Galvanized

[Professor Fenway]

0 x 1000 is still 0, mercury.

[Shadowcatbot]

0 x 1000 is still 0, mercury.

*ahem*
OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!
Burn

[cats]

0 x 1000 is still 0, mercury.

[Error]

Wow. Shake each other's dongs in-universe, why don't you? :P

---
Ash brought the fighter alongside, nudging it into the cradle in the hangar bay. Running through the shutdown checklist, she pushed out of the control seat and drifted over to the center console, hovering over Vandian's shoulder and monitoring the approach to the drone silently.

[Professor Fenway]

The hatch opened, and Hallix pushed out into space. He was attached by a strong nylon coil, but he had an RCS pack on his solar suit. After a second, he made contact with the drone dead in space. It barely moved, and it was hardly bigger than him. He unclipped the nylon coil and attached the clip to a hold on the drone before giving a thumbs up behind him. He moved to the other side of the drone, moving over it like a spider, before stopping to inspect the body.

There was a large opening on this side, which was mostly undamaged. And inside the opening was what appeared to be a missile, a long and slender body with several fins and four slots, obviously for RCS maneuvers. The back of the missile was sparking and fizzing; the drone had tried to fire it. And failed. Meaning the warhead was, in all likelihood, still active.

He pressed a button on his suit and contacted Vanidan, while moving to the clip and disengaging it. "Vanidan, drone has an active warhead lodged in a missile port. Move the ship out of blast range." The ship, after a second, began drifting away. He moved back to the port and looked into the port. It was barely caught on a piece of twisted metal. He reached in to the port and carefully brushed against the missile; his hand barely fit. He heard the transmission system come on.

"Commander," Vanidan said, "I'm not sure this is a good idea-"

"I have it under control," Hallix replied. He took a hold of the missile and wiggled it around slightly. He felt it scraping against the metal briefly before it came free, and he soon held it in his hands. Very standard missile design, adapted for space use with guiding RCS thrusters. The main engine was quite obviously capable of toggling between off and on. He noted a small panel on the side of it and opened it, revealing a set of lights and a few switches. A very odd set of switches, with foreign symbols and an irregular shape. The three upper lights were blue, while the lowest light appeared to be green. He considered the damaged engine and switched the lowest switch. The light shut off and the engine stopped sparking and fizzing. He thought for a second, and then switched the other three switches. The three lights shut off. Satisfied, he pulled the clip back to the drone and connected it again. He keyed Vanidan again. "Missile is most likely disarmed, resume reeling."

[Luna]

Sasha docked and shut down her fighter. She opened up the canopy and floated back into the ship. She drifted over to Vanadian and Ash. "Tell Hallix when he gets back that I'd like to talk to him, I have a few questions. Our briefing session was interrupted after all."

[Error]

What?

Fighters are remote-piloted unless the ship's comms system is damaged. Why fly it manually?

[Luna]

What?

Fighters are remote-piloted unless the ship's comms system is damaged. Why fly it manually?

OOC: Oh oops, my bad . I didn't think current technology was powerful enough to do that.

[Error]

Set in 2020ish. In 1990, we had remotely-flown drones used regularly in the military.

[Luna]

Set in 2020ish. In 1990, we had remotely-flown drones used regularly in the military.

Well unless the government is hiding it from us I don't see any remotely piloted fighters. But i'm griping. Back to RP

[Professor Fenway]

Fighters can be flown both manually and remotely, if required. You can do either depending on the pilot's preferences.

[cats]

It really only makes sense for fighters to be piloted manually. First you have the fact that pretty much the entire human race could be at stake, the pilot's life is only as valuable as the craft (we have more pilots than fighters, fighters are more important). Second, if the fighter is drawn into a fight away from the ship, the time it takes for signals to move the distance would start to affect fighting ability.

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

First of all, these aren't any soldiers, if I got this right they are the very best of the very best.
Second of all, signals can go pretty fucking far pretty fucking quickly.

[cats]

First of all, these aren't any soldiers, if I got this right they are the very best of the very best.
Second of all, signals can go pretty fucking far pretty fucking quickly.

The fighters are vital to the mission, we have two of them and four (?) people that can fly them. When skirmishing with computers, a delay of a few tenths of a second is significant. If a fighter somehow ends up on the other side of the planet, that's no less than a second delay. Not even considering interference, remote piloting isn't optimal in a combat scenario.

[Error]

The signal would have at least thousands of kilometers range easily with no excessive lag time. So, really, unless the fighters are operating a ludicrous distance away, no issue.