Post by Feyd on Oct 25, 2009 13:28:22 GMT -5
South East Asia HQ, Burma - East Asia
Of all the places to be deployed I’d say South East Asia has to be one of the worst. Always hot here, and when it’s not hot it’s pouring, mosquitoes everywhere. Don’t care for the local food and the locals here, a lot of tribal types, always act pissy towards us even though the Federation being here is nothing new to them.
They’d just as soon see us leave but I’m sure they wouldn’t treat the Zeeks any better. None of them speak English and none of them seem interested in learning to so communication’s always a bitch. If it wasn’t for this damn war I’d say to hell with this place if I were the brass, it’s not like we get anything from trying to control them…
But what’s the point of my bitching?
So here I am at HQ, assigned to give a quick class to the new fighter pilots who just got off the boat. Don’t know why they picked me, I don’t know anything special. Guess the higher ups figure that if I’ve gone this long without kickin’ the bucket I must know something.
So here we are sitting under an open sided tent in the sweltering Burmese humidity, everyone sweating like crazy cause some crazy Colonel named Kojima doesn’t think we need air conditioning hear in the jungle. Easy for an officer to say.
They’ve got a projector and screen hooked up on one side of the room with some slideshow on it that I didn’t make and haven’t looked at. Shows what the brass think of this training. So I’m standing here looking out at a group of young faces giving a lecture titled An Introduction to Mobile Weapons Employed by Zeonic Forces on Earth. Yeah…
I click past the title screen. The next screen has some goofy green tank on it that I’ve never seen before, called a Magella, I guess. Not knowing anything about it, I just read the slide to them, a great use of their time and mine. Some kid in the front row asks more about the turret flying, I just read the bullet point again and say we don’t know that much about it.
The next few slides are on Dopps. At least I’ve seen these before so after I read the slides to them, I throw in a few of my personal experiences. I tell them how I’ve seen wingmen die from these things and what they did wrong. I tell them how they are flying inferior aircraft and give them a few pointers on how to compensate for that. I can see the color draining from some of their faces as they learn the Zeek’s many advantages. The kid in the first row has another question. Do we have any advantages? Sure, I tell him. If you survive you usually have enough fuel to get home and if you crash it doesn’t take long to get a new aircraft. That shuts him up but I can tell it’s not what he wanted to hear.
The last slides are on mobile suits, mostly Zakus. I don’t even bother to read them the slides. I’ve only got one thing to say.
“If you ever see one of these cyclops, gain altitude and retreat.”
This bothers that kid in the front row.
“So you don’t have any strategy for engagement, sir?”
I chuckle.
“Every engagement strategy I’ve seen just means that pilot doesn’t get to come home.”
No one else has a question so our session is over. I don’t feel like I taught them anything except to fear their enemy. Not a great thing for a soldier but if it means they survive their first engagement I suppose that has to be worth something. If I don’t have to see as many young kids die its worth something.
Of all the places to be deployed I’d say South East Asia has to be one of the worst. Always hot here, and when it’s not hot it’s pouring, mosquitoes everywhere. Don’t care for the local food and the locals here, a lot of tribal types, always act pissy towards us even though the Federation being here is nothing new to them.
They’d just as soon see us leave but I’m sure they wouldn’t treat the Zeeks any better. None of them speak English and none of them seem interested in learning to so communication’s always a bitch. If it wasn’t for this damn war I’d say to hell with this place if I were the brass, it’s not like we get anything from trying to control them…
But what’s the point of my bitching?
So here I am at HQ, assigned to give a quick class to the new fighter pilots who just got off the boat. Don’t know why they picked me, I don’t know anything special. Guess the higher ups figure that if I’ve gone this long without kickin’ the bucket I must know something.
So here we are sitting under an open sided tent in the sweltering Burmese humidity, everyone sweating like crazy cause some crazy Colonel named Kojima doesn’t think we need air conditioning hear in the jungle. Easy for an officer to say.
They’ve got a projector and screen hooked up on one side of the room with some slideshow on it that I didn’t make and haven’t looked at. Shows what the brass think of this training. So I’m standing here looking out at a group of young faces giving a lecture titled An Introduction to Mobile Weapons Employed by Zeonic Forces on Earth. Yeah…
I click past the title screen. The next screen has some goofy green tank on it that I’ve never seen before, called a Magella, I guess. Not knowing anything about it, I just read the slide to them, a great use of their time and mine. Some kid in the front row asks more about the turret flying, I just read the bullet point again and say we don’t know that much about it.
The next few slides are on Dopps. At least I’ve seen these before so after I read the slides to them, I throw in a few of my personal experiences. I tell them how I’ve seen wingmen die from these things and what they did wrong. I tell them how they are flying inferior aircraft and give them a few pointers on how to compensate for that. I can see the color draining from some of their faces as they learn the Zeek’s many advantages. The kid in the first row has another question. Do we have any advantages? Sure, I tell him. If you survive you usually have enough fuel to get home and if you crash it doesn’t take long to get a new aircraft. That shuts him up but I can tell it’s not what he wanted to hear.
The last slides are on mobile suits, mostly Zakus. I don’t even bother to read them the slides. I’ve only got one thing to say.
“If you ever see one of these cyclops, gain altitude and retreat.”
This bothers that kid in the front row.
“So you don’t have any strategy for engagement, sir?”
I chuckle.
“Every engagement strategy I’ve seen just means that pilot doesn’t get to come home.”
No one else has a question so our session is over. I don’t feel like I taught them anything except to fear their enemy. Not a great thing for a soldier but if it means they survive their first engagement I suppose that has to be worth something. If I don’t have to see as many young kids die its worth something.