Toko Aida Military Academy

[Draknus]

No hands, and she's ignoring me. What is she scribbling anyway?

"Cadet Seyn, I would remind you that whether you are being instructed by an officer or a civilian instructor, it is still respectful to pay attention."

He huffed once in exasperation.

"The answer is zero, in any measure of velocity. In fact, for any perfect turn, the answer is always zero. Thankfully you will not be learning perfect turns. I believe I have wasted enough class time, and if my teacher's intuition is correct, you were all about to go on a field trip. Please follow Ms. O to wherever she was taking you. Cadet Seyn, grab a buddy and wait here, I'll need to have a word with you."

He walked back towards the desk as the sound of frantic packing filled the room.

"You go ahead Ma'am, I believe I can ID the Admiral's ship and I'll make sure no one's the wiser about the console's own field trip."

He picked up an apple off the desk and began to munch as he watched the class leave, waiting for Cadet Seyn and whomever she "grabbed" to approach.

 

[Shadowheart26]

Seyn ignored the rest of the shifting class and finished her sketch, comparing with the real one. It wasn't bad, maybe missing a few buttons, but she didn't have at lot of room to draw, anyway. She flipped back a bit in her book, lingering on the inside on the cover. It had words inscribed on it in Kronsetian. She re-read the message twice, then nodded and closed the notepad and returning her things back to the bag. She stood, easily the taller than the rest of her classmates, and approached the officer.

"I am sorry if I offended you, Sir, " She said with a cold, detached tone, "I was merely implying that if we were learning how to fly from you, I would never come close to knowing how to turn a ship on." She disliked with this man, with whom she shared a similar height. She remembered the way the Merchant Captian had gone on about his ship, showing her everything he loved about it. He acted as if it were his family; a dear comrade with whom he had a deep bond. To think of the way he flew that ship as nothing more than a bunch of equations was insulting.

Seyn gave cold salute that mirrored the man's previous one and returned to lean moodily on her desk. If that's the way they'll expect me to learn how to fly, She thought, her tail whipping back and forth, then I'd return to Taron in a second.

 

[E.T.]

Ms. O looked cooly on not quite liking this other side of Lt. Samael. She had spent too many years fighting the other teachers to get the right to run her class without someone breathing down her neck to just turn over it to this guy. Okay she might not teach in the most conventional way but, in her years of teaching a student had yet to fail and most of them excelled in the flight portion of the test. Looking down at her watch and seeing that they had already spent to much time with this guy trying to intimidate her class it was pretty much out of the question for them to actually do something fun. And besides of she so much as coughs this guy would report that she was making all of the kids sick. Rising she gave a half nod to what he said about the control panel, she had spent over two years snagging different items from the officers' ships in her mind she felt we didn't need much help, before turning to face the rest of the class. Faking cheerfulness she gestured for everyone to exit the classroom with her holding the door open so people could easily pass by. She took this chance to shoot a glance at Lt. Samael, silently conveying her unhospitable feelings.
"Alright for those of you completely new we are heading down to the E bracket shuttle bay. We will be hitching a ride on my wonderfully redone S-5 Nova, so if any of you guys have questions I would suggest asking them now." As she turned from the classroom she seemed a bit more cheerful and she chattered with a couple students, answering questions about this and that.

 

[Draknus]

"It seems we have something in common," he said between bites, "neither of us believes you're sorry at all."

He set the apple core down, wiped his hands, and looked up at her.

"I'm not here to teach you how to fly, you have an instructor for that. I'm here to make sure you learn what you need to learn to serve in this new military."

He was silent a moment. I show up in this universe not an hour ago, and already I care. I'm too old for this dren.

"You ask good questions, but too early. Science was sought on most space-worthy planets as a means to know many things, but to know, not feel. That's why it's science. Only the best scientists took it one step further to art. Eventually, after you have practiced the basics for weeks, if not months, on end, you will fly a fighter by reflex. Years of practice after that, you will finally fly by feel. Only the best pilots make it that far, and not a single one without going through the boring stuff. I've flown my fair share of fighters, as well as winged aircraft, and a few other vehicles that you'll probably never even hear about. It takes two things for anyone with a fully functional brain to become a 'fly by feel' pilot: passion and determination. Part of that is the determination to learn and get through the hard part. Thanks to today's technology, that's pretty short for you. Unless your aim is to pilot the big birds, carriers, merchant ships, dreadnoughts, you'll be done with the boring stuff before you even take the practical exam for this course.

"But you do need to learn it, especially if you ever expect to use that knowledge as a commissioned officer, rather than as a warranted courier, or civilian contractor. Fighter pilots are all commissioned."

He paused, questioning whether to bother to make this offer or not...

"If you're determined, I know Ms. O can teach you how to fly. You have the natural grace, and definitely the cock-sure attitude of a fighter pilot. All you need is the discipline and intellectual skill of an officer. I can teach you those. Or you can learn it the hard way from one of the NCO's over in the training fields. Less fun there."

"Four pages, on everything you can find out about zero velocity turns in zero gravity. That's pages, not pieces of paper. You can do it on two pieces of paper, double sided, or on four, single sided. Double-spaced, size 12 font. Neither the title page nor the works cited page counts as one of the four required pages. I'll expect both that report, and your decision on whether or not you'd be willing to train under my tutelage, by the end of class Friday."

He stood up and turned to leave, but turned back to add, "I don't offer this to every cadet, only those I think could actually make a difference. Prove me right, or prove me wrong. It's up to you."

With that, he lifted the heavy console to his shoulder, and carried it toward the nearest map terminal.

Here's hoping I'm actually still here Friday...

 

[Radiant_Sky]

Pendleton looks around at his fellow classmates, trying to discern if any of them are actually going to do as he asks. After a moment of consideration, he voices up.
"So who is actually going to do this?"

 

[Shadowheart26]

Seyn mulled over his words carefully before shaking her head. "No, you're not the kind of person I want teaching me." She sat down heavily in her desk, feeling the edges of despair. "He shouldn't call that stuff boring," She muttered to herself, "He doesn't seem to have much passion at all for flying." She shook her head. "It's not that I don't want to learn the facts and equations about how to fly a ship," She went on, with a sigh, "I just want a reason to learn it." She felt a longing to see her cousin. They were very close and alot alike. He loved to learn about everything about something, but didn't think using it was actually fun.

He had passion for his experiments and discoveries. That's why he absorbed everything he could, so he could do more. She loved the sensation of flying, which is why she wanted to know how to fly, but would all of the 'boring stuff' make her love it more? She could understand learning how to fly physically, and then learning how it happens scientifically, because then she knew she would want to learn even more about flying, anything and everything she could possibly think of to be better.

Seyn knew she had to passion to do whatever she set her mind to, all Kronsets had fiery wells of it inside of them. She also had the determination to let nothing stop her from doing what she wanted to do. So what was it that she was missing? Perhaps it would be better if she had stayed home after all. She remembered what her cousin had told her when he had suggested that she learn at the Academy.

"They do things differently than us," He had said, tinkering with his newest invention, "They don't see things simply or as easily accomplished, but you can't give in. You're a Kronset. If they tell you that you can't do something, it's impossible, than you'll do anything to prove them wrong. You may not be big on book work, but you've got potential. Even they've got to see that."

 

[Tain]

Yrinky had been watching the back and forth with such intensity that her head had been bobbing around since it started. From the entrance of the new Lieutenant, to her new friends apparent annoyance. Her mandibles had been slightly open the entire time, until her gaze had settled upon Miss O after hearing her oddly approachable voice. Everything else seemed to drain from the room, and Yrinky was immediately captivated.

"Alright for those of you completely new we are heading down to the E bracket shuttle bay. We will be hitching a ride on my wonderfully redone S-5 Nova, so if any of you guys have questions I would suggest asking them now."

Her mandibles shot open, and that excited little "eee" emerged yet again. She swayed so hard that she fell from her desk almost immediately, but picked herself up and began stumbling her way down from the ascending stairway that lead to the back row. With her mandibles open as they were and her stalks raised straight outwards, it almost looked like a very sad display of aggression from something trying to look ferocious... but there was no mistaking the excited glimmer in Yrinky's eyes. She paused only to look back up the stairs at Seyn in the back row. "Tall-one, perhaps we can find good seats if we hurry!"

Yrinky disappeared out the door of the classroom. She was back within a few seconds, head peeking around the edge of the doorway. "... A-ah. Where is E shuttle bracket? What does this S-5 Nova look like...?"

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'Mister' Fennel uttered a low warning growl at Lt. Samael's parting act of insubordination, but quickly squelched it. He didn't wear rank at the academy, so there was no way for the young lieutenant of ever knowing he wasn't a civilian. He executed a perfect about-face away from the doorway and strode over to his desk, where he leaned forward and splayed his paws across it, looking for all the world like a crimped Doberman about to attack. When he spoke again, his voice had lost the majority of the bass it had contained before. His voice was reminiscent of a certain officer contained in a cheesy holovid of an ancient training method.​

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"Their Law" by Prodigy ​

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"Cadet Flarkan, recover and take your seat. Students of 5608: I am Colonel Fennel of the IROS Allied Marine Corps. I do not wear rank at this facility. You will not address me as 'Colonel.' I will not act like your run-of-the-mill gentleman because we have no time for that. Your objective while you are here in my classroom is to learn to survive and how to keep your people alive in the toxic environment that is a battlefield. That, ladies and gentlemen and others, will take discipline on your part... and I demand discipline." Colonel Fennel rounded his desk and stood to one side of it, clutching his hands behind his back and looking down momentarily as if considering what he was about to say carefully. ​

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"I am not your Miss Oltonzernta. I am not forgiving like she is. Every mistake has a price in my classroom, because every mistake has a price on the battlefield. Fiona and I have very different philosophies on the correct way to instruct you," If he knew he had used her first name, he gave no indication. "But for all our differences, you will find that we both have one thing in common: I hate the board of directors with all the remnants of my black little heart." This at least caused an apprehensive chuckle to murmur through the classroom.

"You may not believe me when I say this, but we're going to have FUN." A feral grin split his muzzle. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is an order that is only preceded by discipline. You will not be confined to this classroom; we will make AMPLE USE of the combat training facility on this station."

Without a further word, he deftly retrieved one of his paws from behind his back and cupped it in front of him, creating the correct gesture which triggered the nanosensors in his instruction module. His paw filled with a swirling sphere of various colors, which he smoothly cast towards the students, causing a few to flinch. Almost instantly, everyone in the classroom had apparently been assigned the color of either green, grey, or black next to a holographic display of their name and their student ID photo, which shimmered in the air in front of them.

He gave no explanation. "Now before we get started, Cadets... what are your questions?"

 

[Radiant_Sky]

While walking, Pendleton's mind slowly began to drift back to the package missing from his mother. He decided that he would slip out the first chance he got and head to the delivery bay to search for it. His chance came somewhat in the middle of their journey, as a janitor disrupted the group and scattered them around. He followed the janitor, sliding off into a side hallway and waiting in a bathroom for everyone to pass. Then, he walked out, trying to remember which way the delivery bay was in. Damn this navigational system, classrooms were hard to find and there were hardly any markings or directions anywhere.

 

[Shadowheart26]

"Just follow Ms.O and she will most likely tell you," Seyn told Yrinky, "You'd best hurry before you lose sight of her." After Yrinky quickly left to follow the disappearing class, Seyn decided to stay a bit longer, then follow them. When a few minutes had passed in silence, she got up to follow her class to the E-shuttle bay when she realised she had no idea which way they had gone.

She gave a few sniffs, wondering if she could follow their scent trail. After inhaling a mess of smells that floated in both directions, she decided to go right; despite the fact that she had no idea which way they went. She silently padded down the hall, passing other classrooms on either side.

 

[Diana]

MEANWHILE, OUT IN THE SHUTTLEBAY! 8D


Juniper stared. Wide-eyed, dumbfounded, and completely bewildered. Not because Garn had accidentally fired a gun down there in the shuttlebay, and any moment they were going to get swarmed by security, as that was the furthest thing from her mind. Juniper was baffled by Garn's wriggling bits and the fact even his uniform seemed to heal back up. Weren't they made of normal fabrics?

"Um...!" she was still staring like an idiot. Somehow she seemed to have regained SOME sense, because she was making a big effort to shift guns around and take the one Garn shot himself with. "Uuuuuum, these are my responsibility, so I will just hold on to all of them in case we have another accident. You are supposed to be trained before handling them, you know!"

That was when she suddenly realized THIS was the alien she was to be picking up and escorting around the Academy. "Oh! It's you! Wonderful. My name is Juniper Kelley, it's nice to meet you Garmy. If you follow me, I will give you a tour, but we need to put these guns back, cause I'm a couple hours late and I think you go to prison for gun theft."

 

[Vay]

At her explanation Garn make the same exposed teeth expression as they had before while wondering if this was all some sort of greeting ceremony. Present the guest with a pile of devices, met them choose one, then take it away again. Symbolizing the generosity of the host and them taking responsibility for the guest perhaps?

"Hyes I is the first to com here from Krub in the antio arm ov ze vandering nebula." they said raising thier arm and waving again with the same pseudo smile on thier face. "Hyu are ze commander ov ze station?" It would make sense for the first alien of their kind to venture from their own world to be greeted by some sort of dignitary.

 

[Diana]

"Who me? That would be neat. But no! Actually, I have NO IDEA who the commander of the whole Toko Aida station is. Um.... I don't even know who runs the Academy here, which is pretty bad now that I think about it. But, oh! My papa sent me here to come pick you up. Because he said something about being more responsible and also because he knows I like to meet new aliens! You are a Krub, yeah? You don't really look like an alien, but since you just shot yourself and did weird things with your uniform I guess you are after all." Juniper barely even paused to take a breath as she talked. She went on a mile a minute without hesitation.

While going through her endless speech, she gestured towards the door and was already leading the way. Guns in hand and a bounce in her step. "So I was wondering if you were a boy or a girl, or maybe you are both? I am a girl myself. But then sometimes humans can be both too, but that is usually just a genetic defect. I don't like to make any assumptions about genders either, because some species like to cross dress or change their gender, and then I seem to somehow offend someone, which is NOT what I want to do. I like to make friends, actually! WE could be pretty good friends if you'd like to. I don't seem to have a lot of friends on the station and I'm not really sure why."

 

[Vay]

"Hyu June nipper." Garn said in response to the first two words out of her mouth but it seemed the human was far too busy talking to notice the alien had passed her memory test. "If hyu vant me to look like alien hyu ken say." they continued as doorward movement started and the human girl continued talking.

"Boy... girl..." Garn repeated making sure they had heard the words correctly. The entries for these two words had confounded Krub linguists and their meaning was classified as unknown. "Hy not sure what boy and girl iz." Time to find out!

 

[Diana]

"I'd love to see your natural form! You see, I am really interested in biology and different species of sentient beings, but for the living purposes and not for the killing purposes, which makes it pretty weird that I am studying at a military academy that is designed to train the perfect soldiers. But you know, you can't really choose where you get your education sometimes and I don't mind so much because most of my teachers are really nice." Walking through the threshold, she took him down at least three hallways before she found and elevator and was trying to balance her guns and press the UP button at the same time. She just wound up poking it with one of the guns.

"By the way, girls and boys are females and males. Um, genders! Like, some species can't reproduce with just one person so they need two people. And the two people have to have the compatible parts, cause you can't put two boys together or two girls together to make babies. Cause that's just one half of the equation. It's kind of like magnetism, or chemistry!" It probably wasn't like either of those things, but in Juniper's head it all made perfect sense. Once the elevator doors open, she kept her back against the frame so they wouldn't close and Garn could step inside.

"Come on now, I don't have all day!"

 

[Vay]

Garn stood regarding the metal box and thinking over her words. The alien would barely be able to follow her if the human language wasn't tediously slow compared to their own.

"See Garn in Krub form?" that was actually possible, figuring out how mating could lead to magnetism was not!

As Garn stood outside the door the human-like figure started bloating up like a balloon, eyes disappearing and features melting into one. Then the balloon burst and what looked like a waterfall of tendrils fell to the floor in a thick mass looking like a pile of mince at a butcher's shop.

Then it moved, drawing itself in and two large, flat, round eyes emerged on stalks as a tentacle snaked into the elevator and gripped the hand rail quickly joined by another as the faintly breathing amorphous body returned to it's naive from and heaved itself into the elevator.

 

[Diana]

Well that shut her up! Juniper was silent. Once again staring in wide-eyed astonishment. The corner of her mouth twitching up in to a puzzled, and ever so slightly grossed out sort of grimace. That form was... it reminded her a lot of her grandmother's cooking, and that wasn't a good thing. Not for her, and not for Garmy who would probably end up eaten alive by the first hungry Cattilion species or mistaken for fresh meat for the cafeteria.

They must have gone up a least three floors before Juniper founder her voice again. "You know, I think it's a much better idea if you stay in a more human-like shape! Not only because you are dripping goo all over the place and there is a strict no-goo policy on the premises, but because you probably look like a meal. And I'm not sure how well people are about holding back their appetites. I mean, that seems to be a probably not matter what sort of appetite it is. Which is kind of ironic since we're talking about genders. Although maybe that's not ironic but coincidental? I always get those words mixed up."

 

[Radiant_Sky]

At the Elevator Waiting Room...
Pendleton taps his foot as he waits for the elevator to ascend, finally having gained some information as to where to go on the godforsaken grounds- Shuttle Bay. That sounded like a place where things arrived and left, so Pendleton gave his best guess that he needed to start looking there. The elevator was getting close, he punched the call button and waited; taking a long drag out of his medicine bottle and gulping the noxious fluid down.

 

[Vay]

For the second time that day the tentacles rose up and matted themselves into a mass about the height that Garn had stood previously and with the same wet melon busting sound the bared teeth expression. "Krub no hev predators on Krub." they said before raising there hand in another small wave. "If alien try eat Garn, hev defenses..." then there was another pause. "What genders?"

Juniper kept talking about them so they had to be important. "This is mating magnets? Krub not use magnets, just Krub and Krub and fight for dominance. Winner is stronger, healthier Krub and carries young."

 

[Tain]

Fennel's ears perked up, and his expression became unreadable. The students in the class might have thought they saw him smile sadistically for the briefest moment, but it was gone almost before it began. He quickly held up an outstretched paw to the class to delay them and strode over to the door to his classroom, and took a breath.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WANDERING AROUND DURING INSTRUCTION HOURS, CADET?" Fennel's voice was booming through the hallway even before he stepped through the doorway, confronting Seyn with his hands on his hips and a slight snarl in his lips. "You will produce your hall pass for me NOW cadet! ON THE DOUBLE!"

 

[Shadowheart26]

Seyn jumped at the shout that came out of the door in front of her, her fur standing on end. It took a tremendous amount of effort to not give into her instincts and punch the officer in the face for jumping out at her. One of the reasons she was banned for haunted houses and the similar like; her first reaction to something sudden or scary was to hurt it. "I'm looking for my class," She said after taking a deep breath in place of her almost punch, "Did you happen to see or hear them come down this way?"

Seyn didn't want to imagine the mountain of trouble she would have gotten in if she had punched the dog man. If he was nice enough not to press charges, she might just get away with being banned from the school and being sent back to Taron. If she was lucky, that is.