🐺 ~PROJECT SAC-1~ ⚔️

Chapter 4 - Some First Lessons ☕✈️📝

The guys didn't know what to say to that and shifted on their feet, shooting each other looks that silently communicated they were weirded out.

You did it again. SAC-1 mentally rebuked herself.

They jumped when she clapped her hands together. "You know something, I'm FAMISHED - let's eat!"

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"Ease up on the accelerator." Tech told SAC-1 in a remarkably calm tone... or was he so terrified that he could barely speak?

SAC-1 didn't really know, but if she hadn't been too focused on flying she would have seen him clutching onto the armrests of his seat for dear life, knuckles white from the death grip.

Instead of listening SAC-1 pressed the accelerator further, the ship speeding low over the grassy savanna and scaring fowl out of their ground nests and other wild game from their dens.

"But don't I need to know how to fly fast?" She pointed out, "What if we need to make a hasty escape?"

With a grunt Tech's whole body jolted, the ship lurching again when the bottom skimmed the top off a rock formation that she didn't apparently see. "If you were an advanced student I would say yes, but you are a beginner so no." Tech's eyes bugged out in fear and gritting his teeth a tall rock quickly approached them and he thought, in a moment of true terror, that he was about to meet his maker (if he was even real).

Huffing, SAC-1 barely avoided it, and Tech felt his heart leap into his throat at the narrow avoidance of death. "I'm hardly a beginner, I was taught the basics of flying before I could even sharpshoot."

"And yet you keep flying too low and scratching the bottom of the ship despite the sensor array being right in front of you." The ship lurched violently again and several alarms went off. "SLOW DOWN!" He shrieked this time.

Groaning, SAC-1 yanked the tiller back and the g-force of the sudden change in speed would have thrown Tech from his seat had he not been clutching onto his seat so tight.

"So I may have hit a few bumps." She said, "What's the big deal?"

It took Tech a few seconds before he could speak, his heart feeling as if it was beating out of his chest, as if he had just run a marathon!

"The 'big deal' is that if you fly like that in combat, we will die before the enemy even landed a blast on us!"

SAC-1 scoffed, now gently maneuvering the ship to avoid a tree. "Don't be so dramatic." This slow pace was highly BORING, too.

Blinking, Tech was put off with her attitude, but defended himself anyways. "I am never dramatic, I only state scientific hypotheses based on factual data."

"Well here's a fact: in order to learn how to fly fast -" Since there wasn't anything coming at them, she briefly flitted her determined gaze to him. "I have to fly fast!"

Again with the unusual attitude. He noted. "When you have proven you can utilize the sensor array... among other things... then you may fly at a higher level of speed, but for now simply try and not hit the bottom of the ship." He pointed at the very helpful sensor screen. "Use this to watch for ground obstacles that appear, and avoid them."

SAC-1 was still discontent. "Perhaps if you let me fly higher -?"

"You need to know how to avoid obstacles before I can even consider letting you fly in a higher atmosphere." So many things could go wrong, and they'd hurdle back towards the ground at a fatal speed!

"But if I fly higher, I won't need to avoid obstacles because there won't be any." She retorted.

A valid point, but Tech still squinted disapprovingly at her. "You seem keen on fighting every piece of instruction I give, implying that you know better than an experienced combat pilot when you have stated repeatedly beforehand that you only knew the basic specs of starships, but have never even left Kamino's atmosphere, never even been on an actual starship either, until you were transported to Tipoca City."