, just for the sheer fact of not talking about it.

When the scenario loaded, she was drifting in space with Snakebite, staying close. She looked at the hull of the Mark II, smiled to herself inside her helmet, as if she was looking at the real thing and admiring the eye of the storm moment with her doomed mentor.

The battle scene went as it always had. She'd loaded the AI so that she would be out-skilled as well as outgunned. And Snakebite a degree above that. It wasn't perfect, but that had been the case. Those pilots had been trained, and they'd been better than her... but not better than Snakebite. He'd ravaged them every bit as much as they had him. They had casualties by comparison to her casualty. Some would say that would put her in the green, one lost to several of theirs, but it didn't. Quality, not quantity.

When Fox and the bent vessel entered through the burn of the atmosphere, through the clouds, she had no idea what attempt to rescue she should mount. The entire round, she hadn't made any of the usual reports or communications from her helmet. The sim was docking her for that, but it wasn't a matter of points – nor really an official scenario. The score didn't matter. Something else did. This time, she did start relaying coordinates to the Patrolstar Achilles. She tended to do that, every time. It was what she'd done then, when she was helpless, and it's what she did now. She flew with her port wing just above his starboard. She was flying as close to the same scene as she had the day it happened, and waiting to see what Striker would advise.

[Chris Wilson]

Chris sat in his cockpit and slide his ident card in to the slot on the simulator and loaded up the view screen to watch her proceed in the simulation. "Foxy, focus on your viper, bring yourself forward of the keeping your distance the same from it." He needed her to pull forward then lower below him so his wing cold come to rest on her.

While he began to coach her through it he loaded himself of in the scenario as well. This job was going to take more then one person to make happen. As his simulator loaded him in he began to descend to the two vipers now at a lower altitude then him. He watched on as she did what he said then spoke. "Good down dip yourself to where your wing is lower then his and slightly forward. I mean inches here Fox." His voice was serious, not stern as she was used to be very focused and serious. When it came to being in the cockpit Chris was a much different person even if it was 'only a simulation'. Chris didn't like that term 'only a simulation'. It was all real life, how they did in the simulator was training for the battle ground it was the real deal.

Chris was just far enough back right now for her not to see in her view and he was still running in observer mode so he did not show on the DRADIS yet. "Perfect Fox now hold position till I get there." He tapped a key and he popped on to DRADIS like any other pilot who would be flying in the sim. A moment later Chris followed the same flight path on the port side that she had on the starboard side of the falling Viper.

The next part was where it got rough they couldn't just simple get under his wing and then trust forward he would slide right off the back of their wings. Likewise they could not descend in to the water and break themselves as he would tumble forward in to the water and they would all likely fail the mission. If they were to force him to stay with them none of them would come out undamaged. "We're going to hold here for just a moment." The Viper was slowing from it high speeds it had before falling to its now lower altitude. They would wait for it to slow more, get closer to the surface and closer to the land just a little to far for them to make it in this rate of fall. Then and only then they would have to time themselves perfectly to tilt (ever so slightly mind you) then press their winds in to the under carriage of the Viper. Hard enough to crimp him between them like a vice yet not enough to Torque their own wings to a point they snap.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

Lieutenant Gilyov obeyed her captain without question. She didn't know what strategy he had in mind, but she maneuvered with all the precision she had until her wing was underneath Snakebite's. She clicked her chinstrap twice to acknowledge the initial order, only speaking into her helmet a very clipped ”In place, Captain.” when she'd carried out the action. If there was a place she still had faith in Chris, it was while she was flying. That had been the only place she trusted her captain.... and had been for several years now.

She wondered what he was seeing that she hadn't, what he was thinking that she hadn't when she'd ran the simulations. Every scenario she'd run where she'd mounted a rescue of any sort had ended in death.. sometimes only Snakebite's, sometimes both pilots. She would have accepted a stalemate in which she'd died and Snakebite had lived... as she most certainly would have for an in-the-flesh result.

It wasn't that she hadn't saved him. That didn't eat at her so badly as one might have thought. It also wasn't that he'd died in general. That had been a huge blow to her, but good men died all the time. What hurt her was that she'd lived when he hadn't. It sounded stupid, but the truth was, if either of them had deserved to survive that skirmish, it was Jonathan Stokes.

He'd tried to bug out after the initial engagement, until one of her engines had been shot out. The lost speed meant that the bogeys would have overtaken her. She had been the wounded gazelle to the eager maws of the lions, and he could have left her there, but he'd gone end-to-end and engaged. He'd decimated their enemies in-atmosphere before his vessel had been bent. He'd earned another ace designation in that skirmish alone, before he dropped into the atmosphere in his doomed declined.

Lieutenant Gilyov had flown with everything in her, fought with everything she knew, and she had been outmatched. In a fair universe, she'd have been splashed before Jonathan had turned around. In a fair universe, the more deserving pilot would have come out the other side, relayed the unfortunate news of his wingman's death and gone forward to deal with this loss of a friend as he had all the others, and moved forward with his already incredible career. Jonathan Stokes was supposed to be alive today. Viktoriya Gilyov was not.

She had simply clicked twice over the comm, her eyes wide when he gave the order to hold until his arrival.When the friendly blip on her radar appeared on her DRADIS, moving so close as to almost meld with Jonathan's signature on the screen, she bit her lower lip. She realized, staring as incredulously as maintaining control of her craft would allow, what Chris was intending to do. It pierced her heart in a way that was unimaginable. She felt tears for the second time this week, but she didn't contort her face – just let them slide warmly from the rims of her lower lids and catch in her lashes or streak down the contours of her cheeks.

[Chris Wilson]

They had pulled in to position holding tight under the wings of the doomed viper. Every little simulated breeze bringing their wings ever so close to it. It may have been only a simulation but he was no different there then in the sky. He could feel his heart racing as they waited to get close to the ocean surface. Sweat was running down his brow. "Okay Fox, we got to time this just right." He paused an looked down at the altitude, seventeen thousand meter not long now.

"When we are down to ten thousand meter We need to push our wings in under his, hard enough to make sure he won't pull free." His eyes continued to eye the altitude of their descent. It would be easier if they were not going down as fast as it was right now but they would have to work with it. It will take longer then he would like to get it under control and that left room for issues. "Only another four thousand meters and were a go, you ready Fox?"

A few more seconds passed an Chris spoke up once more completely focused on the job at hand. "Tilt your wing up four degrees." They needed to have it slide under the other perfectly and at the same point. "Two thousand meter left make it happen Fox." He said a little more authoritative then he had been. He waited till the last minute to make this final maneuver as it left them with no wiggle room from there on out.

Once he got the cue from her that they were in position he watch as the distance closed, one thousand meter, five hundred meters, one hundred meters. "Now push it in to him." With out hesitation Chris jolted toward the falling friendly and knocked his wing in to the under body of the ship. The screaming sound of rending metal called out from the wing vibrating his whole ship. He was locked in to him with no way of pulling back out now, now with out them both going down. It would only be a second before they went in to a spiral if Fox hadn't managed the same.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

With Chris in the other craft, coming over her comms as serious as heart attack, Lieutenant Gilyov absolutely left the simulator. In her head, she was in the Mark VII she'd piloted when Stokes had gone down. She did everything Chris asked to the smallest detail. She knew what hung in the balance – she'd played this scenario in the simulator a serious 16 times, 17 if she counted the first he'd thrown her in just to cause her pain. That was forgotten now, though. Now, it was only Lieutenant Gilyov, Captain Striker, and Snakebite. It was unhealthy how disassociated she'd become with the fact that this was a simulation. It wasn't a simulation in her head anymore... it was her job. It was Snakebite's life on the line... and she was going to give it her all.

She didn't clench her muscles or hold her breath when she tilted her wings and moved into place underneath Snakebite's starboard wing, just as her commander had ordered. She was breathing calmly. The tension was in her chest, but she wasn't about to make a stupid, nervous mistake that would cost Snakebite his life... a life, in that moment, that her total suspension of disbelief would not recognize as already spent. Her tears were dry, her eyes focused on her canopy and controls. She wasn't crying from Striker's kindness anymore. This world had consumed her for the moment, and she was fighting for the life of the simulated pilot that all her senses from her heart to her head called Snakebite. Jonathan Stokes. Father of Amelia Stokes, age 7, and Julia Stokes, age 10. Husband of Lauren Elizabeth Stokes. Jonathan, who kept a picture of his family in his locker, who tapped his daughters' faces as told the boys One day you should be so lucky. That was on the line for Viktoriya right now. Chris didn't have to worry that his orders would be obeyed.

Her perception of Chris was strange. When she was aboard the Hyperion, she'd seen him as her tormentor, and not in the light-hearted way that Nova might have considered Griffin to be hers. Chris could get pretty frakking brutal... toward -her-. He pushed her too far, as he had the first day he'd thrown her in there. He'd done it to cause her pain. If he'd thought it was something that serious, he could have talked to her. She could understand a hesitance to send a pilot for any evaluation that might clip their wings. Discourse should have been his fallback. If that failed, a very controlled introduction into the scenario if he thought it beneficial. That's how it should have been done, likely how it would have been done for a person he respected. She knew that. She knew Chris didn't like her... hated her, perhaps, but at the very least, he'd have left her throwing up and trying to recover from his methods – as she honestly had been before she'd tried the simulation alone – where he would have shown Griffin the courtesy of a friend, a pilot, and a soldier. When she left the hangar, though, she did trust Chris with her life... even hers. Even one he had showed no human compassion for in a very long time... She knew that whatever else he felt about her, as a pilot, he wanted her safe return.

Her simulator was rumbling, jarring, but she held her course. She trusted Chris. If Chris thought this would work, she was going to see it through until the end... whatever end that might be. She felt the same way when she left the hangar. It wasn't that she was choosing to believe that a man who hated her would have her best interests at heart... it wasn't a choice. She knew it. She knew that Chris wanted the success of the mission, that he wanted his pilots back, and that he did appreciate her piloting ability... even if he really didn't seem to at times. Each of his commands she'd accepted with a simple *click-click* of her helmet. Now, she was bracing herself for what came next.

[Chris Wilson]

A few seconds passed and there was no death spiral for then, it seemed that Fox had managed to get herself locked in on the other side. The were now one big mass of shattered metal heading for a watery grave together. With two ship still in working order though they would be able to pull them all out of it and make it to land they just needed to get some lift going now. He trusted Fox on the other side, their relationship on the ground had been a mess but in the vipers it was different she was precise, controlled, calm and never questioned a single thing.

"Good, now for the hard part Fox. on my mark throttle up to 35% power." It wasn't much but it would stop their decent and allow them to level out with out gaining any more speed then they had too. Current speed was showing at twenty six meters per second (93.6K/ph an hour or 58.2M/ph) and now only five thousand meters from sea level. They would need to bring their speed up to stop their decent. "Throttle back down when we hit 34.7 meters a second, that should let us coast to the shore."

Chris waited just a little longer to give the cue. He wanted them to be low they had to come in low and as level with the ground as they could to make sure they were able to land. the mark hit three thousand meters and it was . "Now Fox." He called over the comms to her clearly and calmly. They had to keep calm if they wanted to have any chance of landing this. The sweat was rolling down in to his eyes making it hard for him to keep them open but he wasn't going to miss a moment of it.

The throttled up and as soon as they hit the target speed he clicked his chin strap to signal to her that it was time to pull back the throttle. They were now ready to coast it in. "Alright Fox were aiming for the beach. We'll bring him down in the sand." Chris himself had begun to loo at the virtual viper as the real thing, as if it had a live pilot in it that they had to save. It was only four kilometers away that meant less then two minutes for them to get to where they were going and make the landing. For a minute the two went silent and just waited to close as the distance from the surface dropped when they finally crested over the sand and no longer over the open ocean of Aerilon they were only twenty five meters up. "Air breaks..... now." He chimed in as their speed dropped with he air breaks. down to thirty then twenty-five, then twenty, ten fifteen then finally ten meters a second. (36k/ph or 22.4M/ph) They were dipping fast. "Keep your nose up Fox." He said over the comms an just as she pulled back on hers to bring her nose up Chris did the same but also tilting them to his side.

It would mean that he would hit first and wreck in to the sand but Snakebite and Fox would go skidding across the sand and survive. Chris wanted to prove to her he did what was best for his pilots even if it didn't always seem that way. His methods needed work but he would get there someday. their distance closed, Chris wing was now only seven meters from the surface. That is when something happened that he hadn't expected. Fox had pulled back leveling them out and telling Chris that they were going to do this together.

It surprised Chris that she hadn't, in all of this, let her focus go purely on to Snakebite. Chirs didn't say a thing just leveled it out with her and pulled back his nose as they began to drag in the sand. Alarms were going off all around them. His port engine cut out an parts of wings and nose cone of all three began to break off. Then he nose sank in to the sand and his wing broke lose from the others. His viper went end over end three times before it finally slide along the sand. Somehow it didn't register him as KIA. The question was how did the other two fair.

Before popped the canopy open pulled his helmet off and sat there for the screen to show the reports. "Vik! you dead over there?" He yelled put not over the comms. Then the report came in and all three had survived. The mission was a complete failure but they all survived. He jumped out of the cockpit and ran over to hers opening it up as well and looking down in with a smile at her. "Now thats frakken team work."

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

Throughout the flight, Lieutenant Gilyov was mostly quiet. She relayed as much information as was necessary, and acknowledged the orders he gave with a *click click* from her helmet. She was still tense, but the mountain had eased from her a little. They'd already made it further than she had alone, which meant that Snakebite's lifespan was increasing with every second further they went. Her heart was pounding, but she wasn't going to let herself get excited yet. They were still over the water, and making a longer descent with a flatter slope... but still a descent. Fox reacted to everything Chris told her to do, following his orders with the smallest margin of error. This time, she didn't have Snakebite's voice resounding in her mind... she had Chris's. His voice wasn't a memory, though – he was giving orders. She had to hand it to him: he had a calm voice, one that commanded attention, when he was in the cockpit.

Her heart fluttered with hope when she saw the white loam in the distance. That was a sight that Snakebite had never gotten to see. When Fox had recreated it, she'd gotten the coordinates correctly entered – everything. She had never known how relatively close the nearest landmass was. It hadn't mattered; she'd never made it that far. She'd circled the carcass of the Mark VII Viper like a hawk circling its nest, and she hadn't left Snakebite's crash site. She hadn't gotten to see the beach, either. She'd only flown 17 times in this scenario, but in her head, she had done this thousands of times. She never got to victory. Just as he had then, Snakebite died in her head, over and over... She could have hugged Striker for the emotions he felt.

When they came in close, it became apparent to her that Striker was going to let his vessel be ground away into a pile of metal and sacrifice himself for the two of them. Viktoriya was lost in this scenario, and in no way did she intend to lose Striker. He might have been an asshole, but she had three years of history with that asshole. She wasn't about to lose him. She maneuvered her vessel to level them out. She wasn't going to let Striker go down with the ship... ships. There was plenty of room on her proverbial armoire. She wouldn't have been able to choose between Chris's life and Jonathan's. She hated Chris's treatment of her. She hated how much she'd suffered under his command... but she'd never once wished death on him, and she never would, and so long as he was flying with her, he was every bit as much her charge and she was his. This was the first time she'd gotten to prove it.

The ships were grated like cheese from the momentum and the ground. Metal skin and vital components were being gutted by the ground. Alarms went off around her, the simulator jarred her like a vibrator set to Mutilate, but in the end, she had survived. There wasn't a Hades of a lot left of her Viper, but she was alive. Chris, alive... and Snakebite. When their flight score showed up on the monitors, they'd been docked for just about everything. The result is that they both had failing scores in the simulation. She was laughing when she took off her helmet and started to unfasten herself. She'd been about to spring from her canopy and run to Striker's side, but he'd beaten her to it. She clamped one hand over her mouth and just laughed, leaving her helmet in the simulator and coming out of the cockpit in a rush.

When she got close, she embraced Chris abruptly. It wasn't something she'd ever done, or likely ever would again, but in that moment, her personal demon – who was responsible for the worst treatment of her life to date – had also done the kindest thing she could remember in her life. Chris seemed as shocked by the embrace as she'd been by the humanity he'd shown her, and he hugged her back, recovering from his initial surprise to grin as smugly as he always did. ”I think this calls for a celebration. Come with me, Vik!” And before she could respond, he'd shrugged off her arms and jumped off the elevated platform of the simulator, beckoning her to follow without offering her a chance to decline. So, she followed.

[Chris Wilson]

Chris had been shocked that she hugged him, part of him expecting her to repeat the ending to their last encounter in the simulator by striking him again. This was a pleasant twist though it might just have been the perfect oppertunity for them to mend the broken relationship. For Vik to finally accept that she was part of this sick twisted little family that he called the Shadow Hawks.

He swiftly invited her to follow him and gave her no choice on it. For a moment they walked down the hall quietly. No words being exchanged. They made their way down three decks and toward the aft of the ship before Vik finally spoke up first. ""Celebrate? What do you have in mind?"[/color]

Chris turned and smiled at her. "Hades, we finally manged to do something with out being at each others throats. I figured we could try to keep the momentum rolling maybe have a drink to celebrate. Just stop worrying for ones and pretend like you enjoy like." He quickened his pace just a little as they closed in on the place. Chris had been planning this little place they were going since he had gotten on the ship. While they were away on leave he had spent a lot of his time getting it set up. It was far from fancy or anything but he had taken the creates in the storage room and set them up like a bar. He had always wanted to open one himself and it was going to be a while till he was read so at least he could have a little fun with it here.

"Fine." So as not to ruin the moment they really did have without fighting."[/color] Vik replied to him as flatly as she always was. Chris smiled at the comment at least she was willing to cave on it.

Just then they turned the corner to the storage room and Chris swung the door open and grabbed her arm pulling her in to it. "That's the spirit Fox. Welcome to the Vipers Den." He let her arm go as soon as she was in and shut the door. The room was pitch black for a moment as she could hear him stumbling down the side of the room to get to the lights. With a simple flick of a switch the room was lit up with dim lighting, enough to see your way around but not blindingly so, just like any bar really. There were still creates stacked up nearly to the ceiling all around but in the there was a bar bad from the creates with several empty ones filled with several bottles and glasses. "My little project." He walked toward the middle and hopped over the bar and grabbed a few bottle and poured a five shot glasses of Dos Aeriloius Whiskey. His personal favorite drink. "So whats your poison tonight Vik?

"Something sweet for the drinking impaired." She replied and Chris just gave her a nod and turned to the bottles and began to mix things together. Of course he made sure it was strong but not that one would notice. He had mastered the art of making stiff drinks that you wouldn't even guess.

"Alright Vik here you go." Chris paused a moment as he took a shot and then poured the rest of the mix he made in to another glass for himself. "Sorry I have been such a royal prick all this time." He wanted to start off by making an effort to move things in the right direction. "Got my own demons that sometime push me over the line." Chris took another shot of the whiskey before she started to rip in to him as he expected, this was her chance though. He was not going to stop her from getting it all out on the table right now.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

It was impressive that Chris had rigged this little makeshift bar himself. The Vipers' Den. She imagined the marines would love that, and the thought made her smile. She approached his bar and leaned on the rough wooden crates, propping her head up on her elbow and looking up toward the dim ceiling. When he made her drink, she drank it with no problem. She couldn't taste the alcohol in it at all, so she didn't imagine there was very much. Maybe she'd end up with a light buzz, but likely nothing more.

�I can let it be water under the bridge if you can.�

It was an honest response. There was nothing Viktoriya would have loved more than to just make it stop. She wasn't really a person who held grudges. Truth be known, she didn't have the energy to hate anyone else. She reserved that emotion mostly for herself, and her father, and sometimes even her home planet. She was rational enough to know that Picon wasn't horrible in its entirety just because Scylla had been Hades for her, but her memories left a stain on that planet. That's where her mother's bones lay, buried on a day of her own choosing, when even the obligation she had to the life she'd created wasn't enough to keep her. She could remember the school girls chanting Like mother, like daughter. That had been the token way to get under Vik's skin through junior high and high school. That was why she could abide Striker fairly easily.

If anyone fell of the bandwagon, that was one less person she had to be wary of. She was easy to forgive. She hadn't taken the way her mother had, as her schoolmates had told her she would. No, she was here, in space, aboard the Hyperion, and this was somewhere she could be happy... or, at least, content. Striker's choice was to let it go, or not. She certainly wasn't going to perpetuate her own personal hell the one place she should have been happy. She'd found her niche as a pilot, but after Snakebite, it hadn't been enough... nothing had. Not even the prospect of Tauron. Of Atlas.

�Can you?� And she took the second shot he poured her, leveling her cerulean gaze at him. She was smiling a little, as if she wasn't serious, in spite of herself. She was serious as a heart attack, but it was just funny that they were here, having this conversation. Chris Wilson and herself... drinking together. The universe as they knew it was definitely coming to an end.

"I'm tired of playing the ass with you. Lets just start it fresh."

Chris jumped back over the bar and took the seat next to her, spinning in it to face her. If they were going to start fresh, they might as well start it out with a little fun. It was Chris's way about things. Keep it light and fun. "Tell you what, Fox, we're going to make this interesting and get to know each other a bit." He grabbed the bottle and several more shot glasses and filled them. "Used to play this game. I never. Ever heard of it?"

"I never heard of it." She quipped, taking another shot of her sweet drink.

Chris chuckled and smiled at her. It didn't surprise him at all that she had never heard of the game. She didn't seem the have-fun-in-college type. "Well, it's simple. Just say, 'I never,' and finish the sentence. If you never have, you don't drink, if you had done it, then you drink. I'll go first." Chris paused again and thought for a moment. He needed something good to start with something that wouldn't upset her but might push her buttons just a little. "I never... hit a superior officer." Chris smiled at her for a moment to see her reaction then raised a shot glass to his lips and took the shot.

She narrowed her eyes at Chris, took her shot, and reached for another. �I never hit one that didn't have it coming.� And she refrained from the next shot. She was already starting to feel pretty buzzed.

Chris didn't raise his drink and smiled. "I never regretted something I have done." Chris grabbed up his next shot and took it down quickly. "Maybe I should take a few for that one." Chris was actually enjoying himself with this game. It was interesting to learn a bit more about Vik. The two had spent all these years together but never taken the time to get to know each other.

She drank on that round too. She had regrets. �I've never kissed a girl.� This time, she smiled coyly. Then, took a shot, laughing faintly and watching for his expression to change.

Chris raises his glass up and paused as soon as she did too. "Wait, what?" He didn't expect an answer to it, just had to make note he noticed the question. She actually had a wild side, or a not-all-business-side, if nothing else. "I never ran from my past." He didn't wait a second to hide from that one. He dropped another shot and could start to feel the effects. He grabbed the bottle again and filled the shot glasses that were empty as he waited to see if she would drink as well.

She took the shot. �I never ran away from a planet.� And again, another shot... this for Picon.

Chris took a shot as well with the question about the planet. "I never had a one night stand." Chris again took another shot. He was going to feel it in the morning at this rate.

Vik's eyes were getting twitchy, no longer fluidly glancing from one place to the next, but she was aare enough o know she didn't get to take a shot this round. She smiled a little. �I've never had sex with anyone but my first.� And this round she got to skip... thankfully.

He glared at her playfully and took the shot. "Now that was just down right mean. I never cheated on someone." By her last comment, he could tell she would not drink on this one, but he wouldn't either. He winked at her when he didn't take a shot knowing that would shock her.

�Really? You struck me as kind of a slag, captain.� She laughed, but didn't take a shot. She hadn't, either. �I never had sex on a spacecraft.� And again, she didn't take a shot. She was just trying to make Striker take a shot at this point. She was wavering where she stood, already, and she needed to even the odds a little.

Chris took a shot of her last one and smiled. "I never frakked a superior officer" He was waiting less and less time between each 'I never'. He didn't raise his glass.

Vik held her glass. She had never frakked a superior officer. �I never thought about doing it.� And again, she took no shot.

Chris took another shot with that one to. Man she was trying to get him trashed. "I never fracked in a storage room before." That was one that he didn't have to drink too.

Vik didn't drink, either, but she did look at Chris with narrowed eyes. He'd hit rather close there. �I never frakked on top of a bar.� She didn't drink.

Chris didn't drink either. Chris leaned forward just a little and smiled at Vik "I never let an opportunity that was sitting right in front of me pass me by." Chris didn't raise his glass, he had never let an opportunity pass him by before.

"I never make the first move." It was serious.. and it was true. With most people, Vik was on the outside looking in. She reacted to them... and she was reacting to Chris now. She didn't take a shot; it was something she didn't do.

Chris took a shot then set his drink down, and moved forward in his chair. They were now only barely apart from each other now. "I never frakked a squad mate on top of a bar before." There was no question what he was implying this time. His hand shifted forward along the bar to where it was resting just beside him, his face now only a few feet from hers.

Alcohol was really taking its toll on both of them. Even through the fog, she knew what Chris was implying, where he was going.. Where he wanted to go. And it occurred to her mind even through the haze that she had to make a decision. She had to walk away. She.. �I never wanted to.� She put her glass against her lower lip and looked at Chris. He was so close now, but not reaching for her... not yet.. She tilted the glass up and drank the contents, laying the shot glass on the bar and looking back at him.

Chris looked from her eyes to her lips. Through all the shots, there was no mistaking what either of them were getting at, and her last 'I never' was even clearer. He smiled as her shot glass went to her lips he followed her lead and paused for a second with the glass there at his lips before he tipped his back as well.. "I, I never...." He reached his hand up around behind her head. "I never wanted you to touch me and frakkin' act like you're alive." He tossed back one last shot as he sat there only a few inches back from her face now.

She wanted Chris to kiss her. He'd closed the space, put his hand against her hair and came to grip the back of her head. He neared her, and he stayed there. They'd both taken shots with her 'I never'. She felt as if she was on a raft, whirling down a river. She felt delirious and light-headed.. It was a bad time to decide anything. In a second, though, she pushed her lips against Chris's. She just pressed and held there, then withdrew a little and pressed back again, taking his lower lip into hers and tracing her tongue along it slowly, looking at his eyes. It wasn't a joke... Chris wasn't stopping her. It was that fear that had held her back more than anything, that mistrust. Even with her mind entering delirium, she still feared Chris's motives.. and his rejection.

Chris had push on closer and closer till finally she broke her line in the sand and move forward herself. He made no efforts to stop her, to slow the situation. No, for Chris it was like always live in the moment and deal with the consequences in the morning. Chris pulled himself forward off his seat and saddled himself up between her knees ans his arms moved around her. Three years of hades between them could be damned in this moment. It was the here and now and Chris was not turning back. His hand slide around underneath her and pulled her up and in toward him, all the while his lips never leaving hers but for a fleeting second to reposition. He spun her around and up on to the bar counter as his and slowly made there way to the vacant skin along the bottom of her shirt.

Later, Fox would deny remembering her first time beneath Chris Wilson. It was the nature of Striker that her first.. four times, were back-to-back, as quickly as he could biologically manage, with a segway of kisses and whatever he'd said in between. She also denied recalling her second. The third, the alcohol was beginning to wear thin, as was her excuse... so it was the fourth that haunted her mind the most. It was the moment when she'd known who he was, what he was doing... and what she'd whole-heartedly reciprocated.