trans_9 | Exhaustion [Open]

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Exhaustion [Open]

The first thing that Asuka had done was open a comm post to see how long it had been. Then she'd learned she'd been gone for months. Precious, valuable months spent running mazes (she couldn't exactly remember it all - it was a blur, like a dream). She was probably left behind by now! So, the third thing she'd done was gone straight to the Sensoriums and started flying. She'd done combat scenarios, cold starts, everything that she'd learned before, she'd done over and over again, trying to improve her reaction times, trying to master the controls.

There was no way in Hell she was going to be the worst pilot in the squadron. She was going to be the best. Which was why she'd just gone for a day or so without sleep and was more then a little bit exhausted.

And still flying a simulated X-Wing.

You couldn't fault her dedication.

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"Getting a little sloppy out there." Came a voice from the comm. Danny had wandered in and been watching for a while.

Honestly, she'd noticed it too. But then again, she'd noticed it hours ago. She'd been stopping to get water, to relieve herself, but never for long. She could almost feel her arms trembling.

"Shut up!" She shot back.

There's a faint click and a familiar voice speaks over the intercomm.

"Pushing yourself to exhaustion can be useful, but this isn't an emergency situation, Asuka."

Asuka stiffened. General Antilles. "I'm not going to let myself be the worst pilot in the squadron."

She reached out a hand and thumbed one of her controls and then paused the simulation, slumping in her seat.

"Stacy, end the simulation." The simulation flickers out and Wedge takes a few steps forwards, looking rather sharp in his new bottle-green uniform, the insignia for a commander, not a general on sleeves and shoulder.

"You aren't, I can assure you. I've been gone just as long as you have, Asuka, but you don't see me in here working myself to exhaustion, do you? Why do you suppose that is?"

"Because you're already the best, sir." She draws the word out, although she looks like she shouldn't still be on her feet. Really, she just looks tired. She reaches up and adjusts her hair - she's wearing one of the real flight suits. She either doesn't notice the rank insignia or she's just ignoring it for now.

"No, because it doesn't help me or the squadron and because it doesn't prove anything. You're a competent pilot, Asuka, and you have a lot of potential. But you can't keep focusing simply on being the 'best' all the time. Competition is healthy, but too much of it is bad for and bad for your squadronmates." He sighs and folds his arms across his chest.

"Now, I want you to get some rest. It's not an order, and I don't want to have to make it one."

Asuka stared up at Wedge bitterly. He had never understood and he was never going to. She opened her mouth to shoot back a pithy retort, snapped it shut and lowered her head. She managed to grind out, "Yes, sir," in between clenched teeth and turned toward the door.

This sucked.

Sho was taking his first visit to the sensoriums, which he'd been hearing a lot about since he had awoken. He wasn't really sure what to expect, except that it was like a virtual reality room. Sho just casually wandered into the first one he found and was soon looking at the simulated X-Wing going through combat scenarios.

"Whoa!" Is all Sho can say for the moment. He was no pilot, but he knew when to be impressed. What he did not know was that the intercom was on. "This is pretty cool."

"Try not to talk to me!" Asuka snaps at the intercomm. She sounds a bit shaky, actually. "I don't need you screwing up my concentration!"

Sho almost jumps out of his skin when he hears her, and it only takes a second before he realizes who's talking.

"Ah! S-Sorry!" He stammers and blushes out of embarrassment. Sho sits down and watches quietly.

"I'll never get what's with you Rogues and that flying crate of yours." The voice crackled over the simulated speaker - and a blue VF-25 soared past Asuka's cockpit at its customary breakneck speeds, waggling its wings in a little salute as it did.

Asuka quietly seethes to herself as she shakily finishes up her maneuver and finally brings the simulation to an end - or at least pauses it. She stalks over toward him, jabbing a finger in his direction. She's tired, worn out and testy, on top of already being angry about being so far behind.

"Who told you you could just barge in like that?"

"It's not a flying crate, moron!" Asuka snapped in reply as she kicked her throttle up to maximum and followed in his wake. "Way better then whatever that monstrosity is you're flying!"

The pilot swung his Valkyrie around in a wide loop around some simulated space debris. "Please. My Messiah could fly circles around an X-Wing any day of the week. Want me to cut to quarter throttle? You might be able to keep up like that."

Asuka pushed her X-Wing after him, staing as close-in and tight as she can. But there's definitely strain her voice. She sounds exhausted, despite the bravado. "Keep talking and maybe I'll put a torpedo into your stupid tail-pipe!"

It might be her adopted craft, but by God she's going to defend it.

"Really, now." Michel cut the Valkyrie's speed to the point where the X-Wing could conceivably keep up with it - his little ship lacked the shields of the sturdier X-Wing, but it more than made up for it in its quickness.

"You think you can actually hit me in that thing? That's really kinda cute."

Asuka answered by triggering a barrage of laser fire, red bolts zipping through space - she could still catch up to him. His VF-25 was faster, but not that much faster. She thumbed over to torpedoes, waiting for her HUD to give her the steady tone of a target lock.

"That's more like it!" He teased, rolling the Valkyrie to the side in a snap-dive through scarlet lasers, taking advantage of his craft's superior maneuverability to juke to the side just when he thought she might have a target lock.

Of course, Skull pilots cut their teeth on dodging missile barrages, so it wasn't like he'd never done any of that before.

Asuka gritted her teeth, trying to fight on through the exhaustion that threatened to force her down and out. She kicked power over from her shields into her engines and zipped after him, more laser fire lancing out. At maximum thrust she could keep up with the VF-25 - although certainly not as maneuverable.

She wasn't going to let herself lose this one.

He noticed the sudden burst in speed - rare, for an X-Wing - and further noted that the craft's shields were now gone. "You're an aggressive little bird," Michel murmured to himself. Dangerously so, even.

That could be the death of her, if she tried it against the wrong person. His finger wandered towards the trigger, but... no, he'd set rules, he'd play by them.

In Asuka's mind, the best defense was a good offense - and in this case, the sooner she shot him down, the better. More scarlet laser fire stitched through the void, tracking her target. Her HUD kept flickering green - target lock - and then going back to it's neutral blue as the VF-25 juked and weaved. Her gunnery wasn't what it could be. She'd been at this for hours and by now she was practically wrestling her stick over.

She was going to get him, one way or another.

To be fair to her, Michel wasn't making it easy. "Good thing you're using beam weapons," he called back, his voice light and breezy but no less teasing, "If you'd been using solid ammo you'd have run out by now, shooting like that."

"Shut up!" Her voice sounds more then a bit strained as she whips the X-Wing around, triggering another burst. She's trying to keep him hemmed in, trying to anticipate where he's going to be. She's starting to develop a pounding headache, but she fights through the growing throb in her head to stick with Michel. She wasn't going to lose. She wasn't going to lose.

"...And I thought I was a workaholic!" muttered a voice from the comms - one Kagurazaka Asuna, who'd made her way back to the sensoriums hoping to run a program of her own but should've expected that someone else would have the same idea as her.

The funny thing? She looked only vaguely similar to Asuka in certain aspects, and in OTHER ways...!

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Exhaustion [Open]

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