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Kethren stretches a bit as he comes out of the mess tent, sizable coffee in hand. Floriana's riding on the brim of his hat, and Kail is waddling along next to him. Sarah & Steve are also close at hand.
Xanya comes out of the IND celeste that just landed. She walks towards the mess tend with Mark her aid following behind and having a sort of hover board with several jetpacks on it. Xan's Guard follows them both too. "Put them over there." Xanya says to Mark, who responds right away and moves to an open spot where Xanya just pointed not far from the landing area. Meanwhile Xanya moves one and as she passes kethren she waves to him. She moves on to quickly let an eager Ubojit cub free. "There you go girl. play around a bit but stay in my sight oke?" She says and then turns to walk towards kethren.
Kethren takes a long sip of coffee, and nods to Xan "Mornin. You look busy."
Xanya nods smiling. "and you will be too soon enough. follow me please. you can finish your coffee along the way." Xanya said and moves towards the open clearing where mark her aid and the guard are now standing next to the hover board..
Kethren raises an eyebrow at that, but follows along, drinking his coffee.
As xanya walks along she raises her finger a bit. "oh before I forget you might want to get your smart suit armor and meet me over there." she says pointing to the spot where her aid and guard are stationed with the hover board containing some jetpacks.
Kethren nods and drains his coffee and detours to the Gizmo for just long enough to pop in and back out, carrying some armor to be put on at a slightly less hurried juncture.
Xanya arrives at the location and then grabs her own heavy smart suit armor and puts it on as she waits for kethren to arrive.
Kethren gets over there and pus his own suit on.
Xanya smiles and as they both finishes she starts to talk. "oke great. today I am going to teach you how to use these jetpacks I made. first thing we wil do is make sure your smart suit armor recognizes the jetpack. then I will show you the jetpack design and point out important features for you to know about and when that's done we will put it on and I will show you how to actually use the jet pack." She says. "still with me so far?"
Kethren nods, bouncing around a little "Sounds good. Yep."
Xanya smiles "great. well first I think I should show you what you need to know about the jet pack." She says and turns the hover board a bit to show the front of a jetpack. "Oke this side is the one closed to your back as you can see it has two shoulder connectors one on each side and a belt connector. These will connect with your smart suit and will make sure it stays on your back until you remove it. or it gets destroyed somehow." She says with a giggle. "on this side you also have a manual controller in the shape of a joystick to help you control the jetpack. but that's not the only way to control it. here on the top..." she says and hits the top of the shield design of the jetpack. "...here is where two hands free controllers are located. one to let you connect with help of a datajack and also one which can be accessed by your neural interface implant. so you can make a choice of 3 controllers. it is configured so that only one of the 3 can be accessed at a time." She says and moves her hands further over the back of the shield design. "in here is where the important stuff happens that controls the jetpack. it has stuff like a computer system and fuel tank. each system has a backup system. so if one falls out the second one can take over. There is also a parachute system inside to to be safe. but I don't think anyone will ever need to use that." She says and then moves her hands to the jet-engines which are located on each side of the shield. "in these is where the important stuff happen. these are basically small Thrusters like you have on ships. You probably know what they do." She says and moves her hands towards the bottom of the jet engines. "these are the nozzles. this is where you control the direction in which you travel. But more on that later." she says and lets go of the jetpack. "any questions so far?" She asks and gives some room for kethren to look at the two jetpacks on the hover board.
Kethren nods thoughtfully, but with a bit of a stupid grin as he bounces along. "Sounds good so far. How high up would I need to get for the parachute to be a viable option?"
Xanya nods smiling. "good question. I actually made sure the parachute would be deployed with help of an... air booster as I call it. which means the parachute is deployed and opened in about 2 seconds. so depending will depend on how fast your traveling down."
Kethren nods "Oh, good. Much as I've always wanted a jet pack... and be honest, who from our time doesn't? I never really saw taking one up high enough for a conventional parachute to be of much use."
Xanya nods. "the best part of this parachute option is that you can even open it if you're not traveling so fast yet. unlike a conventional parachute system where I believe you need a certain amount of speed for it to of actual use. Because you need air to get inside the parachute for it to open. with this system the air booster does that for you."
Kethren nods "Good, good. So how's it work without scorching my legs?"
Xanya smiles. "That's the good part. Now this jetpack is actually bigger than the mark I system. Mostly because I wanted to make sure that it could lift even a person in a heavy smart suite armor. These jet engines are actually positioned slightly outside the body. slightly outside the average persons shoulders. Along with that these jet engines actually cool down the exhaust air. It's still warm depending on your opinion but in a smart suit you shouldn't feel a thing."
Kethren nods "Oh, good. That was always something of a design flaw in those fifties sci-fi serials."
Xanya nods. "I agree. Any more questions?"
Kethren looks thoughtful for a moment "If I need to switch control systems mid-flight for any reason, is that going to be hard? Is there any delay past my own reaction time for it to work?"
Xanya shakes her head. "No there should not be any delay. at least not between the hands free systems. or from manual to hands free. there might be some from hands free to manual but that should not be more than a second. Especially if you remember to properly close the connection with the hands free control systems."
Kethren nods "Well, hopefully learning both methods doesn't take too long. I've kinda been slacking on those tutorials, so I can't fire up the implant out here just yet. Nother session or two and I'll be good."
Kethren nods "Right."
Xanya nods. "any other questions?"
Kethren shakes his head "Nothing leaps to mind."
Xanya smiles. "Great. Oke lets get you set up." She says and moves the hover board slightly to get kethrens jetpack into position. "Oke, Stand with your back towards this jetpack so I can make make sure the jetpack recognizes your smart suite and I can get your suited up, so to say."
Kethren nods and clomps over to stand in front of the appropriate jet pack.
Xanya moves the hover board so that the jetpack lines up with Kethren's back. Some time passes by when suddenly the shoulder connectors and belt connector shut close around Kethren's body. A few seconds later the jet pack would be recognized by kethren's smart suite. "There. That should do. Sorry it took me so long but getting it configured is always a bit of a slow process. it's like installing hardware on your computer in our time." She says and moves to her own jetpack to put it on. which is done within seconds. "Now that the jetpack knows your smart suite... I mean this smart suite it should connect faster next time."
Kethren grins "Quite alright. Rather it be done right than fall off the first time out."
Xanya nods. "Indeed. oke lets show you the manual controller." She says and grabs her manual controller joystick. "Controlling the jet pack with this system is actually the basis. and once you know how to use this you can use the hand free controllers without any problems. now this manual controller is easy to grip and has one little joystick like you might recognize from game controllers like the wii or PS3 from back home. this little joystick is what controls the nozzles and thus your direction of flight. The other one is a scroller wheel. This controls the power output of the jet engines and thus control's the speed and high travel." She says as she shows the control's.
Kethren nods "Admittedly I didn't get to play with those much on Earth. Was usually too busy. But, yeah, I put in my share of time with those. Shouldn't be hard to pick up here."
Xanya smiles and nods. "sounds great." she says and puts a finger on the scroller wheel. "this scroller wheel is what turns the jet engines on as well. just scroll it down till you feel a little click. That is what turns the system on.:" Xanya does this and you can hear the jet engines come to live on her back pack. however she is not lifted up even a little. "Now this is just to turn it on. scroll the wheel further and you will be able to lift off. Don't scroll to fast down as you can fly of like a rocket which can be dangerous to yourself and those around you at the time." Xanya says and mark nods agreeing clearly having experienced it himself already. Xanya is slowly lifted off the ground with help from her jetpack. "Don't worry about the joystick that controls the nozzles. The neutral position the joystick on top is in is considered to be down and the computer in the jetpack keeps the nozzles down. just try to keep your back straight before you lift off or you could go flying all over the place." she says and lowers herself again.
Kethren nods and spins the wheel just enough to just barely get off the ground. Maybe a few inches. It's enough to put that silly grin back on his face though.
Xanya smiles seeing kethren fly up a few inches. "oke prefect keep her there. now slowly use the joystick. Moving the stick forward will let you move forward and moving the stick backwards will move you backwards. and same for left and right. Try it now and go easy on." She says and she stays on the ground to keep an eye on kethren.
Kethren nods, and tries to keep his back straight as he very slowly starts tilting the stick in one direction, and then another, going more or less in a small rectangular pattern for a bit. Probably with more than a few wobbles, overshoots, over-corrections, and so forth.
Xanya smiles seeing kethren move around. "looking good. keep on practicing like to to learn how to move around and keep her level and such. once you think you got a hang of it we can move on higher." She says smiling.
Kethren spends a few more minutes cheerfully zooming around the countryside, and comes to a rather shaky stop about where he started. "Alright, let's zip up a ways!"
Xanya smiles watching kethren fly around. As he stops she claps a bit. "nicely done. alright if you feel comfortable you can go up higher and do the same thing there. As in move around horizontally on that height." She says for now showing no intention to fly up along. "oh and depending on your height I might or might not join you."
Kethren clicks the wheel forward a bit more, and raises up again. Maybe seven or eight feet for now. He takes a minute to calm himself after looking down, and starts playing with the joystick to move around a bit again.
Xanya smiles as she sees kethren fly higher. She doesn't follow him as his current height is within hearing range. for now she keeps watching kethren practice.
Kethren starts zooming around with a little more speed and confidence, then starts practicing some circles, and other less rigid maneuvers. Still a little shaky, though."
Xanya smiles enjoying the view. "Doing good kethren. your getting the hang of it." She says yelling a bit to make sure he hears her.
Kethren grins a bit and spins the wheel to zoom up another ten feet or so, and just stops there to get used to the height, and tries to enjoy the view.
Xanya smiles and keeps watching. Knowing he might still be able to hear her. "oke doing good kethren. let me know when your comfortable moving around and this height and we will move it high enough to practice some different moves."
Kethren does a couple of lazy circles over the camp, enjoying the view before zipping up another fifteen feet, and stops to watch things "Oooo, it's like a bunch of lil ants down there."
Xanya smiles and seeing kethren up about 32 feet or 10 meters she decides to join him. She walks to a spot where there is plenty of room and then activates the jetpack, without it lifting up and using her hands free connection via her neural interface implant. As she gets at an open spot she activates the jet engines bursts up almost like a rocket. Within seconds she is up at kethrens height.
Kethren smirks "You realize that if we were still on Earth, we could film this, put it on youtube, and get rich?"
Xanya nods smiling. "Hell yea, as rich as everyone in Hollywood together I'd say."
Kethren nods "To say nothing of the fortune you'd make if you sold em... Course, you'd need a small army of lawyers on retainer. Wouldn't take long for idiots to fly into trees, lakes, etc. and try to sue."
Xanya nods. "I would need to make organize a training which will end with people getting a license. I'd say something similar to pilot training. I've actually been thinking of doing it here too. but not sure yet."
Kethren smirks "Indeed. Still, would've been great fun to fly to work every day.... least if I was the only one. Traffic on the ground was bad enough."
Xanya giggles. "something like this would eventually become as popular as cars, or even more so. trust me."
Kethren nods "Indeed. But considering the quality of drivers back on Earth... would we /want/ them having these?"
Xanya smiles. "if we would have to redo our licenses every x amount of years that might not have been the case.... or not as much as it is... was.... something. you know what I mean."
Kethren nods "Well, I think the important thing is that the licenses would have to be harder to get than the one for cars. Not that they'd have ever given me any kind of piloting license. My eyes were terrible.... kinda wish I'd kept em."
Xanya nods. "I agree. anyway. ready for some new moves?" She asks. "we are now up high enough to practice moving up and down. which means that besides using the joystick you know have to move the scroll wheel up and down to move up and down. " She says. "careful with the scroll wheel and practice a bit."
Kethren nods then starts fiddling with the wheel, going up too fast, going down way too fast... eventually settling into a good, smooth, rhythm of elevatory bounciness.
Xanya nods as she watches kethren bounce. "alright now try to practice the full range of movements you have learned so far. And if you want you can go up even higher than this. Although the parachute should already work on this altitude."
Kethren fiddles with the controls a bit more, until he finally settles into a nice circular pattern, orbiting the camp with a sine wave kinda verticality.
Xanya smiles and watches kethren practice some more.
Kethren grins and keeps zooming around, higher and a bit faster. After a few minutes he settles back to more responsible practicing.
Xanya decides to following kethren around at a safe distance smiling as she watches him move around. "looks like your getting move confident." She asks as he settles into more responsible practicing.
Kethren grins and slows down to a hover for a bit "You've no idea how much I wanted to fly, back on earth. But even the planes and such were out of the question. My eyes were terrible."
Xanya nods. "and now you've got better eyes and look at you. you're doing great."
Kethren nods "Thanky. Incidentally... when you get one to Vessa? I'd suggest you tether it to the ground."
Xanya laughs at that. "don't worry about it. I need to activate each one first. before they can be used. and I am planning on giving people training like I am giving you right now. so vessa will get the training too."
Kethren smirks "Of course. But you know as well as I do that she'll crank the thrusters to max power and start zooming across the landscape if you don't tether her down to force a more sedate practice."
Xanya still laughs. "yes yes. we will see."
Kethren grins "Not that I can blame her... if I weren't planning on helping with that assault... I'd probably be zooming around myself. But, I need to keep in good shape for this one. It's too important to risk ruining over my impatience."
Xanya nods and her laughter stops slowly and she gets serious again. "right, right. Well if you think you're ready we can do other things. To focus more on the combat still of using these beauties. which will start with fast responses and faster travel."
Kethren nods "Sounds good. I have no idea how roomy the place we're going is. Actual flight may not be much of an option."
Xanya nods. "I think so too. there for I was thinking of trying to teach you different range of movements more fitting a tighter area. and for that we need to drop to the landing area we are flying over." She says and she dives towards the ground at high speed and face first. as she gets closer to teh ground she gets back up straight and manages to keep herself from becoming pancake. She then looks up. "Don't try to do that it's dangerous." She yells up and then sets foot on the ground and deactivates her jetpack for now.
Kethren snickers and dives down at a somewhere more sedate pace, more or less vertical the whole way.
Xanya waits patiently as kethren comes down.
Kethren cuts off the thrust as he sets down. "You know, if you just put a sturdy tether on one of these, you could sell rides."
Xanya giggles a bit. "I don't think I want children or even teenagers in these. they might be to... immature."
Kethren snickers "A, that's what the tether is for. And B, I daresay quite a few adults, especially rifted humans, would enjoy this."
Xanya nods. "tether's or not children would be too dangerous." She says. "Adults... maybe. but not sure either."
Kethren smirks "Well, obviously the kiddy ride would have to be rigged to not go very high. Like, two or three feet up. Kids bounce, they'd be fine."
Xanya shakes her head. "sorry not risking it." She says. "so... you ready for some different stuff?"
Kethren snickers, and stretches a bit. "Yeah, I think so."
Xanya nods. "oke. The things you might find most useful in combat is running, jumping and other such agile movements. In this area with the ships you can practice those while using your jetpack to speed up your running. to jump higher and such." She says as she motions to the ships around them. "do you feel comfortable enough to try it?"
Kethren stretches a little "Kinda? I think it's one of those things that's just going to sound strange until I try it out."
Xanya nods. "possibly. Feel free to try it if you wish."
Kethren stretches a bit and starts to jog along, and as he picks up a little speed, he flips the jets on, and starts to go a bit faster, but at a somewhat less steady pace. Probably the sort of thing that takes getting used to.
Xanya smiles and for now watches kethren practice.
Kethren settles into a more steady pace as he runs around the field, much faster than normal, with a healthy supply of jet pack based assistance.
Xanya smiles seeing kethren improve. "good going kethren. keep up the good work."
Kethren nods briefly as he keeps running along, paying careful attention to everything, not wanting to run into a ship at very fast speeds.
Xanya keeps watching kethren carefully as he trains running around with his jetpack.
Kethren keeps running but cuts off the jets so he can slow down, and gradually comes to a stop, breathing kinda hard.
Xanya smiles and motions to mark who comes over with some drinks. "how did that feel?"
Kethren pants a bit, looking thoughtful "Interesting. Kinda tiring though."
Xanya giggles and offer's him some water to drink. "here you go. and take a rest. I think you have practiced enough for today. and with a bit of creativity and carefulness you can practice on your own from now on."
Kethren nods and takes the water "Thanky. Yeah... and I'll have to be sure and take this thing to the firing range later. Hopefully I won't have to start taking shots while in the air, but one never knows."
Xanya nods "good idea. I wish you good luck on that practice."
Kethren finishes up his water and yawns "Well, I think I'm going to grab a nap now. Won't do to pass out in the air."
Xanya nods smiling. "Indeed. Take a long rest my friend. you earned it."
Kethren hands the glass back to Mark and walks over to the Gizmo, stretching as he does.
Xanya smiles watching kethren leave. she herself then takes of the jetpack and her smart suit armor and when thats done and on the hover board mark and the guard put them back into the Celeste. while Xanya goes to play a bit more with Valkyrie the Ubojit cub, To try and playfully train him.