Welcome (and Welcome Back) {Weiss & all pilots/E.C

[Drake Wolfe]

0630 October 4th, 2003


Captain Wolfe stood at the front of the Ready Room, facing the empty chairs. Soon, the chairs would be filled with his pilots and E.C.O.'s, some returning vets, others fresh faced nuggets straight out of flight school, and everything in between. He used to break them down, squad by squad, and give his spiel, which mainly consisted of his expectations of them, a review of their duties, as well as some tips for acclimating to the Hyperion. One time was all it took for him to put the kibosh on individual squad briefings. Ever since then, he gathered everyone at once so he could say what he had to say one time and be done with it.

With a sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair and walked back to the podium. The small stack of paper setting upon it elicited a small, involuntary groan. If his older jockeys thought they were tired of hearing this speech, they should have tried giving it time and time again. He quickly thumbed through the stack, and, satisfied that all of his bases were covered, looked over to his Deputy CAG with a tired smile.

"You have your big, bad discipline speech ready?"



OoC: give Weiss and I two posts each and then you can all start filing in, doing whatever.

[Erica Weiss]

Captain Weiss spent the larger part of her morning preparing for the first of many morning briefings. Unable to sleep consistently throughout the night, an anxious Erica jumped out of bed at the earliest opportunity; along with going over some notes and reading materials, she completed a full workout in the gym, ate breakfast alone, and arrived to the conference room ahead of schedule. When the CAG finally did arrive, she was in the middle of prepping and cleaning the room.

Her obsession towards her work was not entirely a mark of dedication, rather, a series of attempts to distract herself from the growing anxiety that left a nervous lump in her throat.

First impressions were everything to the Deputy CAG, and Weiss wanted to establish that she was someone to take very seriously. When Captain Wolfe entered the room, she politely nodded to him and acknowledged his arrival, only to shift back in her intensive work mode. For the past two years Weiss worked with Wolfe, and accommodated accordingly to his leadership approach: the man was level-headed, fairly intelligent and friendly, but his style was too lax for her taste. Feeling the need to offset and "compensate" for Wolfe, Erica became more authoritative and took it upon herself to complete any and all tasks, no matter how menial they might be.

The charming and fearless leader, coupled with the workaholic assistant, led to a successful partnership for two of the three years Weiss had aboard the Hyperion.

The CAG's candor and question only unsettled Weiss further. Erica was used to his quips and side comments by that point, but she was in no mood to joke that morning. First impressions were everything to her after all, and that required a flawless morning briefing with the pilots.

Erica looked up from her notes and glared at Wolfe. "I think so. All I got to say really is don't act like Wolfe or Wilson and you'll be ok in my book" she snapped back in response. In the two years of them working together directly, Weiss also learned to give as much as she got.

The raptor pilot turned away and smiled to herself. Although the CAG seemed nonchalant, he did in fact care about the people he worked with and commanded. It was the first and only joke Weiss heard all morning, and it was some comedic relief that was desperately needed to cut the awkward tension in the room. In the following moments of her clever response, the captain thought to herself and toyed with the possibility of being more casual like Drake. The thought was immediately crushed, but the light interaction eased her anxiety.

"Do you think we're ready? For departure, I mean. War Games are a good opportunity to test our pilots but we have a handful of new people, and I doubt many are up to the task" she added. Her analysis was of course, based on nothing but the assumption that nuggets were useless.

[Drake Wolfe]

Drake chuckled at Weiss's dig. For as long as he had known her, she was always rather stiff in her demeanor, but he had learned quickly that the measure of her character was beyond reproach. Their approaches to leadership were almost as far apart as they could get, yet somehow, theirs was a partnership that worked incredibly well.

"Do you think we're ready? For departure, I mean. War Games are a good opportunity to test our pilots but we have a handful of new people, and I doubt many are up to the task"

The CAG sighed again. Not only were they going into the War Games with more new jocks than he'd have liked, but they were going to be playing OpFor, or as they were statistically known, the losers. Still, he remained optimistic.

"I think we have enough experienced pilots to more than make up for the rooks."

He looked up from his notes again.

"As long as your Raptor crews are ready, I think we'll be fine."

A mischievous grin crept across his face.

"Besides, what fun would it be if we didn't even have to try?"

[Erica Weiss]

OOC: this is a response to Drake, but we should let Tris post one last time before officially opening up the thread to other pilots.






Weiss continued to go over her notes as the CAG spoke. She grunted at Drake's optimism towards the pilots' ability. "We'll see about that..." she muttered back in response. A perfectionist by nature, Erica always set impossibly high standards upon herself and her peers, which included flying.

As the Deputy-CAG she was not entirely responsible for coordinating all of the pilots aboard the Battlestar, but intellectual prowess and a gift for combat strategy earned her a spot as the semi-official head of all the raptors. Taking advantage of such a role, Weiss strove to ensure that her pilots in particular would outshine the cocky, trigger-happy viper ones. When Wolfe gave his second remark, the captain scoffed. "Don't worry. The raptor pilots are ready, or at least they better be..."

Drake's calm demeanor and attempted witticism wasn't inspiring to the raptor pilot, but a positive attitude was something they were definitely going to need: OpFor almost guaranteed a loss, something that Weiss absolutely hated to do.

Finally looking up from her notes, she frowned at the CAG. "We're gonna do more than try..." she responded. Surprised by her own firm words, she quickly scribbled them down in her notes. It was sure to be strong and inspirational for the troops. Just as she finished the last of her scribbling, the pilots began to filter into the conference room.

"Well....go on. Be a leader" she whispered to Drake, nodding over to the pilots.

[Chris Wilson]

Wolfe and Weiss were planning their welcome back speech for all the vipers and raptor crews and of course give their first little taste to the new rooks on the ship. Of course Chris had taken the liberty to give the run down on everything to his new pilot. He had told him how the stick of Weiss' ass had a stick up its ass but there was no better Raptor pilot to have at your back in the entire colonial fleet. That of course was a fact he would deny to the bitter end if it ever became public. Has the rook let it slip he would admit to the part about the stick but not to the acknowledgement of her skill.

Wolfe on the other hand he had given a different story about. The man was a damn good viper pilot, one of the best actually. He had served with many other great pilots like Kosta for many years in his past. Wolfe's skills rivaled that of Tremaine and Kosta actually and that was saying something. In fact it was saying a lot. He also told him the man was like a father figure to anyone under his command even if they were older them him. He took good care of his people almost to a fault. He was a little over protective of his pilots. That was something Chris could understand though, he took great care to make sure his pilots were in good shape and protected to the bitter end.

Chris walked in with the Sadowhawks only a step behind him as they came in for the meeting with the senior leaders of the pilots. Chris took a seat at the front of the room, a spot he normally didn't take but he respected Captain Wolfe and make it a point to listen to what he had to say. The two may have different approaches to everything in their life but there was no question that they worked well together nearly all the time.

[Phaethon Kosta]

Briefings weren’t exactly the greatest thing in the world, particularly those scheduled for early morning and they seemed to be getting earlier and earlier. The morning workout was forgone today. If there was time later maybe Phaethon and a few of the others might hit the gym after the briefing, but it was looking more likely that they’d go right on watch by the time this whole thing was over. In light of that, he and many of the other Shadowhawks had instead settled on a more leisurely morning rather than the slight rush and workout that was typical. It was more like an actual family morning rather than a military morning, or what Phaethon imagined a normal family did: sit down and talk over breakfast rather than roll out of bed and half-asleep begin to run the corridors of the ship.

The lieutenant followed Chris into the Hyperion’s largest briefing room along with most of the other ‘hawks. He took a seat and prepared to be attentive though not to the point of trying to write notes that he’d never read. Drake and Phaethon went way back… waaay back. That friendship was reason enough to command respect but Drake was also a pretty decent CAG, more caring and less aggressively brutal than some “warrior CAGs” but he was a good leader as far as Phaethon could tell, personal bias aside.

Weiss, well, Phaethon had no strong feelings for her one way or the other. It wouldn’t be truthful to say that he didn’t know the captain. They’d served aboard the same ship for at least two years now, but she was Raptors and he was Vipers. Even her position as deputy CAG gave her little interaction with Kosta who certainly got enough higher-up contact by flying Drake’s wing most of the time. Captain Weiss was also known as being a bit of a hardass, more by-the-book than even someone like Vik or at least she was more vocal about it. As far as Phaethon could tell she was a good Dep. CAG or Raptor Pilot or whatever, but it wasn’t necessarily the kind of personality he’d seek out to play cards when off shift. Captain Weiss probably didn’t even know what Triad was.

[Samantha Casey]

Sam Casey sauntered into the pilot ready room on time as usual. Somehow Samantha had a knack for being on time, and NEVER late. She slipped in and took a seat in the back. Seeing Drake up at the front near the podium a small smile spread across her features. It was familiar having Drake as her CAG. He demanded respect, and from her he got it. Other than simply being his pilot they were friends. She had been his wingman back on Mercury, and she trusted Drake perhaps more than most. Her face darkened for a moment. Many things had happened while with the Mercury. Many things she’d sooner regret.

Sam gave a sigh and leaned back in her chair letting her flight suit press against the back of her seat. Without turning her head her eyes shifted around the room. She spotted Chris and Phaeton and smirked. She had come to know Phaeton and Chris and the three were good friends. It was no surprise really; they were members of the ‘Hawks after all. She respected Phaeton immensely he was an astounding pilot and deserved a lot more praise than he got. Chris was a gifted pilot, and Sam got along with him outside of the cockpit. They had a similar nonchalance about everything.

Weiss stood near Wolfe. Sam thought the woman was a good pilot, but they rarely spoke to one another outside of the occasional greeting and salute. Sam didn’t know Weiss well enough to dislike the woman, but she certainly seemed a little rigid for her taste. Still, Weiss was strong, and Sam liked strong women, she admired such people. Weiss was older than Sam. A part of her wondered if that was what she would turn into one day: a stiff, all-business, inflexible person. From what Sam could tell Weiss seemed rather stuck in her ways. The military had taught Samantha routine and discipline certainly, and she enjoyed most of it, though sometimes Sam had to mix things up, change her workouts, something, anything no matter how small to make things different. Samantha was a great pilot. It was all that she was really. She shined out in the black where some only became masters on the sims. Sure she did alright in the simulators, in fact she could kick ass if she wanted to but sometimes she grew apathetic and anxious if she wasn’t actually flying, to her it wasn’t the same thing in the slightest. Out in the black she could rule the skies if she wanted to. It was her quick reflexes, strategic prowess, maneuvering skills, lightning fast decisions and out of the box thinking that made her stand out and kept her alive. Her talent was quite raw and she was always driven by instinct. Sam had a ‘feel for flying.’ If she had to Sam could probably figure out how to fly any craft in a swift fashion. Not that she ever flew anything other than a viper, but if she had to she could. Sam preferred the fast speed of the vipers to any other ship.

Sam waited patiently for the speech to start. There was something she enjoyed about the Welcome Back Speech. Maybe it was because this was home to her, or maybe it was because it meant they would be flying soon. Either way it was one of her favorites.