Returning the salute, the Captain gestured to chairs.  As the other members of Echo squadron reported in, he handled them in like fashion, and in just a few minutes, the squadron was assembled.

"We've received orders from UEDF Command.  While they're less than thrilled about the rebel leadership that got away, we had no way of knowing they had any sort of emergency escape vessel in place.  We accomplished the mission we were sent here for...the base is unusable, the threat of them generating any sort of weaponry here is nullified, and the stockpile of nukes that was the greatest source of concern has been eliminated.  So, good work, all."  He paused and gave them a curt nod.

"However, Command is worried that, if they had the time to put in some kind of escape craft, they may have also set up satellite bases, or even managed to penetrate Sera Base and start using it.  Sera Base has one of the few operational reflex furnaces that we've built...and while it was an early attempt and is pretty inefficient by our current standards, if they managed to get it powering some kind of weapons system, it would still wreak a lot of havoc.  We can't afford that.  So, we have to do a recon survey of the entire planet and verify that we've cleared Mars.  It's going to take a while...it would take longer, but Chief Bixby assures me that he can process the data and keep our time here down to just a day or two, after which we'll set out after the James Madison.  We should, if all goes well, arrive back in Earth orbit just a few hours after they disembark all the prisoners...and there's still ongoing discussion whether to have the Madison slow her speed so we can arrive at the same time.  Command has concerns that rebel factions on Earth might rise up if word has made it back about the prisoners being taken, and try to free them, and some of the Admiralty want us back there to prevent that from happening."

He looked at the group for a moment.  "Any questions?"

Vance spoke up.  "Just one, sir.  Do you have assigned patrol sectors for us, or is it up to us as a squadron to work out our own search patterns?"  If they'd already worked out a search pattern, it could save him a few hours of poring over satellite maps of Mars and figuring out who should fly where.

Wilson gave the whole squadron a once-over, before answering, "We've got specified search patterns for you to fly.  Those of you who've been consistently performing well on your missions, will have the highest-priority targets, the less we've seen from you, the less demanding your search sector will be.  Don't assume that getting assigned a fly-over of the polar regions means you don't need to pay any attention...we don't know if the rebels were limited to the one base or not.  They could have expanded anywhere."

He focused on Hardy.  "Naturally, the priority is Sera Base...so that will be yours, Lt. Hardy, along with 2nd Lt. Moriya."  He paused long enough for a grin to almost make it to his face.  "Field promotion.  If we waited for the brass back home to approve it, we'd all be old and gray before promotions happened."  His grin faded to a scowl.

"Or we'd all be dead before word got to us."  He chose not to dwell on that point.  "Any other questions?  If not, you're expected to launch in three hours.  Chief Bixby is trying to fine-tune some of the sensor equipment and calibrating comm suits so he can coordinate the search, so I'd steer clear of your veritechs until it's actually time to launch."

Smiling at the news of her sudden promotion, Hanako did her best to maintain protocol and not bounce excitedly as she wished to do, even with the gallows humor.  She did manage to salute Captain Wilson, and felt rather proud of her field promotion.  She now outranked everyone in her squadron except her CO and XO, although with how Bixby helped shape everyone aboard the Ranger, that didn't mean much outside of missions.  Still, she didn't care about that.  Her contributions were being rewarded, and it always felt good to have ones actions be recognized.

She had no questions, as there was clearly no reason to take any of the newer, more experimental craft planetside - the Stampede was too heavy and the Konig was too slow for this sort of mission.  Besides, she liked her VF-1A.  Sure, it wasn't unique like a 1J with a customized paint job or a 1S with its signature silhouette and improved equipment, but it was her fighter, and she had flown many a mission with it.

So, with nothing to say, she glanced upwards at Vance and gave him a slight nod to let him know she was ready.

Vance nodded, with a grin down to Hanako.  "Congratulations, Lieutenant.  Better swing by the Quartermaster and get the new insignia...I'd hate for your ground crew to miss out on ribbing you about the promotion."  He chuckled gently.  He had no idea what kind of relationship Hanako had with her ground crew...his own crew had been assigned to him after he'd made his current rank, so he'd never endured their response to a promotion, directly.

But he remembered what happened when one of them made Corporal.  It made him glad they hadn't been around when he got any of his lieutenant advancements.

He looked back to Captain Wilson.  "Three hours, aye sir.  We'll be ready to go."

The time passed uneventfully...a few hours later found Echo Squadron in the skies over Mars, fanned out to maximize the search pattern designed by Chief Bixby, who had all the sensor readings from the various Veritechs routed through the enhanced processors on the Two-Ex.

"Okay, folks...start your sweeps.  Anything abnormal comes up, we'll mark it and take a closer look.  Lt. Hardy, you two will need to fly a lower pass over Sera Base...there's some minimal signal noise coming off all the standby gear there, and standard patrol heights will give me a lot of false positives."

He muttered something encouraging to his plane, under his breath, as he turned on the signal-filtering systems and waited for information from the various planes to come back his direction.

Vance nodded, in the cockpit of his plane.  "You heard the man, Hanako...let's take 'em down.  I'll come in from the East, you come in from the West...fly over, circle around for a second pass, you from the North and me from the South.  Two sweeps from opposite directions ought to give a pretty good picture of things..."

He nosed his plane down as he began to swing out to the edge of their search section, dropping down to a scant one thousand meters' altitude above the surface.

"<TC>This low enough for you, Chief?" he asked.  The mountains around Sera Base were taller than this, but the base itself was sprawled out in a plain of sorts, leaving them some room to maneuver in the air.  They'd just have to climb at the end of each pass...quickly.

"<TC>I'm on it, commander," Hanako replied as she lowered her altitude to match that of Vance's, cautiously flying out and away from her wingman in order to maximize their coverage in the minimum time (and to follow orders).  While she had similar worries to Vance about preventing a crash, she knew that the Veritech craft were the most ideal for such a flight pattern, as they could shift and reverse their velocity at a moment's notice.

Of course, that never felt good, what with the rather high G-force, but it was certainly better than meeting a mountainside with her face.

Especially one on Mars, where even should she somehow SURVIVE the impact of the crash, she certainly wouldn't survive crawling out of the cockpit due to the lack of breathable atmosphere.

"<TC>Actually, that's just about right, Cowboy," Bixby replied, as the telemetry and sensor information came streaming in.  "<TC>Hold your course, Echo One...Echo Three, adjust two degrees right."

This put the two planes on a near-miss course, but it would also wind up blanketing almost the entire base with sensor-sweeps from opposing directions, and set them up for the turn necessary to make their next pass at right angles to this one.

"<TC>Echo Two, Echo Five, can you make another pass over that canyon, lengthwise?  I'm not sure if I'm getting a false reading or a sensor echo, but something alerted there."  He fine-tuned some of the settings on the processor to try and eliminate the possibility of the alert being the result of something as innocuous as an exposed vein of ore.

"<TC>Adjusting course," Hanako replied professionally as she did so, ready to do the other pass when it was time.  At the news of her fellow squadmates needing to do another pass, she prepped herself to be ready to head for their position at a moment's notice, working out a flight plan for the shortest route as she continued her sweep.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:18, Mon 19 Aug 2013.

"<TC>Copy that, Chief.  Passing the outer perimeter of Sera Base in three, two, one..."  A kilometer beneath his Veritech, a little radio-beacon was transmitting to mark the outer reach of the base...which was, itself, still close to half a kilometer or so from the actual buildings.  The enhanced sensors on his VF-1S registered the motion sensors, infrared proximity alarms, and other automated security monitors that were arrayed across the open plain surrounding the base, but he wasn't fast enough to read what the information said about them.  He was focused on the growing structures of the base-proper, directly ahead, and the rapidly expanding dot that he knew was Hanako coming from the other direction.  His own proximity alarms gave him a mild warning that another craft was on a near-intercept course with him, but it was projected to miss him by a couple of dozen meters...as long as nothing caused a shift in course.

It was risky, but not especially dangerous.  He decided to talk to Bixby to distract himself from the potential risks.  "<TC>Getting anything, Chief?" he asked, with forced nonchalance.

"<TC>Nominal readings from Sera Base...once you've made this pass, go ahead and make your turns to set up for the next pass.  At that range, with that kind of sensor coverage, I could make a scale model of everything down to the loose rocks between buildings...if there's anything amiss there, we'll find it."

He was actually about eighty-five percent sure, already, from this pass.  But he'd like to bump that up to something above the ninety-eight percent mark.  Hence, the second pass.

"<TC>Lt. Khan, drop your altitude another 300 feet...there's a high iron content in the canyon that's messing up the sensor returns, but I think a few hundred feet will clear it up."

Of course, it would also have her skimming dangerously close to the surface.  But, he reasoned, it wasn't anywhere near as hazardous as flying a prototype Veritech to attack an alien ship, and most of the squadron had survived that...

"<TC>Copy that, Chief..."  He held the Veritech at altitude as he passed over the base proper and beyond until his sensor pinged with the outer marker beacon, then pulled up into an easy banking turn that took him to a point where another turn sent him at right angles to his initial pass, easing back down to an altitude where the small ripples of height of the surface were registering actively on his altimiter.

"<TC>Commencing second run..."

Hardy's Veritech was just passing the outer marker, inbound for Sera Base, when the comm system shrieked an alert.

"<TC>All Veritechs, return to the Ranger IMMEDIATELY.  Repeat, this is an emergency recall.  Long range sensors have picked up an alien craft that appears to be on an intercept course for the James Madison.  What you've found thus far will have to do, we can't leave them vulnerable.  Ranger is pulling out to provide cover.  Return to the Ranger immediately, or prepare to make your home on Mars for a while...

In the Two-Ex, Bixby muttered a stream of curses.  He was pretty sure Sera Base was clear, but there'd been two or three anomalous readings elsewhere and now he wouldn't get a chance to do anything to clarify them.  But this was obviously a higher priority to the man in charge, and it wasn't his job to argue.

"<TC>Copy that, Ranger, Raven One is RTB.  Let's go, people, if I can't stay there's no reason for any of you to do it."  He pushed the throttle forward and pulled back on the stick and his plane shot skyward.

Return to the Ranger immediately, or prepare to make your home on Mars for a while...

While Hanako did think Mars was a lovely shade of orange-red, she had no intentions of trying to make a home there, especially with the radiation they'd unleashed.  Also, she rather liked the James Madison being intact.  So, she did the only thing she could, and that was follow her orders.  "<TC>Roger, Echo Three returning to base," she said, moving to form up with Vance again en-route to the Ranger.  Even in an emergency return order, abandoning your wingman was not something you did.

A look of annoyance flickered across his face before Vance even had a chance to think about it.  He was instantly apologetic for it, even though there was no one there but him to have noticed it.  After all, it wasn't like they just scrubbed the mission for no particular reason.  One of the ships in their task force...a ship being escorted by a large number of inexperienced pilots...was apparently in the enemy crosshairs, and even if that threat hadn't been enough, their mission was to protect Earth, not Mars...the detection of enemy craft moving toward Earth was all the justification that should be needed to pull up stakes and move out.

Suitably self-chastised, he pulled up from his pass, easing off the throttle for a moment so Hanako could drop into position off his wing before he throttled up again to make sure he had escape velocity.

"<TC>Roger that, Echo Lead is en route..."  He closed his mic...double-checked to make sure it was off...and proceeded to loudly and vehemently declare his frustration with their enemy.  Even though nothing could be heard over the comm, to anyone flying close by, his tirade was so demonstrative that his helmet could be seen wiggling and wagging, and he appeared to very nearly be pounding his fists on some of the side consoles of his Veritech's control systems.

Seeing Vance's clear frustration with SOMETHING due to his animated antics within the cockpit, Hanako waited for a solid three minutes of that before she felt something had to be said.  Hoping to make a direct communication link with him, she switched her broadcast to his channel and sent a blink pattern to him in morse code, asking if he wanted to talk.

It took a few seconds for it to register in Vance's mind that the flashing lights were actually a signal, rather than some kind of new malfunction in one of the Veritech's, and a second or two more before he actually processed enough of the Morse Code to understand the request.

He tweaked his comm system, setting up a private channel, and called..."<TC>What's up, Hanako?"  He was apparently oblivious to the fact that his display had been so visible.

As she kept in formation, Hanako meekly squeaked as Vance suddenly responded to her hail.  She hadn't honestly expected him to reply so calmly, or at all, really.  It took her by surprise.

Of course, she soon found her ability to speak, which was always useful when trying to communicate.  "<TC>Ano, etoh... you looked really upset a moment ago, sir.  I was worried you might put your fist through your control panel."

With a dry laugh, Vance replied, "<TC>My control panel?  No.  Some alien's face?  Maybe..."  His face clouded for a moment.  Yeah, except for the fact that they're, like, fifty feet tall and your head's the size of their eyeballs... he thought, but didn't say.  If he had the chance, he'd just have to put his battloid's fist through the alien's face, instead of his own.  Not as personally gratifying, perhaps, but certainly far more effective.

"<TC>Just frustrated that we keep getting missions cut short because they keep turning up.  It'd be nice if they'd just decide we were more trouble than it was worth and disappear back into space again..."  He knew there was no chance of that happening.  Well--he assumed.  His assumption was based on human nature.  They'd hurt the aliens...actually destroyed a couple of their ships, now.  While Earth was obviously not a serious threat to them, or else the bulk of the alien fleet wouldn't have vanished, it WAS a threat.  "As long as they're around, we're gonna be running in reaction mode...our orders are going to be reactions to whatever they do.  And I hate that...it gives them all the control of the situation."

Aboard the Ranger, Captain Wilson checked status boards and okayed information from various aides.  "As soon as we get the last fighter onboard, set an intercept course, best possible speed."  He sighed, pinching the sides of the bridge of his nose to try and ease some tension.

Wish sensors had gotten a better reading on just what KIND of alien ship it was.  Or if it was alone.  He was sure it would be able to catch up to the destroyer they'd sent ahead.  There'd been no reason for them to race back to Earth, and trying to keep pace with the destroyer at high speed for the entire trip would overload the engines on the Veritech escorts.  If they were smart, the fighter pilots would land, in either Guardian or Battloid mode, on the hull of the ship, rather than try and fly alongside for the entire voyage.  He could only hope that Dutch would teach them the proper technique for distance traveling with a ship that had no hangar facilities.

"How soon?" he asked.  Inaction was difficult for him, but often, it was better to wait until resources were all in the right places before acting.

"Four minutes, sir..."

He nodded, and clenched his jaw.  He understood, now, why Captain Gloval had developed such a fondness for pipes...that would at least have given him something to do while waiting.

So that's what's bugging him, Hanako thought as they flew in formation.  Sure, it annoyed her, too, but since she wasn't in any level of command (at least in her mind, despite still being an officer), she hadn't really thought about it too much.  Her goals were much more immediate, after all.  Protect her friends and find her family.  And since her family was on the vanished Macross Island, she only had hope and faith to go on for the latter.

"<TC>Well, sir, I am not sure what to tell you.  I do not like it, either, but I cannot do anything about it.  Not personally, at least.  All I can do is follow my orders and keep my friends safe, so that is what I focus on.  I can also listen, so if you ever need to talk about something, you can talk to me, okay, sir?" she said, making the offer with an earnest, heartfelt desire to help him.  They'd been through quite a lot together, them and the rest of Echo Squadron, and she wanted them all to be without worry as much as possible.

In the cockpit of his Veritech, Vance smiled.  It was a somewhat tired smile, but it was sincere.  "<TC>Thanks, Hanako...I don't know that talking about it will do much to solve the problem, really.  But the moral support is appreciated, all the same."

The Ranger was getting large outside his canopy, and he knew it would only take a few seconds at their current speed to get there.  He flipped channels on his comm system to the standard frequency and called in.  "<TC>Ranger, this is Echo Leader, requesting approach vector for landing."

And he was all business again.  His voice betrayed no sign of the minor temper fit he'd had on the way back up.

They could see that the Ranger was already starting to move, engines ramping up to break orbit and make way.  Their flight was guided in, followed immediately by a series of planes as the rest of Echo Squadron and Chief Bixby set down.  Bixby's plane was still taxiing from the runway when the engines kicked up to full power and they could feel the shift in inertia for a moment as Ranger pulled away.

Ground crews came out quickly, checking ammo load-outs and reactor status and every other thing that was typically checked during a mid-mission re-supply landing.  It was actually a few minutes before they got the orders to go ahead and get out of the cockpits.  The sergeant who headed Vance's ground crew went straight to the cockpit as it opened.

"Captain says to stay close to the fighters...I think he actually wanted y'all to sit scramble alert in the cockpits, but Keyes talked him into standing by on the ground, seein' as it's supposed to be at least a couple of hours before we get anywhere close to launch range."

His eyes ran over the plane, and his face split into a ferocious smile.  "Hot damn, L-T...see, I KNEW it was actually possible to take a plane out and not get it all scratched to hell..."

Landing shortly after Vance, Hanako taxied over to where the ground crew steered her and waited for all the checks before popping her canopy.  She watched the ground crew head straight for Vance's craft and meet him at the cockpit, so she waited in her fighter, but still stood up and removed her helmet.  Sure, it was all recycled air, but the Ranger had better filters than her suit and craft, and seriously, who wanted to breath their own scent longer than they had to?

Even if it wasn't all that bad and had a faint smell of strawberries thanks to a touch of perfume.  She'd honestly rather smell a nice, strong cup of coffee at the moment.