| Phoenix Fight Club | ||
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A cadre of Phoenix fighter pilots and marines are heard marching through the corridor. Leading them is none other than the Phoenix XO, Heirarch of the Daelaam Artanis. It appears that today is one of his cross training days where he intends to teach both pilots and marines that basics of generalist combat. A bit of melee, a bit of piloting, a bit of strategy. It's an excruciatingly difficult training course, in particular because one of the exercises consists on fighting Artanis himself! But, there is also the fact that there's Starcraft LAN party at the end of the course which it apparently makes it all worth it. To note, Artanis' group seems to consist of those pilots and marines that are known for liking mecha and things like Starcraft. No doubt, training under a bonna fide Protoss is quite a treat for all of them. And of course the captain is there, in uniform as she watches the pilots and marines pass by. It feels appropriate that she watch over this, she feels, even if at the moment she'd rather be on the bridge with the primary helmswoman. Then again, she'd always rather be with the primary helmswoman. Being in charge of weapons, but being a bit more used to physical combat, Shirogane has taken in trestle enough to look in on the happenings as well. Not actually having met Artanis yet, this is a curious situation indeed. "En Taro Violet!!" Comes a well practiced salute from Artanis AND the Phoenix crew following him along as they pass the Captain. Looks like Artanis has been teaching them well-- or they're that obsessed with Starcraft and are getting into character. Nevertheless, as they do their warrior salute in passing to Violet, the group eventually reach the training room where they form a circle around Artanis. "Welcome once more, warriors, to our sacred training in the arts of war. I see that today we have a new member of our meeting." The Protoss states as he motions towards Shirogane. "Can anyone let him know of the first rule of our training course?" A Marine grins and raises his hand before stepping forward. "If it's yer first day then you have to fight!" Fight Club anyone? Violet, of course, returns the salute once she sees that everyone is saluting her, thus letting them drop their salutes. "As you were," she says in her usual relaxed manner. She does, however, raise an eyebrow slightly at the mention of having to 'fight' as part of the training course. Shirogane honestly looks minorly uncomfortable with that, but only for the shortest of moments. "Well, if that's the rule..." he replies. He had just been expecting to watch, but it seems he'll have to show off some of his own experience. Its hard to tell considering Artanis has no mouth, but he is smiling at this! "No one I told you, I see." One of the Marines tosses Shirogane a staff he can use as a weapon whilst Artanis approaches the Paladin withe deliberate steps. The Protoss' eyes light up as he regards Shirogan intently and he speaks with his telepathic voice. "We both have been part of the Phoenix for a long time but have not been properly introduced." "I am Artanis. Second in Command." Violet raises an eyebrow at the staff being thrown to Shiro. Odd. She honestly thinks he can fight better without it, but she won't say anything to that effect at the moment. She's just glad Artanis hasn't tried to make her fight. But then again, she outranks him. Shirogane catches the staff, feeling about the same as Violet, but also voicing it as much as Violet. "And I am Takashi Shirogane, ...Shiro is fine. Are there any rules I should know about the fighting?" Artanis gets into a loose fighting stance which to some might look like he's just standing sideways with his hands to his sides. "Well met then, warrior! What better way to become acquainted than to test your mettle!" The Protoss cracks his neck and limbers his long fingers, double thumbs cracking as he prepares himself. "Just nothing lethal." He explains. "Ah, although do try to avoid the crowd. The recruits won't hesitate to hold you down for a pummeling." Apparently this essentially a street gang hazing as much as it is a training session. "Ready?" Fortunately it seems Artanis isn't bringing his psi blades to bear and he'll just be doing this the old fashioned way. Meanwhile, a particularly impudent Pilot scoots next to Violet and smirks mischeviously at her. "So, Captain. When will you be joining our training sessions? Hm??" Violet calls back, "And for the love of the gods, don't damage the bulkheads!" She sighs and shakes her head, then raises an eyebrow at the pilot. "Joining? I'd have to fight, then, wouldn't I? Can't have that. Like I said, don't want the bulkheads damaged." She offers the pilot a bit of a viscious grin. Shirogane takes a couple of deep in and out breaths, as if he's having to prep for some reason. "Right...well, hopefully they don't get too grabby." For their sakes, not his own. He settles into a stance that likely seems more accustomed to blade fighting. The Pilot's grin falters slightly. Sure, he's pretty certain Violet could trash him, but if it means seeing her fight Artanis, maybe its worth insisting! "And, what's wrong with that, Captain?" He tries to press the issue as much as he can without getting into trouble. Artanis rolls his shoulder and waves at Violet, silently saying he'll try to keep damage to a minimum-- this time! Then, without another word, he's closing the distance towards Shirogane in the blink of an eye. He dashes towards the Paladin as if flying and attempts to slam the staff out of the way with one of his armored forearms to enter the Chief Gunner's circle of defense. Violet raises en eyebrow at the line of questioning. "What's wrong with damaging the bulkheads? While it's good that we keep trained up in personnel scale combat, it is not our primary focus here on Phoenix. It should never come at a cost to reducing our ship-to-ship combat capabilities. If we damage the interior of the ship, it's one more factor of something that can go wrong in a real fight, not a training session." Shirogane reacts by letting Artanis have at pushing away the staff arm, only to quickly snap his metallic arm forward, attempting to give Artanis' same arm enough of a counter force to destabilize his forward momentum. The pilot stares dumbfounded at Violet for a moment and blinks a few times. To his credit he does a really good job at suppressing a laugh and just clears his throat. "I meant.. about you fighting.. Captain." MEANWHILE Shirogane uses a good counter to destabilize Artanis and would have worked were it not for the fact that Artanis seems to be floating a bit off the ground. Instead of losing his balance, Artanis uses the opportunity that both of Shirogane's arms are occupied to swing a punch at the Paladin's undefended jaw. Violet raises an eyebrow at the pilot. "So did I." Shirogane takes the punch to the jaw, however how he brings the staff arm back into things, attempting to knock the staff into the back of one fo Artanis' knees. The pilot's eyes widen a bit, then narrow.. then widen again in an obvious display of confusion. "Uh.. aye aye Captain." Obviously erring on the side of caution here already sensing that he's overstepping his bounds, the pilot returns to watch the exchange, cheering when he sees Artanis land the first punch. "YEAAH!!" Artanis' glowing blue eyes narrow when he sees the Paladin take the punch to the jaw. To his credit, Shiro doesn't go immediatly down as a normal unarmored human would have done when being struck by a Protoss Templar, which is commendable!. Focused on Shiro's upper body, the Hierarch doesn't see the staff coming low and he emits a telepathic grunt when his reverse jointed knee is struck! "GRRR!!" The Protoss in general are well versed in battles of attrition though. Artanis takes the blow without losing his balance and notices that Shiro is still not defending his face! Now that he's inside his guard, Artanis takes advantage of his aggressive position and throws an elbow strike sailing at the Paladin's nose to further injure his face. Violet pauses a heartbeat before giving the pilot a grin... not one that suggests she's joking, but one that suggests she was absolutely serious. As the pilot looks back to the fight, so does she. "Maybe if you had a ground outing, but I'm not sure how I feel about this many not being on board unless we're under dock maintenance." Shirogane rather than taking the elbow, the palidan raises the metal arm he'd used to push at the protoss earlier, trying to use it to shield his face. The pilot keeps his eyes on the fight and his ears on Violet, listening to what she has to say whilst trying to catch every bit of the duel. "No need to worry, Captain." He explains while bobbing his head like a boxer as if he himself was in the fight. "That's part of the training too. The Hierarch has made us break out and get in our ships even while in the middle of sparring. I'd say we're quite ready for a surprise attack." So they're calling Artanis the 'Hierarch' now. Its interesting how they seem to focus more on the titles Artanis had in his game of origing than his current one. "Oooh!!" A cheer from the pilots and marines come as they see Shiro block the attack. KLANG! There's a loud noise of steel meeting steel as Artanis' elbow pads strike Shiro's metal arm. Unfaltered by Shiro's defense though, Artanis makes a grab for Shiro's metal arm to keep it in place before throwing a swift hook to the Paladin's kidney with his other arm, aiming to violently knock Shiro's wind out. Violet says, "Sparring on board Phoenix is very... very different from sparring back on the surface as far as readiness is concerned. Granted, I suppose if it's a smaller group, we can transport people up in groups... so long as we don't have to bring shields up." She watches the fight without comment on it. It's hard for someone to defeat Artanis on skill alone... that many years experience can be difficult to overcome. "And you'd damn well better be ready for a surprise attack. You remember how fast we had to jump out when that D'rule ship showed up." Shirogane deffinetly loses some wind there. Deffinetly... And yet... he still seems to be standing. Deffinetly feeling the punches he's taking but... Something isn't right. How's he fairing so well, as a completely normal human, but not seeming to honestly TRY to land hits? He's mostly just been playing defensive this whole time... "Well, part of the reason why me and the guys." The pilot motions to the other pilots. "Wanted to do this thing is because we didn't want the meatheads over there didn't have to bail us from a bar scuffle on the surface or something." Says the pilot referring to the marines as the 'meatheads' here. Like in any other capital ship the rivalry between pilots and marines is alive and well here in the Phoenix. Artanis knew that much which is perhaps why this whole training thing also works as a bonding experience. He then laughs at the mention of D'rule. "Of course, Captain. That ain't easy to forget!" If Shirogane wants to play defensively the whole time, that's fine for Artanis. This is training for him as well as he's finding interesting to see what are the limits of a human warrior outside their armor. Shall we say, a physilogical experiment. Shirogane is the only unarmored crew member that has managed to last this long against Artanis after all! After delivering the kidney blow, the Protoss keeps his grip on Shiro's metal arm tight and swings a hammer fist strike on the side of the Paladin's head to ring Shiro's ear drums hard. Violet at the mention of a bar scuffle, suddenly Violet smiles, almost mischievously. Oh, has the captain gotten involved in a bar scuffle recently herself? She always tries to pull off a professional air around the ship, some might not know how much of a troublemaker she can be on her own... let alone when she's out with her wife. "Not that that ship needed too much help... from you pilots... Ensign Takashi there was quick on those plasma beams. Of course not to mention how the ship turned out to be able to defend itself more than we thought..." She shrugs lightly, recalling that overpowered railgun slug. "I'm actually starting to get a fighting itch," she comments with a frown. "I might have to see if I can get into a spar in the Usual's ring." Shirogane lets out a grunt at the hit to thead side of his head. That seems to rattle him somewhat more obviously than the other hits. He's breathing hard, but that's likely from the gut check earlier. Rather suddenly, however, he simply moves to raise the metal arm, likely just taking Artanis right WITH it till he lets go. He's not moving to use it as an attack though, he just seems to be trying to get Artanis off his arm with surprizing lack of urgency. What in the world is he trying at here? Is he trying in the first place? The pilot clenches his teeth seeing that strike, not cheering as hard this time to join the others. Perhaps because he might have been in the recieving of that before. "Yeah.." He respoinds to Violet a little more reluctantly this time. "Yet another reason why we took up the Hierarch's offer for training. With so many super powered crew members, it makes us pilots and marines feel a little more relevant." And that's not mentioning the ship being able to defend itself! The pilot does grin as Violet mentions wanting to spar at the Usual. "Just let us know when that's going down! I know I'd love to see you in action, Captain!" Even though Artanis should feel irritated at the lack urgency from Shirogane, he's too focused on just what sort of techniques he can pull off on a resiliant yet unwilling to attack human. The Protoss isn't lowering his hard but he's certainly approaching this fight more scientifically than anything. When Shirogane raises his arm, Artanis lets him do that-- though without letting him go. The Protoss holds on to that arm and makes full use of Shirogane exposing his underarm like that. Artanis slides underneath Shiro's shoulder to put leverage under him and pick him up for a swift shoulder throw that'll slam the Paladin's back on the floor. Violet frowns ever so slightly. "...Do you refer to Lieutennant Artanis as 'Hierarch' outside of these training sessions as well?" she asks with a slight edge to her voice this time. Unfamiliar with the fighting styles of either of her officers on the floor, she watches carefully to see just what each is thinking... and wondering if she would have had a better eye for it back before the prior fall of NeoTokyo's universe. Shirogane winces and takes in a sharp breath as he indeed takes the throw, sliding along the ground a little after impact. He pushes himself back up into a sitting position, and seems to hesitate for a short moment before obviously willing himself to come back to a stand again. If he's purposely throwing the fight, he's certainly making some sort of decision to make a show of how much of a beating he can take. "Um!" The pilot freezes and hesitates. "No, Captain! That's just uh.. well, I used to be a Starcraft pro before I converged so.." Oh, so he's a fanboy then. "Rest assured I fully respect the chain of command when in duty!" When Artanis sees Shirogane take the fall like that it seems there's some hesitation on him as well. Part of him didn't want to let Shirogane get back to his feet at all, but seeing as he's not defending himself at all tells Artanis that there may be something else at play here. The Protoss crosses his arms and just stares at the Paladin before asking telepathically. "What exactly are you trying to prove, Ensign?" Violet pauses a moment before nodding to the pilot. "I would have figured pilots would have been more into..." She pauses, then frowns as she looks away. "...there aren't any real space flight sims around anymore, are there? What did there used to be... Wing Commander? Those Star Wars ones?" She then shrugs. "At any rate... these little sessions are outside of normal training, so feel free to call him 'hierarch' when in these." Shirogane clears his throat as he rolls his non metalic arm a bit. "Sorry if it seems I'm trying to make some form of insult," he states, "It's that I'm dealing with a bit of a situation. Just keeping myself in this ring is an excersize I feel like I should make myself endure. With my situation, the insult would be refusing to try getting into the ring at all..." "Aye aye, Captain." Chuckles the pilot and then sneaks a grin there. "Starcraft can train a person to be a pilot way more than any flight simulator. The APM is intense, particularly in the pro scene!" He smiles. "Hell, before converging I was planning on joining the South Korean Air Force. I got pilot in my veins!" Artanis for his part is clearly not understanding and simply tilts his head. "Explain yourself." Violet smirks back and nods. "Good to know. Didn't know you were from out-universe, though..." She glance away again, wondering if she might really be one of the few actual natives. Shirogane says, "My major experience in hand to hand combat was being enslaved and put into arena death matches for someone else's amusement... I've become a bit too used to pretending to be something else when I'm surrounded by people in this sort of way." "Never asked." Responds the pilot simply and quiets down as he sees the fighting winding down. "I see." Says Artanis with puzzlement to his telepathic voice. "Then you have already proven yourself to be a warrior. Pity though, I was hoping to see your full potential here. I guess I will have to wait until a real battle ensues." Violet frowns and nods. . o O ( Huh. I always assume the powered people are from other worlds... I never stop to consider the people that are just... normal people, do I? What worlds to they come from? ) Shirogane gives a slight bow. "Sorry for the dissapointment...maybe sometime without an audience though?" Artanis returns the bow and his telepathic voice carries an amicable air to it when he responds. "I shall look forward to that." Violet clears her throat and stands up straight again. "Is that all for now, then?" she says loud enough for everyone to hear. "Hopefully not. I came here to see the training, I got to feel it instead." Shirogane says as such with a slight chuckle, certainly not saying it as a complaint. "Oh there is plenty still." Mentions Artanis and looks at the rest of the crew. "Now for the Starcraft 4v4s!" The Pilots cheer and the Marines guffaw as this yet another perk of the training. | |
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