A Bit Of Some Practice (Backpost)

Posted on Sat May 16th, 2026 @ 2:46am by Ensign Grace MacKenzie 'Sabre' & Lieutenant JG Vyse Ingelbard 'Buccaneer'

1,692 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: Dedicated Simulator Area

Grace stretched as she stood outside the simulator doors, inhaling deeply, then exhaling again. Her time on the Tokyo had been brief so far, but the difference between this place and Foch was so dramatic as to be different worlds. The flight suit she wore still held the crest of USS Foch on the shoulder as she'd not been 'officially' transferred as far as she knew. She still kept some of the habits of the old ship, though she'd ditched the kepi hat and hoped never to put it on again. 'The Legion' aspect of the ship had always bothered her, although after she'd done her research on the namesake of USS Foch, she did understand and sortof agree with the motto of the ship.

"My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; Situation excellent. I shall attack!" The young woman gave a sharp laugh after she made the statement in moderately haughty French accent.

"What was that?" Vyse Ingelbard was coming from around the corner when he heard the unusual phrase in a high-brow accent, neither of which he expected from any of the crew. He smiled and nodded to the woman waiting outside the door to the simulator. "Ensign MacKenzie, right?" It was a question for politeness' sake, as he'd been experimenting to have his eye piece display additional information about the things and people around him, so he knew who she was. "What's that you were just saying?"

Grace glanced around and as she saw Vyse, her face flushed a bright red, not knowing that he'd overheard her, "Ah um... Ah'm sorry, suh, Ah tend to be a student of history and um.. Field Marshal Foch was known for ihs um... " She changed the subject as quickly as she could, "Ensign Grace MacKenzie, suh, formerly of the USS Foch and the Légion étrangère, although most of the pilots were French." She knew she was rambling and if she could have gone a deeper red, she would have, "Ah mean, um... Shit, suh."

Vyse couldn’t help but laugh. “At ease, Ensign. Relax. It’s a good saying, I just didn’t know it.” He gestured for the door they were both standing in front of. “You’re putting in some simulator time?”

Grace relaxed ever so slightly, "Yes, suh, Ah think it's important that Ah practice as much as possible. Ah know mah bird s configured as a Recce bird, but that just means Ah have twice as many mission opportunities as anyone else." She scratched her stomach in nervousness, "Plus while Ah may not be AS theoretically dangerous in combat given mah reduced weaponry to make up for better sensors and the Tail," She referred to the extremely sensitive passive sensor array she could deploy behind her craft when on recon patrols, "Ah need to make every shot Ah do get count, suh."

“That’s a good instinct,” Vyse said. “Want someone to practice against? I can simulate an opposing force pretty well.”

“Ah was plannin’ on usin’ some of the new trainin’ sims they came out with after the Starbase, suh, to try to practice against the enemy.” Grace admitted, “But if you wanted to see how good Ah am, suh, you may be able to give me some pointers to help my survival rates in the sims.”

“Sure,” Vyse replied. “Want me in a back seat configuration, or watching from the sidelines?”

"Ah'm not sure, suh, Ah've never been assigned a Wizzo to handle the sensors before, so Ah'm used to handlin' all the systems on my own. Of course, it's always been rare to be flyin' alone, usually it was at least by flight on Foch for the sims, even for recon run practice. Always have a wingman or three on those runs to run cover as needed."

"Well, you probably want to exercise something that's likely to come up but where you're not experienced, right?" Vyse asked.

“Ah would think so, suh, because Ah presume we’re gonna be lookin’ at a target rich environment.” The young pilot glance nervously at the cockpit, clearly worried, “Don’t get me wrong, suh, Ah’ve trained for the furballs and even for standoff monitorin’ and threat assessment operations, and all of it with the Recon configuration. Ah’m not sure if Snowflake’s gonna have me keep that or reconfigure mah bird to the standard. Ah could see how Ah could be useful in either way, suh, because when Ah shoot at somethin’, Ah don’t miss.”

Vyse smirked. "Well that sure sounds like a challenge."

"Not a challenge, suh, because that's where my weaknesses are: Ah've got a lot to learn about proper maneuverin' and the like. Don't get me wrong, Ah'm not bad at it, Ah'm alive still, but Ah know Ah need some more practice that Ah didn't get back on Foch."

"If that's your weakness then let's simulate defensive maneuvering," Vyse suggested. "First in a standard craft and then in something with more inertia. Oh, I have an idea. Let's go inside." He walked into the holo-simulator room and gestured for Grace to follow him in and take a seat in one of the booths.

"All right, suh," Grace nodded with conviction, "Ah've only really flown Valkyries, outside of basic flight trainin' that is, so Ah'm familiar with the bird well enough."

"I just need to do something and then I'll get you started," Vyse said. He opened an instant messenger program and sent a note to Fubuki. Helping Sabre in simulator for a bit. I might be 30ish minutes late.

That done, he started up a program. "You're not up against maneuvering fighters and your goal isn't to shoot down the opposing force. You're actually facing off static turrets along a megastructure. All you're meant to do is survive. You can make it easier by shooting the turrets, but they'll respawn though and it'll get harder as you go."

"That would be one of our jobs as fighters, isn't it? Weapon's suppression?" Grace nodded, "Is there any pattern to the turret location, or is it all just random?" She was full of questions, not that she'd ever had the luxury to ask them before, "Ah could treat them like barrel racin' if Ah can get a pattern worked out."

“There are patterns,” Vyse admitted, “but they change as they respawn.” The console he was sitting at pinged. Fubuki had replied with a cute and silly emoji. It made him smile. “Alright, you ready to go?”

"Yes, suh." This time her nod was choppy, "Ah understand the mission and Ah hope that Ah don't disappoint." She paused a moment, "Solo flight, or wingman? Or are you plannin' on being my rear seater?"

“This one’ll be solo,” Vyse said. “I may or may not be actively generating new turrets,” he added with a smirk. “We can simulate the two-seater version, for a more realistic flight though.”

"Ah think Ah'd prefer single-seat, better center of mass in flight if Ah'm not going to have someone in the rear seat." Grace pointed out, "Plus, a bit more legroom, even if Ah really don't need it." She climbed up the side of the simulator pod to slide into the cockpit.

“Alright,” Vyse said, turning to the console. “Simulation starting in three, two, one, go!”

The cockpit canopy started to display a massive simulated battlestation, such that it functioned like an artificial horizon. It was studded with turrets which began to fire at the fighter.

Grace checked the readings on the display, speed was at half impulse and a quick wiggle of the stick told her just how responsive the fighter was until she adjusted a couple of settings. A further test made her smile and she focused ahead of her, "This is no moon." She remarked as the battlestation neared. These distant shots were easier to avoid, coming from a relatively few turrets to start with. "Accelerating to attack speed."

Now she started to juking about in earnest, staying within a fifteen degree cone as the surface continued to approach. Phaser fire lanced out from her as the HUD flickered from green to red as the turrets came in and out of the targeting pattern. Finally she flared before she could pancake into the station, but reduced the number of turrets that could target her even as she had less time to engage each target, but despite losing a full third of her evasion cone, she kept shooting turrets one by one, but as expected more spawned as she juked back and forth, up and down as much as she could. Her shields sparkled with the occasional hit as she slalomed.

Ninety-eight seconds after she hit the surface of the station on the run, shots were coming at her from several angles and she cut her speed back by ten percent to give herself more maneuvering capability but also gave the turrets more time to shoot at her as she took them out. She inverted and dove into a trenchline, coming back in orientation as additional turrets began to engage her where she had almost no maneuverability at all. She reinforced the forward shields, the targets now easier to hit as well, but the volume of fire only kept increasing until she was forced to abandon the trench and came up above the horizon where a dozen additional turret simultaneously opened fire on her and the simulation went black. The timer read four minutes and eighteen seconds.

"That," Vyse said reviewing the results, "might be the best first-attempt time we've seen on this ship." He grinned at her. "Want to go again?"

Grace grinned back as she settled herself back in the seat that she'd started to get out of, "Ah think so, suh, if that's the best first-attempt on the ship, Ah think it's time for me to try for the real record, don't you think?"

“Go for it, Sabre,” he replied, laughing. “Resetting the program in three…two…”

End Post

Lieutenant JG Vyse “Buccaneer” Ingelbard
Fighter Pilot, Ducati Leader

Ensign Grace 'Sabre' MacKenzie
Fighter Pilot

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