The return to Earth's orbit was uneventful.  Several of the recovered pilots from Fox Squadron were up and about again, others were conscious, but still bed-ridden, including Dutch...much to his frustration.

The Captain called for a general meeting of all available flight personnel, shortly after the Ranger settled into her normal patrol orbit of Earth.  In the past, such meetings had been small, in one of the briefing rooms, usually with squadron leaders or a few key members of each squadron...this time, however, it was on one of the hangar decks, and Captain Wilson was visibly agitated.

"We've had a lot of disturbing news that's come in recently, and it's going to require a lot of changes in how we're handling a few affairs here.  First off--Fox Squadron will be minus Lt. Abernathy for a few weeks.  His condition isn't extreme enough to send him planetside, but he won't be flight-ready for at least another week and a half, and won't be combat ready for a week after that."  He turned a look at Lt. Hardy, then at Lt. Khan.

"I know we touched on the subject a while ago...and, Lt. Hardy, I know that you expressed a great deal of reluctance to part ways with your XO.  But Fox Squadron needs someone combat-ready, now, and you've got enough support within your squadron that you can adjust for the loss."  He focused on Alexa and said, "Lt. Khan, until further notice, you are acting squadron leader for Fox Squadron.  Upon Lt. Abernathy's return to duty, you will be made squadron leader for Revolt squadron, because we need someone who can kick a little ass and take the green off the new pilots that keep getting sent to us.  With a very few notable exceptions, they're taking too long to be ready to rotate into our front line squadrons and we can't afford the delay."

Without waiting for reactions, and ignoring the discomfited squirming that broke out in Revolt Squadron at his assessment of their collective progress, Captain Wilson continued, "That's the easy part.  The hard part is this...Orbital Tracking lost the escape vehicle the Separatist leaders used to flee Mars.  There are two possible destinations they project...there were a couple of rudimentary observation posts that, while technically finished, never got staffed and used before the anti-Unification wars pulled all our military forces back to Earth.  One is on Europa, in Jupiter's orbit...the other is on Titan, in Saturn's orbit.  And while they'd be relatively harmless in either location, if they'd just stay there, we have no guarantees that they would just stay there.  Both bases have fusion reactors and back-up fission plants...it would be easy for them to put together a massive dirty bomb from either location.  If they did...and escaped into the Asteroid Belt...they could effectively terrorize the entire planet and we'd be practically unable to find them.  So, Command wants us to catch them before they get the chance."

He turned to Commander Ritter.  "You're the highest ranking officer that they feel can be released from his duties here on or near Earth to oversee the operation.  They've got a specially-fitted destroyer...the Harry Truman...that's come off the line, designed to be a high-speed recon vessel, with the latest in ECM and stealth technologies.  It's also been retrofitted to house four Veritech fighters, which can get down in close to make sure the outposts are vacant when you get to that point. The Truman can also make the run from Luna to Jupiter in half the time the Ranger could.  Congratulations, Commander, she's your ship.  I took the liberty of picking your fighter team for you, based on who we could afford to release from the Ranger for a few weeks.  Lt. Skrull, due to your work as XO for Raven Squadron, you're getting a field promotion to 1st Lieutenant and command of the Truman fighter group.  I'm giving you lieutenants Oakenbear, Begay, and Gagarin.  Report to my ready room after this and I'll give you information you'll need with regards to the outposts.  The Truman will be leaving Earth orbit in three hours, however, so there isn't time for any of you to drag your feet in getting there."

He looked at Lt. Hardy again.  "That leaves us short a Chief of Fighter Operations.  I know that's not normally a position filled by an active pilot...but these are abnormal times.  Lt. Hardy, you're promoted to Lt. Commander, and you're my man for the job, for at least as long as it takes Lt. Commander Ritter to carry out his assignment.  If he gets back and decides he'd rather wrangle fighters than command a recon destroyer, we'll revisit the posting."

He looked over the rest of the pilots.  "I know it's been a while since we've seen any direct sign of the aliens, aside from what happened to the Madison.  Let that be a warning to us all...ferrying prisoners back from Mars was supposed to be a do-nothing milk-run, and it got most of them killed.  Don't let your guard down, keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary, and watch out for each other while you're out there flying patrols.  We've got most of the remaining orbital carriers operational again, and almost all of the destroyers...but many of you saw just how quickly the aliens went through us before.  Our technology hasn't increased that much since then, and most of our brightest minds disappeared with the SDF-1.  We don't know where the aliens went...or why...but we know they're still out there, and watching us...and they aren't any friendlier now than they were then.  Don't take any stupid chances and if you see them, let's hit them with everything we've got right away, because we already know what happens when they get in the first punch."

He fell silent for a moment, as he looked over the group.  "Good luck out there...dismissed."  He gestured to Lt. Skrull to come with him, who gathered his other three pilots and followed closely on the Captain's heels.

Cain smirked and walked over to Lt. Commander Vance Hardy giving a crisp military salute and an offered hand, "Looks like we got a new Chief of Fighter Operations.. I think congratulations are due Sir!  I'm sure you'll do just fine, Sir!  I expect you'll be thinking about who to make the new Echo Squadron Flight Lead... but it seems pretty obvious to me... 2nd Lt. Hanako Moriya will make a good Echo Squadron Leader I'm sure, Sir! But since, I'm sure, you're not planning on jockeying a deskjob.. it will be mostly a formality 'on-paper' as you will still be with us in-person on flight missions!  But if you haven't yet, you might want to start 'grooming' her for Command position... she's got my support, I think she's got a good level head... and I trust her, Sir!"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:01, Mon 23 June 2014.

Parker paused as he was about to leave when he overheard Cain speaking to the newly elevated Lt Commander Hardy.  He nodded and walked up and saluted.  "Congrats sir!  Oh and I second the notion sir,  Hanako...  I mean Lieutenant Moriya would be perfect for the job!"  He grinned widely.

Vance was still blinking in surprise at several things in the Captain's presentation.  Knowing what he did about Ritter, the fact that they'd put the Lt. Commander in charge of that particular mission was baffling.  Getting the man's old assignment, at a point where he was just barely starting to feel like he had a handle on being a squadron leader, was jaw-dropping.  The promotion had only dimly registered in a back corner of his mind.

"I, ah...yeah..."

Oh, for the love of all that's holy, Hardy, pull it together, man!  These people are relying on you to lead them, you can't be babbling like a moron with a head injury...  He shook his head, minutely.

"Thanks...both of you.  This is pretty much a total surprise, so I haven't had time to consider much of anything about it all, but I'm not climbing out of the cockpit anytime soon.  We're short on seasoned pilots as it is, we can't afford to drag the most senior pilots off their assignments.  And, speaking of seasoned...with the exception of myself, Hanako...Lt. Moriya...is the most experienced pilot still in Echo Squadron.  I'm not sure how she'll handle it, just yet...she's usually been on the quiet side, when we aren't flying...but she's the natural choice for Lt. Khan's old position.  That is, assuming she'll accept it..."  He hadn't really thought about where he was, in relation to her...he just kind of piled in next to the rest of Echo Squadron without looking around.

So, now he started looking around...first off, to locate Hanako...and second, to track down Alexa and wish her luck.

To say Hanako was floored was an understatement.  The entirety of the announcements caught her completely by surprise, even though she knew that they were hurting and needed to shuffle around the command structure to patch the holes and get the rookies up to snuff before it was too late.  What caught her off guard even more was the sudden recommendation that she take Alexa's old position as XO, followed by the act of it actually being affirmed by Vance.  She swelled with pride, glad to have her skills and performance recognized in such a manner, as well as to have the trust of her fellow pilots and direct commanding officer in such high regard that they would consider her for the position.

Despite being small in stature, her presence announced itself rather clearly as she saluted Vance with a bright smile and said, "Sir, yes, sir!  2nd Lt. Hanako Moriya gladly accepts the position of Echo Squadron XO!"

Sure, she'd shown her skill and fortitude time and again in missions, but she still looked like she was just a sixteen year old girl until you squinted.

Cain turns to regard the petite female pilot and smiled warmly, with a crisp salute, "Then its my pleasure to be the first to congratulate you 2nd Lt. Moriya to XO Echo Squadron!  I know I'm 'that mouthy new guy'.. but you got my full support ma'am.. and I'll try to be less of a ass - and keep my opinionated 'flight's of fancy' to myself.. or in the simulator, at least!"

Cain offered a handshake of congratulations,  his words meant in jest but also an olive branch or self-recrimination with his bit of pushiness on the last deploy.  Cain is actually trying to fit in... and admit to being a bit more opinionated than a New guy to a team of old comrades should be...

"Congrats sir,"  Parker offered a salute and a wink.  "Maybe we should go celebrate..."  he flinched as he realized they were still technically on duty.  "...After the duty shift I mean...  totally after... Whaddya say guys?"  Inside he wanted to facepalm for forgetting something that important.  INstead he put on his best grin, and let that errant strand of his red dyed hair hang in his face.  It was a lost cause to keep all of his hair up...  thankfully the regs were a little relaxed mostly due to desperation for pilots.  Parker was thinking of dyeing it purple next month...
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Fri 27 June 2014.

Vance grinned.  "Sure, I'd say a celebration is in order...at least a small one.  Can't claim it's my first act as CAG, since I already made Hanako XO for the squadron...but I think it'd be a decent encore for me to buy a round for the squadron."

He spoke up, as Alexa was moving off, toward the awed gaggle of green pilots that made up Revolt.  "That includes you, Alexa...in fact, I'll make it two rounds for you...one as a goodbye from Echo, and one as a congratulations on Revolt."

He cast a glance over at the group she was taking over...one or two looked promising, but on the whole, it looked like it would be a long and arduous task to turn them into a solid squadron...especially knowing that as soon as any of them showed any real skill at combat aviation, they'd be yanked to fill in holes somewhere else.

He sighed, and added, in a resigned mumble, "And I guess you can invite your new squadron along, too..."  Just because they were dismayingly green didn't mean that they wouldn't benefit from being included in some measure.  They had, after all, tested well enough to qualify as Veritech pilots, which was more than most who tried for the position managed to get.

Alexa's response was a genuine grin and a quick wink to Vance, followed by a sharp, "You really think just 'cause you're the senior squadron you can drink us to shame?  You're on...sir!"

Somewhere along the way to the officers' club, it was pointed out that, technically, she wasn't leading Revolt squadron YET...but since most of Fox Squadron was still out of action, she argued, Vance should buy for Revolt, anyway.  Somewhere else along the line, she managed to convince anyone who would participate to join in a drinking contest...which she won, easily (boasting, the whole time, about how she was weaned from breastfeeding with a bottle of vodka and the rest didn't stand a chance.)

OOC--I will leave it to each of you to decide if you participated or not...and how you handle the aftermath...

The next day, Ritter and his new destroyer set off to investigate the final destination of the Separatist leaders, and the business of re-establishing a proper working order for the Ranger, with one heavily compromised squadron and a new Fighter Ops Chief who was also leading one squadron, started in earnest, with figuring out who had which additional assignments and how Fox could be returned to operational status quickly without gutting Revolt and burdening Lt. Khan with a load of inexperienced fighter pilots.

Cain will attend the impromptu party in the officers mess... but he only stays a respectable amount of time to put in an appearance but leaves early.  Its not that he is not a social person.. but he has his own ambitions to pursue.

He leaves heading down the to mission planning room and the attached training rooms.  Selecting a unoccupied flight simulator pod... Cain goes through a series of time trial tests and combat simulations.. trying to improve his scoring and rating.. logging more simulator time to his record.

He is a bit fatigued when he finally logs out to get some grub in the galley before hitting the rack.

The next day...

As usual, Cain volunteers for any extra flight patrol duty he can.  But spends his time on the observation deck with his sketch pad... sketching Veritechs and experimenting on how they might actually hold and store a shield or melee weapon in their transformation modes.. all fanciful art.. but his skill in artistic drawing is evident!

Otherwise he waits for orders...

Oh,yeah...THIS is why I don't usually drink...  Vance grimaced, wishing he had a pair of sunglasses.  And a large icepack on his head.

All things considered, he'd done fairly well at Alexa's drinking contest...he'd stopped before he passed out, he hadn't puked on himself or anyone else (hadn't puked at all, actually, although he'd probably have felt better now if he had, then), and he'd put away a decent amount of booze.  Nothing compared to the Russian lieutenant, but then again, he'd been raised in a clean-cut, backwoods Wyoming environment, where a couple of shots of whiskey was considered hard drinking.

He scowled as another burst of noise cut in on the update they were getting from Ritter.  "Haven't you figured out what's doing that yet?" he asked, in an annoyed tone.  The comm officer scowled at him, but didn't say anything...she might have had a saucy comeback for a 1stLt, since she was only one grade lower, herself...but cheeky retorts to Lt. Commanders were risky.  Especially when they were in a bad mood.

"Look, Chief...I understand, cherry-picking from Raven Squadron cuts down on the close-in defensive capability of the Ranger.  But having two fully operational squadrons of seasoned Veritech pilots," and he grimaced, knowing full well that several of the names on the lists of both Echo and Fox Squadron were hardly 'seasoned'..."will actually decrease the NEED for close-in defenses.  The best defense is a good offense, and all that crap..."

Remind me...NEVER start the first day of a new assignment with a hangover...

Parker awoke in a bunk...  realizing immediately he was not alone.  Curled up with him and sleeping soundly was a female enlisted officer whom he didn't know.  She was pretty, but otherwise he had no clue who she was.  Oh crap... What did I do last night?  Drinking game...  then tonsil hockey with another...  oh man she's another pilot!  Wait a minute...    He thought as he carefully disentangled himself from the woman.  She stirred slightly, but didn't wake up.  Parker quickly searched for and found his clothes and scrambled out into the hall, dressing quickly and running off to his own bunk.  He recalled a few details here and there as he hurried.  He had been doing well in the drinking game, but got distracted by sleeping beauty and they...  passed out together before anything happened...  Parker was pretty sure of that.  He chuckled as he hurried off to his duty "Figures I meet a girl and I have the distinct displeasure of not knowing her name, She'll totally know me of course...  unless she was too drunk last night too.  That would be a nice switch--and we didn't even get to do anything!  Got most of the uniform off and then sleepy time.  Damn you alcohol and your sedative effects!"  He muttered to himself.


Parker comes into find he was actually early... for once.  It was a strange feeling.  he was sure he'd be late as he usually was when he drank too much...  but nope.  No orders so he wandered a bit until he came upon Cain in the Observation Deck.  He looks over his fellow teammate's shoulder and nodded.  "Nice,  You are an artist and a pilot too I see.  If you can sing then you might be too dangerous for the ladies."

Cain actualy starts at Parker's comment recovering and seemingly embarrassed at his artistic skills being discovered, "Er.. ah aheh.. morning Parker.  Er.. no no singing but .. I can play the guitar.. my little sis' has the singing voice though she "claims" I'm better than her!"

His expression turning sour, "..all part an parcel of those 'bleeding heart pussy skills'.. my father is so critical of."

He looks up closing his sketch pad to favor him with something of a lascivious smile, "So.. you and 1st Lt. Kirsten Campbell?  Nice catch... hope you didn't ..do anything out of the Uniform code of Military conduct - she IS an officer you know! That was some {ahem}.. tactical maneuvering you did last night!"

He winks at him in jest.. needling him a little... also changing the subject from his artist skills...

In reply to 2nd Lt. Cain Edwards (msg # 13):

Parker's eyes widened a bit but he recovered fast and adopted a casual 'cool' stance, pretending to check out his fingernails as he spoke.  "Totally tactical maneuvering.  Sometimes you just got to punch the throttle and go for it.  Big risks sometimes pay off. I'm awesome like that."  He grinned widely and chuckled, somewhat relieved he now knew her name... at least, he hoped Cain was right about it.  Parker pushed that aside and sat down next to Cain, putting a leg up on his knee and an elbow up on the back of the bench so he could twist to partially face the other man.  "So artist, the guitar and singing?  I can bang on the drums pretty well...  hey!  We should start a band!" He laughed at the thought.  "The Echos... no wait I think that one is taken...  oh well we'll come up with a name."

Cain chuckled ... sadly, "Yeah well my guitar was back on earth.. not something that will fit into my standard issue duffle.  But now I supposed its floating in space wherever the SDF-01 took it and most of Macros Ilse..{sigh}..."

"Before reassignment here I was a lancer II pilot.. one of the few not kilt' when the Zent's attacked... luck o' the draw I guess.. not my duty shift.  By the time anyone knew what was what.. most of our Armed Stations and out fighters were scrap.  I got rushed through my Veritech pilot's certification and shipped here.  'Rushed' meaning my record had said I had flown a few combat sorties at the end of the global war.. really just some patrol skirmishes.. nothing important or serious, but enough they figured I'd have a hand up on the raw recruits.  An here I am.. guitarless."

Cain could see he was not going to deflect the conversation from his  hobbies so he pulled his pad back out and flipped through to a blank sheet {briefly showing some startling pencil sketches of Armed ships Zent' battle pods and a few crew faces... notably 2nd Lt. Hanako Moriya, and 2nd Lt. Nina Petrovic in a sundress...}

Cain started doodling a scene of Veritechs wearing baseball caps playing a baseball game using GU-11 gun pods for bats ...

"A lancer, huh.  I was a destroid pilot myself."  Parker smiled at the fond memory of training with his crew.  "Actually my Monster Gaia's Wrath was awesome...  we got the highest rated in all the sims and a couple skirmish outings...  then they shut the program down.  Had to change my whole MOS.  Veritechs were the logical choice and I'm loving it!"  he caught site of the drawings and instantly his attention was pulled in by the sight of the two women in the sundresses.  "Dude...  wow,"  Parker suddenly chuckled and slapped Cain on the shoulder. "Someone has been staring at our new squad leader's backside to get that much detail!"

By the middle of the afternoon, the comm network was a flurry of messages, as pilots were reassigned to fill the gaps in the personnel roster and keep the 'front line' units as fully-staffed as possible.  Some of the pilots read their new orders with great excitement...some with a look of dread...and some with resignation and a hard fatalism born from an extended period of time spent living one stray shot away from death.

In the meantime, tech crews on both the Ranger and the new destroyer set about trying to chase down whatever odd glitch seemed to be haunting their comm traffic...intermittent bursts of noise kept obscuring parts of messages.  Onboard diagnostics didn't locate anything...but with as much damage as the Ranger had endured, her engineers didn't necessarily fully trust the automated diagnostics.  And the destroyer?  She was brand new...and rushed off the production line.  There were a whole swarm of problems being reported back.  Nothing catastrophic...just incredibly bothersome.  A comm glitch was likely to be on the list.

For the moment, at least, patrol traffic was being handled by fighters assigned to the Moon Base, or to one of the other carrier platforms.  The Ranger had a few days off.  Not enough time to send anyone planetside for shoreleave...just enough for those who needed some downtime to wish they had more, and for those who were addicted to flying every day to start feeling stir-crazy.

Cain spends all his 'waiting time' for the next mission to drill constantly in the combat flight simulator.  constantly pushing the difficulty for harder and harder difficulty... annoyed in that personally he feel only 'Real' flight time was a true teacher... but it was the best he could do.. to chase that hated figure of his father's record as an air combat ace.

But even Cain needs relax time though his obsessive need and drive to improve his combat record and aerial combat deadliness, he does take time to relax at least twice a day on the observation deck with his sketch book drawing portraits of various crew members and fanciful space combat vistas of Veritechs... and the occasional comical strips of the incongruity of the situation.  He is not a skirt chaser, kind of a loner in private... not into gambling or much drinking, he does spent two sessions a day in exercise and martial arts practice.

He does occasionally slip into the Veritech maintenance bay, when they are not too busy, to chit-chat biomechanical jargon with the Veritech engineer/technicians about the Robotech machines they service.  Obviously, he is no engineer but he is a knowledgeble groupie of the basics as he tries to improve his understanding of the Robotechnological vehicle he relies on in combat.

All his efforts, besides his artwork, seem pointed toward making himself the most capable combat killer possible ... chasing that phantom 'True' enemy in his heart!

Vance had a day or two to make sure he had everyone where he wanted them...or to argue with Bixby or Khan about who was where.  When push came to shove, however, arguments were resolved by referring to Captain Wilson's mandate...that Echo Squadron be maintained in the highest possible state of combat readiness, then Fox Squadron, and then Raven.

His friendships were put to the test.  In the end, though, no matter how much he wanted to be friends with Chief Bixby and Lieutenant Khan, he was the CAG first, and a friend second.  Luckily, they both seemed to recognize it...and, reluctantly, at first, accept it.

A second, less vigorous round of drinking smoothed things over with Alexa.  Chief Bixby came around on his own, because, like Vance, he'd always held the mission as the first priority.

But after half a week of having his ear talked off by one or the other on the subject, Vance was itching to fly...and kind of hoping for a reckless alien or two, so he'd have something to shoot at.

Parker normally occupied himself with three things:  women, flying, and fun.

The first item meant he spent his down time trying to woo 1st Lt. Kirsten Campbell, whom didn't seem to recall much about their night together either.  She seemed stand-offish at first due to their difference in rank, but Parker was nothing if not persistent.  He kept at it, trying out right bribery with chocolates he had somehow procured--and mysteriously found that she liked.  No one could cite where he got them and he wasn't saying.

Flying was out.  That bummed him more than anything.  Otherwise, Parker would go hang out in the hanger, the ground crews reluctantly let him sit in the cockpit, like some sad lonely kid and run diagnostics and check flight systems.

Parker then tried to enact the last item on his list:  fun.  Parker worked hard to get the ground crews to let him work on his "sweet dance moves" he wanted to try in the battloid mode, but so far they didn't seem keen on letting a multi-ton robot dance around in the hanger.

Spoilsports.

So as it was, Parker visited the simulators often and crashed the simulator almost as much.  He kept trying insane maneuvers out with the supposed realistic physics of the simulator system.  The simulator operator would often be found facepalming as Parker would start a tap dancing routine on the hull of the ship in the sim or try to waltz with a battlepod. The latter not working out so well most of the time.

Cain is more often times in the combat simulator when Parker arrives and greets him cordially.  He also laughs at the fanciful maneuvers he tries to get the simulator to allow!

On a whim... he sets the simulator to its lowest difficulty setting and proceeds to fight the entire sequence without using any weapons but Battliod fists and feet... going into a combination of martial arts maneuvers and graceful acrobatic dance steps... all the while playing Tchaikovsky music in the background!

He dies quite often in spectacularly explosive and comical ways... BUT the young obsessive pilot sees it as a challenge and keeps at it dying less and less often as he becomes focused on avoiding being hit while getting close to deliver his devastatingly graceful flying kicks and karate mecha fist strikes... in rhythm with the flowing graceful music of "Dance of the Suger-plume Faeires".
This message was last edited by the player at 10:47, Fri 18 July 2014.

Time passed, and duty schedules resumed.  Daily patrols around Earth orbit proved uneventful.  About the only thing that did provide any excitement were the daily reports back from Ritter's outbound mission...which were still plagued by bursts of noise that eluded the efforts of technicians, on both ends, to resolve and eliminate.

The problem remained so pervasive that personnel on the Ranger started a betting pool...was it sunspots?  Gamma ray bursts from a quasar?  Someone in Ritter's crew deliberately sabotaging the messaging?  Someone on the Ranger?  Something the aliens were doing?  Theories flew fast and thick, as they will among personnel who are used to action, and suddenly faced with down-time.

Among the command personnel, however, even more troubling than the comm interference was the utter lack of any sign of activity from the aliens.  Any thoughts that they had totally withdrawn from the area had been quashed with the destruction of the James Madison...but whatever they were doing, they were being very quiet about it...

Cain got more and more restless with the passing time... while others settled into the hum-drum of ship life ...sleeping, practicing cleaning or flirting with the many woemn crewmen... Cain just seemed to focus more and more on martial readiness... if he was not asleep he was in one of three places the flight simulator, the sparing mat, or the laser markmanship shooting range.  Every so often he might be found on the observation deck sketching more and more violent space battle scenes... or a very detailed face of a crewman... more female crew men than males but mostly people he had daily contact with.

Cain was determined to be ready for the next alien attack... not for hates sake for he did not seem to bear any hatred of the alien invaders in conversation... but he was eagar to prove his skill as a pilot in the fires of battle... chasing that dream of becoming a recognized Ace!

His obsession driving him... and making him more and more insular and non-social.

Vance was ill at ease.  Everyone seemed to be making the adjustment to his new position without trouble...but much as he appreciated some calm to grow accustomed to it, something in his gut told him that the longer the aliens stayed silent, the worse things would be when they turned up again.

The interference with the reports from Ritter's mission weren't any help, either.  For all that everyone kept trying to find some natural reason for it, or explain it away as some kind of gremlin due to the rushed nature of the ship's completion, it felt far to regular to be natural...and far too elusive to write off as some kind of system glitch.  They didn't seem to be losing any information...any part of a transmission that got garbled was repeated and received cleanly...but those repeats were far too common.

The veritech landed on the carrier deck, the arresting system catching and bringing him to a halt like was practiced countless times.  Parker's mission to patrol the local space for signs of alien activity--no contact.  Not a peep.  The young man had spent the patrol practicing several hard G maneuvers around the earth satellites as if practicing a dogfight... until control reprimanded him for it.  He grudgingly but quietly accepted the fate of another boring patrol after that.

Parker had thought he saw movement out there on the fringes of his vision, but there was always nothing on sensors.  That meant it was likely just space junk floating around and blocking the stars... or he was just spending too much time in the cockpit.  after disembarking, Parker showered and changed into a clean uniform before continuing his routine:  eat, continue his new personal mission to get 1st Lt. Kirsten Campbell to agree to an actual date, and then fall asleep in his bunk--alone unfortunately--only to wake up the next day to do it all over again...

The tension of not knowing where the enemy was pandemic...and Bixby took it kind of personally, on top of that, since he'd always been the first one to spot the incoming attack, any time he was out in space.

To that end, he sat down with a couple of the engineers, his ground crew chief, and a pair of the better Hermes sensor technicians, and worked up some refinements to work into the on-board systems of the Two-Ex.  The longest part of the downtime, for him, was the day and a half that he had to give up access to the plane in order for the new equipment to be installed and tested.

When they finally got it done, he couldn't wait to take it out and field-test it.  He debated with himself, for a few moments, because it was coming up on time for the daily report from Ritter's outbound flight...but, like so many others, he'd been unable to come up with a satisfactory answer as to what was causing the comm problems, and as it stood, he was more interested in sinking his teeth into a potential new problem in the upgraded sensors than he was in beating his head against the wall with an old problem.

Within minutes, he had his flight clearance, his plane was warmed up, and he was off, reporting in to the Veritechs flying picket duty that he was heading out beyond lunar orbit so he could test his plane.

It took a few tweaks, but everything seemed to be going to design, and he decided to take a chance and see about listening in on the conversation with Ritter.  It was the same old stuff...complete with garbled sections of the transmission, starting a couple of minutes after the comm connection started and proceeding intermittently throughout the conversation.

It wasn't until later, when he was reviewing the data recorder from his plane versus the sensor information from the Ranger, that he noticed a slight discrepancy in the timing of the interference.  It was, literally, barely a hundredth of a second...but it was there, and it was consistent, uniform.  He began extrapolating data, making theories, checking them, revising, re-checking...

Two hours later, he knocked on Captain Wilson's door.  "Captain? I'd like to request a survey flight over the back side of the lunar surface..."  He explained, in short order, how he'd noted the discrepancy, and the only viable theory for it was some kind of high-energy burst.  Triangulating, based on the time difference between his plane and the space carrier, gave a general range and approximate vector...and the only non-spacecraft-body-of-mass that any sensors could identify in the area was the Moon.

Within minutes, Captain Donovan had called LC Hardy to his ready room and started explaining the mission.

Vance grimaced as he left the Captain's ready room.  It could be absolutely nothing...or it could be something critical.

Best to treat it like something critical, he thought.  Everyone was keyed up already...it would be simple enough to turn the whole thing into a battle drill...

He stopped at a communications terminal, typing in a quick message to the bridge personnel, and then sent it.  A sly grin crossed his face as he walked away, counting the seconds until...

"ALL VERITECH PILOTS, report to the pilot briefing area, ready to launch, in ten minutes.  Repeat, all veritech pilots to the pilot briefing room.  All veritech ground crews prepare planes for launch."

A warning claxon sounded...not the claxon for an attack, but it was still jarring and people in the halls went wide-eyed for a moment, before they took off at a run, to prepare for whatever had triggered the alert.  Vance continued, at a slightly faster walking pace, directly to the briefing room, with only a brief detour to grab his flight gear.  Once there, he waited, one eye on the clock, to see who arrived and how quickly.

Cain kicked his way off of his bunk at the blaring of the scramble alert - grimacing, "Finally! About Damned time!!

He was in his flight suit, helmet hooked over the crook of his elbow and jogging for the flight briefing room at double time... before most of the other pilots were even stepping into their flight suits...

He arrived in the flurry of pilots ready for the mission briefing the CAG had ready.  He pulled his datapad in his thigh flight suit pocket out with the stylus ready to take down the points on the mission highlights and objectives.. taking a seat not quite on the front row... but close enough - clearly eager to get with the mission details.

Cain crisply saluted the LC as he took his seat... silent and ready to listen...
This message was last edited by the player at 13:40, Mon 01 Sept 2014.

For once, Hanako wasn't already in her flight suit and ready to report to the briefing room.  Ever since her promotion to XO, she'd taken her duties rather seriously (although she never talked down to anyone because of her new position), and kept herself in a crisp, clean uniform at all times.  After all, she had a standard to set now, and the best way to lead is by example.

So, when the call came, she scrambled to the lockers and hastily changed into her flight uniform (which, thankfully, wasn't too hard to do), made sure it was going to be comfortable (because you do NOT want to deal with wedgies or anything like that while flying!), then hurried to the briefing room so she could both get the full details of the mission and be there to support her CO, as was her duty.

Despite how she felt, most people couldn't really see the change in Hanako's behavior after her promotion, but the veteran pilots and crew saw she had simply raised her own personal standards a bit more.

The rest of the pilots filed in quickly, with the anticipation of people that had been waiting too long for action.  As their numbers increased, the tension in the room did, as well, until there was an almost electric air.

The members of Echo Squadron seemed to show it the most...and, at the same time, the least.  As the most experienced pilots on the Ranger, many of them were used to the hurry-up-and-wait of combat...and knew they were also the most likely to get the initial nod, both because of their experience and because Hardy knew their capabilities best.

By contrast, the rookie pilots were either dumb-struck at the sudden shift in routine, or had the too-eager air of someone with training but little practical experience.

Vance stood at the front of the room, letting the chaos run its course before he started talking.  As he sensed the energy settling a bit and the chatter starting to wind down, he stepped forward.

"Okay, listen up!" he called out, by way of demanding they focus attention on his words.  It felt odd, to him...even in hearing the words in his own voice, his instinct was to turn around and look at the front of the room.  You ARE the front of the room, kid, he told himself.

"We have a mission." He waited for the inevitable buzz of commentary to settle a bit, before continuing.  "Some of you...the ones who haven't been in the firing line often enough to appreciate it...will be disappointed to learn this isn't a combat mission."  More commentary, much of it along the lines of 'why were we called in, then?'

He held up his hands, gesturing for quiet, and as voices began to settle, he continued, "We don't know what kind of mission it's going to turn out to be.  Most, if not all of you, know about the anomalous interference we've been having with the mission headed by Commander Ritter.  Well, Chief Bixby has been able to localize a source for it...sort of.  It's coming from the far side of the lunar surface, opposite our moon base."

Some scowls met his words...the same reaction he'd had when Captain Wilson and Chief Bixby had presented the information to him.  "There should be nothing there, and certainly nothing that would affect transmissions.  And we haven't been able to detect anything unusual, at this point.  So the mission is simply this--during the next transmission, we're going to be spread above the lunar surface, so the Chief can access our individual planes' sensors to triangulate the source."

He braced himself for the expected shower of dissatisfied responses.

Cain sat... clearly growing impatient to find out what the Op was if there was going to be an Op at all!

He spoke up, "So, Lt Cmdr Sir... has UN Spacy given any word on the Alien's movements or any word from the SDF-1?  I'm sure by now our long range 'scopes' have gotten some clue of what's gong on beyond Moon orbit!  Any new intel... or is it all Still need-to-know?"

His tone was not quite disrespectful... but it was petulant.  Cain clearly wanted to get back into the fight to defend Earth and tracking down radio disturbances was clearly not what he had in mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:24, Tue 04 Nov 2014.

Fidgeting in his seat, Parker was a bottle of barely corked energy.  A real mission!  No more just boring patrols here.  He was going to...  wait what did Hardy say?

DOH!  Parker thought to himself.

So it is a patrol...  but at least they are going somewhere new with the possibility of seeing some action...  maybe...  possibly.  Yeah probably not.

Parker cleared his throat.  "Hey, so if we see something weird out there, do we pursue it?  Or observe and report?"  His voice tone was upbeat for the first question and notably less enthusiastic with the latter--an unconscious showing of his preference.  "And what load out should we take?  Standard VF?   or...  other?"  The tone he used with the last two questions were the reverse of earlier indicating Parker's wanting to try out the non standard birds...

Being a veteran who has seen hospital time, as well as having gone on more than one rescue operation that ended up being more of a salvage op, Hanako is rather pleased that the operation isn't a combat op.  However, the fact that it is one of information gathering in an unknown area for unknown reasons raises the hairs on the back of her neck.  She remains silent, trusting her CO to provide the necessary information, and seeing quite plainly that Vance is no more happy about the mission than the rest of the pilots present.

She simply does not like flying into unknowns.

Vance fixed Cain with a withering look.  "If Command has any information on the location of the aliens, Lieutenant, they aren't sharing it.  Be thankful for that.  You were still planetside and training when the entire alien force showed up.  Trust me when I say that I don't care how good a pilot you are, there is NO WAY you would survive flying through that particular shitstorm.  The few ships they left behind to keep an eye on us have gone dark, somewhere...space is a big place, it's hard to find someone when they aren't giving you some sort of energy signature to trace them, and the last signature we had was the fading plasma trail from the wreckage of the Madison."

He sighed, closed his eyes for a moment, and his expression softened.  "Sorry...I know the inactivity is taking a toll on everyone.  But enjoy it while it lasts.  There are a lot of pilots just getting out of the infirmary from the last tangle our forces had with the enemy...and a whole lotta people who never got a chance to make it to the infirmary.  As for the SDF-1...?"

He shrugged.  "Aside from their fold system we found, alone, halfway to Mars, we've got nothing.  Planetside, they're telling civilians that the Macross Incident was a terrorist attack, or something...they don't want people thinking the aliens may have destroyed the Fortress, but they had to explain the whole island disappearing into the sea.  The fact that the aliens moved almost their entire fleet away from Earth, somewhere, is some hope...they came here chasing the SDF-1, apparently, so it's logical to assume that they hared off after it somewhere.  We just don't know where.  We've had some vague indications of fold activity near the edge of the Solar System...but since we now have the fold drive for the SDF-1 at the Lunar Shipyards, we can be pretty sure it's not from them.  That means that the aliens are still out there...somewhere.  As long as they're out there, and not attacking here, we're on standby.  We do NOT have the resources to try and take the battle to them."

He turned and looked at Parker.  "If we see something weird?  It depends on what it is.  We're going out with a full combat load-out, just in case...but we aren't going to be free to go zipping off after stray gamma pulses or anomalous background radiation readings.  We already have one anomaly to identify, and that's the mission.  If that anomaly requires military action, we'll take it.  If the aliens show up while we're out, we'll engage."

He looked up at the rest of the pilots.  "Speaking of which--Fox Squadron, you have home-guard duty."  There was a chorus of groans.  Vance stolidly ignored them, and raised his voice.  "Revolt, you're flying mid-point...if the aliens try to hit the Ranger, you fall back and help Fox.  If something goes sideways on our scouting mission, you come in and reinforce us."

The voices died down...they didn't necessarily like them, but the pilots all realized that orders were orders.  Vance looked across the room.

"Any more questions?"

Cain shrugged, "Just saying Sir, hiding under our bunks won't make the crazy violent aliens go away.  And yes I've done nothing BUT study the footage of the attack, studying their two legged pod things they attacked with. They are vicious, direct, but totally undefensive! They just attack and attack, with minimal strategy other than find new flanks to attack from~ albeit with great numbers yes.. but they don't seem to care about losses, never even trying to use cover!  Any properly unsurprised force with a good tactical commander ... I KNOW can beat them! Their numbers are the real problem... and in my opinion their ONLY real advantage!"

Cain continues in a helpful tone, "So its a scouting Op~ fine. Ever wonder what the aliens, if they are so superior, would need to be jamming our sensors for to hide?  I think its possible they may be trying to establish a rally point on the Dark Side of the Moon.  Which can't mean all they want is the battle fortress.  I would request, if possible, we could load some laser comm relays on our way to the scouting zone to make sure we have a clear line of communication with the Ranger... so we can~ if necessary give target solutions for Strategic Nuclear strikes from the Ranger ordinance... not subject to jamming."

Parker tilted his head back and rolled his eyes at the ceiling when the talking continued.  He tuned some of it out and when there was a lull in other speaking he looked back at Hardy.  "My only question now is can we get going?  I mean the aliens went though all the trouble of setting up this probable death trap for us on the moon.  It would be rude to keep them waiting!"  He smirked trying to lighten the mood in here with Cain and Hardy butting heads—again.

Vance gave a tight-lipped grin.  It was hard to tell whether it was amusement...or a means to suppress a snarl of annoyance.  "If we get bounced by the aliens, we've got Revolt Squadron out in the clear to relay messages for us.  If we can't get at least one plane clear enough to send coordinates?  Then the Ranger is probably going to have more urgent places to shoot their nukes than the Moon."

He glanced at the clock.  "Ritter's mission is due to report in forty-five minutes.  That gives us fifteen minutes to get our gear and get to our planes and half an hour to get to the Moon and deployed however Chief Bixby wants us spread out."  He took a deep breath and added, "While it's wise to go in EXPECTING it to be an alien trap, we have no guarantee that it is.  We have no guarantee that it might not be yet another, totally different group of aliens that crash-landed and are trying to send out a distress call.  Hell, for all we know, it may be nothing more than a meteor strike that released some weird cyclical energy flux.  A year ago, the only thing we knew about aliens was someone out there built the SDF-1, and someone else shot it up.  At this point, we can make an educated guess about who did the shooting...but we still don't know who did the building.  Let's not go in guns blazing, we might end up shooting the best ally we could hope to find."

He nodded.  "If nobody else has any questions, then go get your gear and report to your planes."  He looked around for a moment, then said, "See you on the flight line..."

Without another word Cain stands gives a crisp salute to the Lt. Cmdr. and makes his way from the briefing room heading for the flight deck.. and his bird.

He is calm and at ease checking the seals on his flight suit and helmet as he walks onto the flight deck making for his Veritech.  His expression one of cool professionalism... but his eyes burn with an inner fire of eagerness!

The other pilots filtered out of the briefing room in clusters of three or four, going first to their lockers and then to the flight deck.

The flight deck had a curious energy to it.  While abuzz with the efforts of mustering all the planes that the Ranger had operational, and getting them out in space in the shortest order, apparently word had filtered through to the ground crews that this was not, necessarily, a combat mission.  As a result, everything had a certain subdued quality to it.  The boredom of launching yet another patrol had a quirky undercurrent of nervous anxiety to it...but there was none of the laughing, joking, and bravado that preceded a known combat mission.

First on the flight line were Chief Bixby's TwoEx, along with the Veritechs assigned to Vance and Hanako, flanking it in launch position.

Vance paused for a moment, enduring waves of deja vu.  How many times had he flown escort for the Two Ex?  How often had those planes been lined up together?

Granted, for many of them, Vance had been flying a different plane.  It seemed a lifetime ago, that he was just another combat pilot, flying the VF-1A variant.  In reality, it hadn't been very long...the losses inflicted on Earth forces when the aliens attacked had created a fast-track promotion system.  He'd gone from 3rd Lt to 1st, by sheer virtue of the fact that he had experience flying a Veritech in combat conditions, and went from #4 in the Squadron to Leader by virtue of the fact that he was among the few survivors.

He spotted Bixby doing pre-flight checks of his plane and walked over.  "Anything more you can give us before we launch, Chief?" he asked.

Parker sat in his fighter, fiddling with the control adjustments.  Moving them back and forth with his seat for comfort like he was used to.  And he was mad, it showed in his voice.  "Someone was sitting in my seat damnit!  You know how hard it is to get this thing perfect?  I'll probably have to be messing with it the whole patrol to get this thing perfect again!"  It wasn't as big a deal as he was making it of course, but the scarlet haired pilot was dealing with the pre-flight jitters like any other person feeling stressed:  Find something to focus on and complain incessantly about it until something else comes along to complain about that instead.  He wasn't even really yelling at anyone in particular.

Parker was just yelling to yell and venting his stress.

Many of the grounds crews pretty much saw the pilots as whiny, flying princesses sometimes...  and the pilots in turn often saw the grounds crew as knuckle dragging apes...  that is until the crap hit the fanliner prop, then everyone pulled together rather well.

It was a strange human thing.

Finally Parker was finished with his preflight checks.  "Echo Four standing ready for launch!"  His turn came up and he shot forward in the catapult.  Once clear he turned and came to the proper heading and there he slowed considerably to hold station for the forward guard for the formation here and await the squadron leader and their Chief to launch for the escort...

Bixby looked away from his plane as the freshly-minted Lt. Commander approached.  At the question, he shook his head.  "All I know for sure is, I noticed the signal anomaly happening on three consecutive days, always just a few minutes into the update from Commander Ritter."

He pursed his lips slightly in thought.  "It's remotely possible that it's a naturally-occurring phenomenon...but the timing is pretty precise for that.  What I'm afraid is, it's another rebel cell that got out to the Moon and set up on the dark side...if they got far enough underground, and they were careful with their energy protocols, they could avoid detection by the passive sensors...and while I'm pretty sure I could find them with active sensors, flying a solo search pattern over half the lunar surface just doesn't sound particularly fun...or productive."  He turned away for a moment to check one last detail, then stepped around to the ladder up to his cockpit.

"When we get out there, I'll need your squadron fanned out...with twelve of you, fifteen hundred kilometers above the lunar surface?  I should be able to triangulate the signal source in a matter of seconds."  He turned to his plane, then turned back.

"Just in case it isn't artificial, and it isn't rebels...keep everyone on passive sensors and stay weapons-hot down there."  He nodded, and climbed up into his cockpit, settling his flight helmet securely on his head.

Walking past both Bixby and Vance, Hanako gives the two of them a smile as she heads to her Veritech, climbing up and tucking her hair into her helmet before sealing her suit completely and going over the flight checks.  She wants to make strategic talk with the two of them, but she still is not confident enough in her new rank and authority to really feel like she will contribute productively to the talk, so she instead gets herself ready to take off the moment they are prepared.  Once she's finished her pre-flight check, she radios flight control that "Echo Two" is ready to launch, and idles until the Two-Ex and Echo One are ready for takeoff as well.

Cain walked to his Veritech giving the deck crew unhooking diagnostics and hydraulic and environmental maintenance umbilicals from the plane giving them the thumb's up sign as he pulled the foot rials down to climb into his cockpit.

He caught sight of 2nd Lt Hanako Moriya climbing her machine next to his and he paused to watch her stuff her hair under her helmet... couldn't help but smile to himself - she was certainly easy on the eyes in her close fitting flightsuit!  But his thoughts turned serious...

{Must be a lot on her mind this being her first Command~ likely combat flight!}

Donning his own helm, he signaled her privately [ {Hey, 2nd Lt Moriya.. stay frosty.. I know you got this!  We're all with you... you'll do great!  See you in the Black!} ]

Catching her gaze he winks at her before settling into his seat and sealing his cockpit, nodding to the deckcrew as his plane was maneuvered into his launch que.

The comm chatter brought him Harvey's complaints but mentally he tuned it out with a chuckle.

Doing his preflight checks in rapid practiced succession he found all systems green and reported in, [ "Echo Five, ready for launch." ]

Cain folded his arms and waited... his thoughts turning to the face of an excitable  little blonde haired green eyed girl~ his little sister - Alia Harris, and the mousy brown hair and hopeful eyes of his mother - Barbara Lancaster.

{We got this.}
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Thu 13 Nov 2014.

Vance nodded.  "Got it, Chief," he said, with a grim smile.  He turned and walked back to his plane.  His ground crew stood at the ready, as he gave it a quick once-over.

"Bring it back in the shape you took it out, college-boy," Sarge said.  Vance suppressed a grin...with all the tension that had been hanging over the entire ship, the off-hand growl from his crew chief was a welcome return to familiar routine.

"Do my best, Sarge," he replied.  He climbed up into the cockpit and settled the helmet on his head.  He keyed the comm system, got a solid response to his test signal, and reported to Launch Control that he was ready and standing by.

The planes launched in short order, and within minutes were on their way toward the far side of the Moon, dropping into a search pattern that Bixby had planned out when he first went to the Captain.

"I want everyone to stay at least two kilometers above the surface," the Chief directed over the comm channels, as the flight proceeded.  Behind them, sensors indicated the additional launching of multiple craft as the other squadrons took off and arrayed themselves according to LC Hardy's instructions.

"Any closer than that and I have two concerns...false returns from the sensors due to not enough distance, and if it does turn out to be some kind of artificial threat, two kilometers is already pretty damned close.  Be good to keep some margin for error and reaction time."  His voice took on a distracted tone as he began setting up the relayed sensor feeds from Echo Squadron and activating the equipment to filter them all properly.

Falling into his directed flight path as per mission parameters. Cain armed his weapon systems and readied one of his fragmentation missiles in his load out for anti-missile launch against any ordinance targeted at Echo squadron... expecting trouble and ready to respond.

Otherwise Cain let Chief Bixby slave his sensors to his for his detailed scanning... and enjoyed the ride... but keeping a keen eye on the proximity sensors and the radar returns for hostile threats.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:04, Sun 30 Nov 2014.

Vance dropped into his appointed sector in the deployment.  It felt good to be out in his plane again, doing...something.  He'd have been happier with a definite objective to seek out, but it beat flying a patrol through empty space again.

"<TC>Keep your eyes open, people...and let's not get sloppy.  Just because we haven't seen anything in a few weeks doesn't mean they're all gone."  For all the combat they'd seen, they actually knew very little about the aliens' tactics...their direct combat, sure, but when it came to scouting, intelligence gathering, or surveillance, they had very little to go on.

Parker was using his ever reliable "Mark-One Eyeball" scanner as much as he was letting the veritech slave the scanners for the triangulation exercise.  It was boring but at least he could cut thrusters and just drift and turn jet every which way to get a clear view of his surroundings.  At more than one occasion he was going in formation--his radar image never swaying from the course... but had his fighter turned upside down to look "up" towards the moon's surface.  He was sure he saw the old Apollo moon landing site, the flag bleached white in the unfiltered radiation from the sun long ago...

Bixby kept an eye on the chronometer, counting down to the scheduled update transmission.  The rest of his attention danced across the consoles in front of him, setting the autopilot so he could focus on getting the signal analysis taken care of.

"<TC>Stand by, everybody.  Incoming transmission in fifteen seconds..."  He counted it down, silently, to himself, dialing in the calibration on a couple of the instruments built into the Two-Ex.

On schedule, the transmission commenced, and went smoothly for about thirty seconds...and then interference cut in, making only one out of every four words vaguely comprehensible.  He set all the sensor arrays on the various Veritechs scanning, watching as a display showed an ever-decreasing range for the origin of the interference.

On impulse, he started recording it...there was something oddly rhythmic about it...not quite cyclic, but with an almost speechlike cadence...where it paused, the incoming transmission from the Earth ship became clearer, and then the interference would resume...

He glanced up at the display just as the shrinking circle turned to a red dot on the lunar surface.  "Gotcha..." he muttered.  "<TC>Point of origin confirmed...almost directly under Echo Six..."

"<TC>Well, then, why don't I go take a look?" Lt. Begay responded, and his Veritech dropped out of orbit in a spiral toward the surface.

"<TC>No, wait!  Don't!!!" Bixby said.

There was no time to react further...a flash of light from the moon's surface indicated weapon-fire...and a pulse of energy lanced up and plunged through Proctor's fuselage...directly through the cockpit.  His plane ruptured in a firestorm of energy that almost instantly dissipated.

And, beneath what was left of the rapidly disintegrating cloud of debris, a quartet of craft unearthed themselves.  They were decidedly NOT human in origin, though unlike any of the alien craft that the Ranger had thus far encountered.

Cain watched as Lt. Begay... and his Veritech became a permanent addition to the space dust of the lunar surface... the rapidly expanding cloud of debris in total silence of vacuum... heralding the end of yet Another young life...

'Damn...!', Cain muttered to no one in particular, but it was a expression of frustration and anger at how fleeting and quick life could be lost... he had little time to brood over though.

Triggering his Comm, "<TC> Contact, Contact! We are under fire. Hostiles detected, lunar surface - coordinates~", he rattled off a series of numbers to give an accurate long range solution... though he did not figure the hostiles would stay there very long at all.

"<TC> Taking Evasive maneuvers. Weapons hot. Request permission to engage!  The alien bastards got Lt. Begay... right through the pilot's compartment~... Echo 6, Kill confirmed... Orders?"

Cain put his Veritech into an erratic zig-zag series of jinks and barrel rolls... his weapons radar going active seeking target locks on the hostiles uncovering on the surface of their lunar hiding place.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:28, Thu 22 Jan 2015.

Vance was about to order Proctor back to his orbit when the shot from the moon shattered the Veritech.  "Sonofa..."

He flipped his comm to active.  "<TC>Echo Squadron, prepare to engage!  Weapons hot...Edwards, you're first in!  Everyone else, if anything down there so much as quivers, pancake it!"  His fingers flew across the controls, dormant displays lighting up as weapons systems went from standby to active, and he rolled his fighter into an approach vector that would give him a different line of attack on the alien...whatevers...that were down on the surface.

"<TC>Keep your eyes open and check your approach vectors and fire lines...don't follow too close behind anyone else, and make sure your path isn't going to cause a collision with someone else or put them in front of your guns.  We've lost one, that's one more than I wanted to lose out here!"

Too quiet, for too long...something was bound to happen...should have known they were up to something!  The thought flashed through his mind before he had a chance to squash it, and he had to be content with chasing after it with other thoughts...that he had suspected they were up to something, even if he could never have predicted this...that there was no way to know they were down there and waiting...

But none of that would bring Proctor back...

"Oh Damnit!  Damnit Damnit Damnit..." Parker exclaimed.  He was currently facing upside down when the incident happened--he saw the whole thing live via mark one eyeball.  When the explosion happened, he quickly kicked the thrusters to port  and then pulled up in a hard circle to bring him out of their immediate path to rise up.  A collision would not helpe anything here as the ships rose out of the dirt of the lunar surface.    Parker punched the throttle and then switched  modes to guardian/gerwalk mode--thinking his way through the change to make it swiftly and smoothly as he was taught.  This would allow him to react swiftly should the enemy actually fire on him.   Meanwhile, using a combination of his thinking cap and the manual controls, his veritech began to activate his missiles and attempted a lock on the closest of the ships...

[OOC: Ok..waited long enough.. moving along...]

"<TC> Roger that LC.  Time to get some payback!"

"<TC> Echo 5, 'Pegasus', commencing attack run. 'Wing'.. stay on my '8'.  There are three confirmed targets so it's more likely there are TRIPLE that number waiting in ambush.  'Two trainees and a chimpanzee', for an officer could have spotted our entire wing doing our search pattern.  If they revealed only three it means they are not concerned about our numbers.. says to me they got backup with them.  I'm heading for the 'deck'... gonna try to flush them out. 'Wing' keep your scopes looking for hostiles.. you won't be disappointed, I'm sure! Cover my strafe-run."

Cain flipped his Veritech's head-laser unit to anti-missile 'AGIS' fire-mode then called up his personal data files to start his 'fight music'.  Though only actually playing in his cockpit it could still be heard faintly by most of the Echo wing.. just echoing off his inside cockpit into his mic.

_{"... ... .. . . ..!"
"... Livin' easy"
"... Lovin' free"
"... ... .. . . ..Season ticket on a one way ride"}


"Ok you alien assholes.. let's dance!"

Cain put his Veritech into a... rather reckless dive for the lunar surface ..jinking left then jinking right... only to corkscrew back left again in an erratic spiraling pattern that part seemed suicidal... then at about 500'ft above the lunar surface he pulled the "G" lever on his controls...

_{"... ... .. . . ..!"
"... Askin' nothin'"
"... Leave me be"
"... ... .. . . ..Takin' everythin' in my stride"}


The Veritech's engines screamed as the legs swung forward blaring to full power, wings spread full extension as the maneuvering verniers on the useless in vacuum appendages screamed from the wider angle of applied thrust to arrest the spiral to a controlled dive as the Veritech switched to Guardian mode.. for speed and more maneuverability... perfectly suited to the rapid ground attack Cain was initiating!  Even still the Veritech was only 50'ft above the rocky surface before the it leveled out engines screaming in the silence of vacuum with no reduction in speed as the Veritech 'flat-hatted', skimming across the surface toward the enemy units.

_{"... ... .. . . ..!"
"... Don't need reason"
"... Don't need rhyme"
"... ... .. . . ..Ain't nothin' that I'd rather do"}


Cain released the breath he had been holding pulling the risky, but daring high-G maneuver.  He felt his limbs tremble under the stress and his flight suit increased pressure in his extremities to force the blood back to his upper body and brain.

'Hell of a ride...', he smirked as the targeting computer relayed speed and distance to targets... the "thinking-cap" already locking the combat computer on target.

_{"... ... .. . . ..!"
"... Goin' down"
"... Party time"
"... ... .. . . ..My friends are gonna be there too"}


Cain targeted a plasma/napalm missile not at the three hostiles but using the Guardian Mode's superior Air-to-ground targeting a spot on the lunar surface that would catch all three in the deadly splash and brought the Guardian's GU-11 Gunpod online; the Veritech's Arms swing up, targeting and cutting loose with three short bursts at the three targets.  The gunpod weapon barking in silence~ deadly DU rounds down range with nasty effect!  Targeting the spot on the ground was a ploy to get the enemy to commit to a move.. and confuse their warning systems as no 'target lock' was actually made on them!  Hopefully, the effect making them dodge into the covering fire of his Wingman.  The three short bursts into their general area were meant to damage them no matter where they moved .. and all of the added area saturation was to hit any other allies of theirs that might be hiding near them.  All of this.. calculated and done in a flash of a split second.. thanks to the 'thinking-cap' and the wonders of ROBOTECHNOLOGY!

_{"I'm on the highway to hell."
"On the highway to hell!"
"Highway to hell!"
"I'm on the highway to hell."}

Cain swung the Veritech to the right panning the barrage of fire to leave a clear path to the left for the enemy to dodge the incoming fire.. hopefully right into the unexpected covering fire of his wingman on his 8 to his left.  Then Cain could come back around and strafe them again as they reacted to his wing's attack.  All the while his Veritech's Head laser was searching for and, hopefully, shooting down any incoming missile locks on Cain detected~ firing in 'AGIS' mode. Classic air combat strategy 101, with the added deadliness of modern Robotech!  In his old Global Civil War F-42 'Shadow' there would have been no way to coordinate all his weapons systems that way.

"Gods I LOVE this machine!  Suck it... ya Alien bastards! How's it feel to not be shooting at someone from surprise?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:30, Thu 19 Feb 2015.

The trio of vessels moved as the sky blossomed with Veritechs...none of the three were standard alien battlepods, though the design aesthetic seemed similar enough with at least two of them.  The legs, at least, were very similar in appearance and apparent function...but instead of the globular body, there was an elongated, more angular body that had arms on either side, which ended in large weapon pods.  Another, large-bore cannon was mounted atop the body, as well.

The third vessel showed no apparent armaments...but Bixby's sensors spiked as the enemy vessels engaged EW counter-measures.  "Dammit..." he muttered.  He probably had some data on all of them, but he'd have to go through the few seconds of clear reads he got before the jamming started.  He activated his own ECCM, hoping to pick up a few useful tidbits.

The two pods directed their response skyward, apparently unaware of Cain's approach.  At the last minute, the closer one began to turn...

Cain's missile impacted the surface just short of the trio, and with them already in motion and lacking a strong gravity to hold them in place, the shockwave shifted them all, scattering them.  The pod that had been turning toward him recovered quickly...just as one of the bursts from his gunpod danced across one of its weapon-pods.  A flash of light flared as something inside the pod detonated, and the pod was sent flying by the shockwave of its own blast.

The unarmed vessel leapt from the lunar surface, its engines flashing to full output as it made a run for it, leaving the other two behind.  The second pod began turning to try and return fire...and was knocked off balance by a veritable carpet-bombing rolling into its position from the fighters overhead.

Parker calmed himself and took in the battle scene.  Cain stirred the hornets nest, the others were blowing the hell out of the rest... and his ADD became an advantage here.  He easily caught movement in his vision and brought the young pilot's attention to the fast mover trying to escape.  A wicked grin crossed Parker's face.  "Oh you want to Tango?  Why yes I do thank you!"  Parker switched back to fighter mode and shot off to overtake the enemy ship that seemed unarmed.  His fighter shook with the enormous thrust that pinned him into his seat.  He was pushing the fighter to the limit to try to get that thing before it got away...

The vessel grew bigger in his view then the pilot let loose with a barrage of fire from the nose lasers and the gunpod.  The Airlessness of space was an anti-climatic silence however.  Parker liked to imagine the buzzsaw of the GU-11 anyway--he made the sounds with his mouth as he fired.  Even in a serious situation like this he was prone to screw around.  "PEW! PEW!  BRRRRRAAAAAPP!  Take that bitches!"  He muttered... then it occurred to him was not really sure if he had muted the mic on his comlink or not before that.  Oops. Probably not.

Oh well, Parker was in the zone, focused on the ship before him... intent on at least damaging it and slowing it down to take it out proper.  He smiled as he felt the rattle of the powerful gunpod weapon which could be felt through the superstructure of the plane.  Parker only hoped he could hit the thing, he had not tried to lock on to it, going for a cold line up attack trying to lead his target here.  Parker's logic was that first he needed to try a surprise attack from the 8 o'clock position he was coming at it from...

Parker's attack may have been haphazard, but Vance's was anything but...he rolled his fighter into a maneuver that left the nose of his ship sweeping to directly intercept the flight path of the enemy craft that seemed to be trying to escape--or at least get free to maneuver.

The targeting computer locked on, leading him...and at the optimal moment, gave him a warning tone.  He hit the trigger for his gun-pod, and as Parker's fire was coming at the enemy's flank, he walked a string of fire, stitching a lethal path down the length of the craft.

Before it left his line of fire, he fired off a pair of missiles after it, the lock information translating into sweeping curves in their flight paths that put them on a collision course with the craft.

Dammit...been right here under our noses...how long?  When did they get there? he asked himself.  Even more important was the question he wouldn't even let himself ask in his own mind...

Were they the only ones in the area?

Cain noted the barrage of incoming support fire from Echo Squadron, with a smile of satisfaction.

Then something occurred to him...

This was no longer a fight, but a route... he dialed his 'fight music' down and opened a direct line to the LC.

"<TC> Echo 5 to LC. Sir... this might be an opportune time to capture some intell.  If we disable that EW bird/pod that's trying to flee rather than blow it back to space dust.. our tech boys might be able to analyze the alien encrypting and decrypting algorithms.  I'm sure that Military Intelligence would cream their shorts over that!  Just a suggestion sir?"

Cain swung his Veritech around in Guardian Mode bearing down again upon the Battle pod with arms that he caught on a blindside spray of DU rounds in his initial strafe... bringing his targeting reticule on the damaged pod again...

"<TC> Echo 5 to LC.  Sir the pod I hit in my first run is damaged.. not sure how bad.. but.. I think I might be able to disable it and return with a POW.  Might be an opportune time to get a look at the 'face' of the enemy and let our Interrogation experts at HQ get some vital intel on the aliens themselves.  Your call boss... but I need to know before if make 'Marvin the Martian' a new permanent fixture on the moon..."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Sat 31 Jan 2015.

Several other members of Echo Squadron apparently had similar notions to their leader. The pilot of the fleeing craft tried to evade the incoming fire...but there were no available options, really.  Every move he made put him in the path of something else.  The craft flared into a ball of fire that was extinguished quickly as the energy expended itself into space.

In the Two-Ex, Bixby's eyes lit up as an indicator flashed...he double-checked the results, and confirmed--the craft had made some kind of tight-beam burst transmission in the instant before it exploded.  He'd need time to collate all the data from the various fighters, but he was pretty sure he knew the direction of the transmission.

Moments later, the damaged pod on the lunar surface blew up...and seconds after that, the other did, as well, despite the fact that nobody had actually hit it with any of their weapon-fire.  As quickly as the conflagration had begun, it was over, with nothing left but expanding clouds of pieces of alien craft and some displaced lunar soil.

Vance was preparing to respond when the alien ship that was making a run for it blew up.  Odd... he thought to himself.  He'd seen some of the alien battlepods take far more punishment without an explosion like that.  Maybe we hit something crucial?  He made a mental note to review all the gun cameras and any other footage from the encounter...if they had a weak spot in their design, he wanted to know about it.

"<TC>This is probably a surprise, because I'm sure it's been kept under wraps...but we've seen the face of the enemy before," he replied on the direct channel.  "Ask Lt. Moriya about it sometime...she barely survived the battle."  That had been the occasion they'd been sent out in the prototypes of the up-scaled Veritechs, with heavier armaments...untested prototypes, that had been tremendously effective, true, but they'd also suffered equipment failures at critical moments in the battle.

He still had a sour taste in his mouth, metaphorically speaking, from the whole thing.

Then the other two pods blew up, and he scowled.  That definitely wasn't some kind of critical damage caused by their weapons...something else had to have blown up the second pod.


"<TC>These guys don't take to being captured, apparently..." he said, this time on a squadron-wide broadcast.  "Anybody besides Edwards hit the first pod?  I didn't see clearly, but I don't think anyone shot the second one..."

Cain scowled as the tactical radar returns indicated the destruction of the alien battlepods{?}, "Damn cowards!"

"<TC> I don't get it, Sir?  They clearly must have seen us coming... why did they just not stop their jamming and wait for us to pass over? Why attack to draw our attention then try to flee only to suicide... unless...~"

"<TC> Hey Two-Ex, Bixby.. could you go over that last telemetry and see if there were any pulse transmissions sent to them?  Maybe self-destructing was NOT their idea...  but someone who did not want them fleeing back to base to reveal their position?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Sun 08 Feb 2015.

"<TC>I'd need time to analyze the signal traffic more carefully," Bixby answered.  "There's a lot of chatter going on in the area, and certainly signals coming and going from their location...but I'd have to compare the tail end of the transmissions to what was picked up initially to see if it was just comm traffic or if there was some kind of embedded command code in the signal."

He paused, and added, "Assuming I would be able to recognize such a code if I found it, of course."

They learned a little bit more about the aliens each time they encountered them...but it was times like this that reminded him just how much they really didn't know...they didn't even have enough comm traffic captured to allow linguists to try and analyze it for translation.

What they did have often sounded plenty hostile, however...

In reply to Chief Bixby (msg # 63):

"<TC> QX Chief.  I'm plotting their course based on the heading and direction of the EW Bird..'Pod' as it was fleeting.  Echo 5 to Echo Lead. Sir, Permission to begin a search pattern in the direction the enemy was fleeing based on their previous course and heading?  Maybe I'll get lucky and see if they were fleeing toward a HQ or rally point for more enemies that I can flush out?  Be a shame to head back... only for them to send out another three man crew in a different location and we're back to square one."

A quick look at the projected course shows...pretty much nothing, for several million miles.  However, the interference from the outbound mission has vanished...the signal seems to be coming in clear and strong, with a lot of questions about why the expected interference suddenly vanished.  Word filters through from the sensor operators to the comm officers, though...it appears to have been enemy-related.

Bixby had immediate concerns.  "<TC>Echo Lead, can you get a squad to run a tight grid search of the surrounding area?  If that's just some kind of scout party, I want to verify it...make sure they didn't send out a suicide squad to draw us off or trick us into thinking the area was clear..."

With everything else happening too fast for Hanako to make any meaningful contribution, she'd been berating herself for being too slow to act.  She had maintained formation and not interfered with the flight paths of her comrades, but she also hadn't done anything more than maintain visuals on the strange crafts that exploded before they could kill and/or capture them.  Not wanting to be useless again, she hit the private comms to Vance and said, "<TC>Sir, I can lead the scouting party."  She hadn't expended any ammunition, and her craft was still in pristine shape (as much as any of their crafts were at this point), so she hoped that she could live up to her role as XO properly this time.

Vance scowled at the information coming at him.  It didn't make sense...but, then again, the whole strategy, such as it was, that the aliens used didn't make much sense to him.  Probably because they're ALIENS, smart guy...

He sighed, and nodded to himself.  "<TC>Echo Two and Echo Five, run a scouting sweep out, the direction they were running...do NOT go beyond the Ranger's sensor range, if someone's lurking out there I don't want you to get blindsided where nobody can give us a heads up.  Get out there, see if you see anything...and if not, come back.  They may have been trying to rendezvous with someone...or they may have been making a run for somewhere further out in our system.  We haven't been paying much attention to anything beyond Mars' orbit, lately..."

They should probably do something about that...although it was arguable about whether or not they already were, considering the destination of the mission under LCDR Ritter's command.

"The rest of Echo Squadron, form up on me and we'll start the Chief's sweep of the surface.  While we're doing that, Chief, see if you can get someone down here to salvage anything from the alien craft wreckage...there's not much left, but considering how little we know, every little bit counts for something."

Cain smirked, 'Alone at last...'

Cain's Veritech shifted forms as he pulled the "F" lever on his controls returning to Fighter mode and subsequently returned to the sweeping formation barrel-rolling smoothly into formation with 2nd Lt Hanoko's wing~ slightly forward of the wing's most rearward Veritech.

"<TC> Acknowledged, Echo Lead. On it. XO, Ma'am... you want lead or tail-chaser on me?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:32, Thu 19 Feb 2015.

Reprioritizing her power systems to be primarily on the sensors and communications instead of weapons and thrusters, just in case something happens and she ends up with limited power to play with, Hanako replied to Vance with a simple acknowledgement of, "<TC>Sir!" before pulling away from the flight group and heading out on the scouting mission, keeping Vance's orders well in mind.  The last thing she wanted is to raise the casualty count for their side, especially if that casualty happens to be herself.

Because that's bad.

"<TC> Form on my wing, Echo Five," she said, indicating she was going to take the lead, "and stay close.  Let me know the second you find anything suspicious."

Just because space looked and felt empty didn't mean it was - they'd learned that the hard way in previous encounters.

"Echo Four forming up sir."  Parker said as he did an unnecessary barrel roll to get himself back into formation.  Grinning widely he looked down to the surface.  "Echo Lead, do you want me to go dirt side for a little dumpster diving salvage down there while we're here?"  It was of course a double secret bucket list item of his to get to walk on the surface of the moon--even it it was just his mecha doing it for him.  Thanks to the thinking caps, it cold feel like that it was him... and if he happened to carve his name in the surface of the moon by walking a certain path... well that was just a coincidence...  totally.

Under different circumstances, Vance would have chuckled...but he'd just lost a pilot and a plane.  His sense of humor was standing somewhere in the distance, respectfully quiet.  "<TC>Let's finish the Chief's surface sweep and make sure that there aren't any other nasty surprises waiting for us.  Once we know it's safe to land on our own Moon again, then we'll see about salvaging bits and pieces."

He tried, but even he could hear the brusque edge in his tone.  Pilots could be replaced...but the technology to make the engines for the Veritechs had been on the SDF-1.  Planes were harder to come by...

And he REALLY didn't like losing anyone under his command.

In reply to 2nd Lt. Hanako Moriya (msg # 69):

Cain's Veritech banked away from the wing group of Veritechs Lt. Hanoko had been leading and eased in on her close starbard wingman position matching her speed.

"<TC> Right with you ma'am, on your starbard wing.  I'll keep my scopes hot and my eyes peeled..."

Cain however was not so much interested in finding the enemy as being ready when they found them... he prioritized his power allocation to weapons and thruster, leaving Sensors as a tertiary and communications as a miscellaneous allocation. Figuring the LT would be focused scaning in their forward search area... Cain set his sensor array to aft and flank scans looking for ambushers if they presented themselves.

Classic space combat doctrine said its very hard to hide in a volume of space when your emitting drive energy or transmitting.. you show up like a beacon!  But Cain was not so certain the aliens followed that same 'accepted doctrine' he wanted to be prepared for the highly-unlikely as well; considering UN Spacy was still scratching their heads over the alien tech.

Cain made sure his Veritech's head laser was still set to AGIS fire mode to auto track and target any sensor locked incoming ordinance launched at them~ hopefully.

It was a bitter taste in his mouth that the enemy denied them the retaliatory act of killing them in return for the killing of Lt. Begay by suiciding.

No, Cain still had  11 more missile in his stores and he was damned if he was going to return with any of them if there was enemy to make pay for that unprovoked killing.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:03, Fri 20 Feb 2015.

As the Veritechs fan out over the lunar surface, Bixby starts sending active pulses down, trying to get a ping off any concealed electronics or hardware.  The closest thing that Echo Squadron can locate, however, is some old wreckage from the dawn of Earth's so-called Space Race...the metal framework gives a return, but it is lifeless and cold.  There's more residual energy coming off the remains of the alien vessels than off the newly located bits and pieces of human history.

The search out away from the Moon doesn't prove any more rewarding.  The vast nothingness of space seems to be empty of anything they didn't already know was there.

If the enemy was trying to run for a rendezvous ship of some sort, they obviously weren't planning to meet up anywhere near the Moon.  Projecting the course outward doesn't encounter anything this side of the Asteroid Belt...the orbits of the asteroids are random enough that, with the exception of larger bodies like Ceres, specific orbits hadn't been plotted, so the Belt was just a region on the charts, with a few known orbits marked but notations that plenty of unmarked objects could be in the same area.

Boring...  Parker thought to himself as he flew in formation for the search.  He may have waggled his veritech a bit in frustration--he really wanted to get down tot ehsurface.  Being this close and not being able to go there was a major tease... much like a certain lieutenant Parker was trying to date and had only made out with him... that he could remember.  The drunken night they had was still a black out blur.

Parker may have also done a few "surface checks" to scan with mark one eyeball...  just in case by inverting mid flight, but he was a good little pilot and stayed in his position relative to his squad leader.  With all the screwing around Parker did, he was actually doing his job.  He kept his veritech at the ready with the systems set to high scan power and to keep the engines and maneuvering thrusters set high to respond at a moments notice should some baddie show up to try to ruin their day.  Dodge first then hit back--a sayign his academy hand to hand instructor had said to him before.  For some reason that stuck with him, though hand to hand was going to be mecha to hand should they ever encounter the enemy--they were supposedly giants after all!  The awesome thing about a veritech was that it was capable of rapidly reallocating discretionary system power at a moment's notice should one need to pour on extra speed, activate the weapons, or try to focus the scanners to a better resolution, it was all possible with a thought.

Parker saw they were at the end of the scanner sweep and couldn't help but let out a little cheer of his own.  He couldn't hit the transmit button on his mic fast enough.  "ECHO lead... Echo 4 standing by for operation uh... Lunar Pickers..."

The frustration in his voice was audible as Bixby called out, "<TC>All clear.  Looks like whatever they were doing down there, they were the only ones doing it."

He closed off the simultaneous sensor feeds from the planes in Echo Squadron and started the onboard computer chewing on the fragmentary bits and pieces, looking for any indicators of what the outbound signal was.  If they'd managed to pick up enough of it, some of the linguistics computers might be able to boil it down to information they could actually understand...

The thought of actually hearing what the aliens were broadcasting to each other gave him a little bit of a shiver of anticipation...but, for now, it was all hypothetical.

"<TC>Vance, if your squadron can recover any alien wreckage...maybe there's enough intact computer systems for us to run some analysis on...it's not much, but when you don't know anything at all about your enemy, every little bit you can learn is a major revelation."  He settled back and watched the screen...something in the display made him feel like they might actually have something, there...

"<TC>Roger that, Chief.  We'll round up what we can and meet you back at the Ranger.  Keep an eye on our back door, if you wouldn't mind...I'd hate to have someone bounce down here to find out what all the ruckus was and find us with our arms full of what's left of their buddies..."

Actually, that might be kinda satisfying...but only if we know they're coming...

He banked his plane into a descent course.  "<TC>Echo Squadron, let's see what's left to take back for the Chief to play with.  Echo Six..."  He paused, caught himself for a moment as he realized he'd just called out their lost plane.  "Scratch that...Echo Seven, Echo Eight, set up an air cap over our position, just to make sure we're coming out clean.  The rest of us can fan out and get whatever we can find.  You have a size limit on what you want us to bring, Chief?  How small is too small to bother with?"

Unspoken, but implied in the question was another question...how much time do you want us to spend scouring the moondust for bits and pieces of alien mecha?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:43, Thu 18 June 2015.

Parker was on the moon surface in less than a minute after the order was officially given. He spent a few seconds locating a suitable pile of debris then quickly moved to it.  "Echo 4 to Echo Lead, darned if I didn't forget a shopping cart today.  Silly me.  Anyway, do we got a place to stack my sweet loot?"  He asked as he crouched in battloid mode and began picking up different debris and loading it in the arms of his mecha.  The young pilot grabbed a chunk of flight console here, a leg thruster there, and part of the top mounted cannon that survived the blast among other things.

Cain watched the scopes and the Mark I eyeball out his canopy... finding nothing.  He heard Echo Lead give new objectives reassigning veritechs to recovery and high guard cover, but held position on the XO's flank; having been given no orders to break formation or 'directly' assigned to the lunar search & recovery operations.

Triggering his comm, "<TC> Echo 5 to Echo 2, Echo lead has retasked the squadron to search and recovery ma'am.  Are we holding position or joining the Op? Orders ma'am?"

At the same moment Cain started to ask his question, Hanako had shifted to Battloid mode and then Fighter mode again in order to do a hard turn and start heading back to the group in order to take part in the salvage operation.  "<TC>We're heading back, Echo Five.  Break formation upon return to the operation zone and start collecting anything that looks important," she said, her tone serious and professional.  If nobody else did it, she would start salvaging what was left of Echo Six's Veritech.  After all, they had limited parts, and every salvageable piece was necessary for continuing operations.

At least, that's what she told herself.

Vance shook his head at the question, but avoided a smart-aleck response.  "<TC>Ranger, can we get a pair of Spiderbugs dispatched to help with a salvage operation?  We've got some alien hardware...and what's left of one of our own."

The shot had gone right through Begay's cockpit...there would be no remains to take back.  But the cockpit had components that they could construct on Earth.  The crucial reflex reactor that powered the plane was hopefully still intact...without the facilities on the SDF-1, their capacity for constructing new Veritechs was extremely limited.  Rebuilding damaged ones...as long as certain key components were salvageable...was another story, altogether.

"Will that do for you, Harvey?" he asked in a tone that was somewhere between tired and amused.  "I mean, yeah, you'll have to juggle for a little bit...but we didn't exactly come out here expecting to salvage alien hardware, y'know?"

In reply to 2nd Lt. Hanako Moriya (msg # 79):

"<TC> QX, ma'am... breaking."

Cain pulled the "G" lever, shifting to Guardian-mode briefly to change direction, the 'leg' engines swung forward stopping his forward vector.  Then a quick pull of the "F" lever to change back to jet-mode and he was suddenly facing the opposite direction, though relative to the XO 'inverted'.  Full throttle sent him hurtling back toward the lunar surface.  Wings spread wide.. Cain spun the Veritech along its forward axis to right himself with the lunar surface so it was 'down' again.

As usual he came in hot for the deck, pulling the "G" lever again, the Veritech shifted to Guardian-mode as he leveled out near the surface.  Skimming the lunar surface at about 5'ft Cain went back to the spot the three alien craft revealed themselves... finding the plasma scorch... somewhat short of their position where his short-ranged plasma-missile munition had detonated her slowed the Veritech to a stop.

Cain was curious if there was some particular reason the Aliens had chosen THIS particular spot on the lunar surface to set up operations.  couldn't hurt to look at the very least, AND on a more personal level, he had always wanted to do this.. and figured this was his best chance.

Sealing his suit and helmet, he depressurized his cockpit and popped the canopy unstrapping to climb out of his veritech bowed low in Guardian-mode for easy exit to stand on the lunar surface.

"Finally, I actually did it mom.. I'm on another planet!"

Cain looked around at, likely the most mundane of desolate locales he'd ever visited.  He took some experimental steps and jumps to get a feel for the low gravity.  Picked up a couple of rocks for souvenirs for his little sister Sarah with a smile on his face as he thought of his very smart, and even more rebellious teenaged sister.  She was so eager to grow up and become a pilot like her 'big-brother'... he would have to make sure she got that chance... by protecting earth from the alien invaders!

The thought bringing him back to his task... Cain began to search around to see if the aliens had left any clues or trace of their operations here, likely not.. but might as well take at least a breif detailed look-see...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Fri 19 June 2015.

In reply to Lt.Cdr. Vance Hardy (msg # 80):

"That'll do Top!  er, I mean yes sir."  Parker said happily.  His battloid looking like it was going to sink into the moon's surface it was carrying a giant heavy load.  The mecha even seemed to be as glad to set the items down as Parker was.  His view of the moon's surface was rather eerily peaceful after such a violent start to this day.

Then he spotted Cain taking a moonwalk.  Then a glint of something on the edge of his HUD was reflecting the sunlight.  It was small and Twenty-six meters away according to the rangefinder when Parker checked.

"Uh, Echo Four going in for a closer look.  Something shiny caught my eye."  A wicked grin spread on Parker's face as he switched to guardian mode and lowered the nose to the ground.  Sealing his own suit, he leapt from the cockpit.  The lighter gravity made such a reckless move possible without injury.  However the pilot did not count on bouncing.  He landed on his feet, then bounded up and came down on his back.  Parker made the most of the situation as he began to wave his arms and legs back and forth along the ground.  "Well that was graceful.  Look Moon angel!"

Parker however got to his feet when he was done screwing around and started looking around for that shiny thing...

It was only a matter of minutes before the salvage craft from the Ranger arrived in response to Hardy's summons.  The comm channels lit up briefly with laughter about the antics of the two Veritech pilots scurrying around on the surface, but they were silenced abruptly when Chief Bixby reminded them that this area had been occupied by enemy troops, and there was no way of being certain what might have been left behind...talking about pilots being out of their craft could invite any enemies they might not have discovered to come in shooting at unpiloted craft and unprotected pilots.

"Anyone shoots them, and we're going to have a long and earnest discussion about operational security.  And by 'discussion', I mean I'm going to be doing a lot of talking and you're going to be doing a lot of wishing my boot wasn't so far up your ass," he finished.  There were appropriately chastised acknowledgments, and the Spiderbugs got to work collecting the remains of the assorted mecha.

Once the salvage craft had arrived to deal with the remains of the Veritech, Hanako reluctantly pulled away from what she was doing and headed over to Vance's wing in order to help keep an eye on things.  With two pilots out of their spacecraft, someone needed to keep an eye on things topside just in case an enemy felt like being sneaky and trying to go for the exposed pilots.  And if there was anyone down there who was going to try fighting the pilots in hand to hand (and was small enough to do it in a fair fight), Hanako knew that, despite her training and skills, she wasn't the best choice for that sort of fighting.  Without enough gravity to assist her, she couldn't use her small build to move quickly and throw her opponents, nor use their weight against them as well as she could under normal conditions, so she decided to leave that up to the ones with stronger punches.

Vance watched the pair...Cain, very deliberate and determined, Parker much less so...and couldn't help but let a little bit of a grin sneak onto his face.  The contrasts between the two highlighted the variety of approaches that it would take to win this kind of fight.

If it can be won...he told himself.  He tried to avoid what others would call 'defeatist thinking'...but out of the entire squadron...out of nearly everyone on the Ranger, for that matter...he was one of the few who'd been in space when the entire alien fleet had been near Earth.  They'd been dealing with stragglers, a few at a time, and it was taking a heavy toll on them.  If the aliens ever came back, in force...

Well, then, I guess we go down swinging, he told himself.  Once again, he thought of his family, down on the surface, maintaining a ranch that he'd been expected to take over, before he signed on for military service.  And, not for the last time, he wondered if he'd ever see them again.

To break his somber mood, he flipped his comm over to a private channel, signalling to Hanako.  "<TC>How long should we let them run around down there before we drag 'em back home?" he asked, amusement creeping into his tone.

Not expecting the question, Hanako remains silent for several seconds before she finally replies along the same private channel, "<TC>Uh... well, sir, we let them continue until the Chief says to come back, I suppose."  She wonders if she should have made the comment about coming back for snacks, but she never could bring herself to crack jokes while on a mission.  "<TC>Or we see something strange, like moon rabbits.  Maybe we will finally find them making mochi on one of these moons."

Cain walked around the area the alien mecha had sprung their surprise attack from... but didn't find anything to indicate this spot of dirt on the desolate moon was any different or special than any other.  He had hoped to find..something.. anything!

Sighing he kicking a mound of lunar dirt in frustration.

Triggering his helmet comm which was too short range to pick up any real transmissions from the Veritech Squadron to the repeater in his veritech, "<TC> Echo 5 reporting. No joy Chief Bixby.  There is nothing the aliens left behind at their ambush point... guess they just choose this spot at random, returning to my Veritech.  Feeling more than a little exposed out here.  Returning to the wreckage recovery team."

Cain moved as quickly as was safe back to his Veritech's cockpit only a short climb up the extended foot ladder at the side~ likely unnecessary as a short hop in the reduced gravity would have been sufficient to grab the lip and get inside... but Cain was, if anything, methodical.

Cain wasted no time... sealing his cockpit to repressurize the armored pilots' compartment... before worrying over buckling his seat harness.  Bringing his systems back on-line the comm chatter hit him as he replayed the last few minutes... while the Veritech's engine spun up.  He grimaced, cheeks flushing in a bit of embarrassment and frustration at the Chief's chastisement... especially cause he knew the Chief was right.  Cain had taken a risk... hoping he might either find something useful.. or at least inspired anymore lurking alines to reveal themselves.  A gamble.. with his life as the pot.  He had not expected anyone else to follow his lead...  in something so reckless.  He sighed.

The words of Colonol Emerson from flight school coming back to him...
'Cain, you are one of the most talented pilots I've ever seen, a Natural, but your reckless!  When the other trainees see you do the crazy amazing things you can pull off.. some are dumb enough to try it too.. and most of them DON'T have what you've got...natural raw talent!  You got to set the example, THAT'S why I come down on you so hard!  STOP competing with your hated father, you don't have anything to prove... Captain 'Asshole' Edwards is not here... don't you become him instead!'

"Gotta go sometime I guess... as long as I take some of the alien bastards with me... seems a fair trade!  And the view was spectacular...", he patted the suit pockets of his flightsuit that contained the few bits of lunar ore for his sister and smiled, but knew he was just justifying the Colonol's words.

As soon as his engines were warmed up.. The Veritech moved off in Guardian-mode vectoring toward the salvage craft...

"<TC> Echo 5, back in flight. Echo 4 get your 'can' back in  your Veritech! Chief's right... this ain't no sight-seeing trip!  There are a myriad of things that can go wrong out here.  I'm vectoring toward the Slavage craft but I'll wait for you providing cover."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:07, Tue 23 June 2015.

The salvage proceeded apace, and in short order, the whole flight was back aboard the Ranger.  The mood, when they landed, was subdued...it seemed that the loss of Lt. Begay highlighted to everyone the fact that they could, in fact, die at any time, and that the lengthening respite from alien incursions was no permanent, unlike many had hoped to be the case.

When he landed, Bixby yanked all the ejectable drives from his machine and headed for the tech lab, trying to boil all the accumulated data in some kind of useful information.  The mechanics quickly sorted out the remains of Echo Six and began working on repairs for the sundered cockpit...no one would be flying it for a while, but the plane could be put back in service and the slowly dwindling supply of Veritechs made salvaging each one an imperative.

Word circulated quickly through the ground crews, as the pilots were de-planing...Captain Wilson wanted to see the squadron in the ready room as soon as they were all out.

The moment she was landed and allowed to disembark from her craft, Hanako did so, waiting until her feet were off the ladder before she pulled off her helmet and shook her hair out.  While the ship was also using recycled air, it was still less stale than that of her suit, which meant it generally tasted better to her.  It wasn't quite like the air on Earth, but it was the next best thing.

She waited until the rest of the squadron had landed before she started making her way to the debriefing room, her helmet still held in her arms.  She couldn't quite fit it under one arm, so she generally ended up carrying it in front of her like she was holding a big bowl.  If the general mood wasn't so somber, and her own face wasn't so forcefully serious, it might have actually been a bit endearing.

Cain landed his Veritech on the flight deck... his somber mood not the only one in the returning pilots, but his was tinged with a bitter anger at the lack of satisfaction... returning with ordinance unspent always brought him in a combat op.

Cain had barely knew Lt. Bejay, but he has been one of "ours".. and Cain did not let Anyone take from him what was his... at least the enemy paid triple in their loss, but it was a empty victory considering their numbers and their cowardly suicide.  Cain was certain human lives were ten times more important that the unprovoked blind-agression of the alien lives!

Before leaving the flight deck he went to his pilot's footlocker and pulled his makeshift paper stencil of the enemy battlepods silhouette and his red spray-paint can and placed one kill marker on the side of his Veritech under his cockpit's canopy lip.

The techs might remove the kill marker.. but the gesture made him feel better to let them know.. HE at least was keeping score and would make sure the enemy paid dearly!

Leaving the Deck he slipped his helmet's chin-guard over his elbow and wore the helmet on the crook of his elbow as he strode for the Briefing room.  Straitening his arm held the helmet on his elbow unable to slide down from the chin-piece tension.

Seeing 2nd Lt. Hanako, Cain slowed his stride to match hers only slightly behind her letting her take the lead.. but said nothing, letting his obvious presence speak of his support.  He was tall compared to the petite XO his mop of cornstalk-colored hair an unruly mess {as usual} but he certainly cut a grim serious 'shadow' beside the almost comically opposite endearing Asian woman clutching her helmet.  His expression was one of grim determination and frustration, but clearly not directed at the XO as he respectfully paced her to the Briefing room in a fierce silence.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:24, Wed 01 July 2015.

Vance climbed out of his plane, somber enough that he barely noted that his crew chief didn't give him the traditional ribbing about bringing the plane back in one piece...Sarge was as somber as everyone else, it seemed, though whether that was out of respect for the loss within the squadron or due to some other aspect of the day's events, only Sarge knew.

He nodded wordlessly when he got the news that the Captain wanted to meet with them, and set off.  Unlike many others, he carried his helmet at his side, gripping it by the bottom edge, in a casual hold...the rhythm of it brushing against his thigh as he walked was somehow easing to his mind, giving him something to focus on in place of the chaotic mass of thoughts that chased each other around in his brain.

He snapped to attention when he arrived, saluting Captain Wilson.  "Echo Squadron reporting in as ordered, Sir," he said.  "The rest of the squadron will be here in short order, Captain...just getting their planes squared away."

Parker stopped screwing around and searched just for a minute before finding the shiny thing he has seen from his veritech cockpit.  Unfortunately he had lost track of it's location when he took his tumble.  After the top officers began to berate him--and Cain he noticed too--he finally begrudgingly abandoned his search and finished the rest of the mission in his cockpit.

LATER

Parker landed his fighter and exited the ship.  He was still covered in moon dust as he made his way to the briefing.  The young man didn't care about his appearance right now.  He took off his helmet and hooked the thing to his belt like it was a large tumor growing off his left side as he joined the others.  The short red haired young man was bummed about not only the loss of the shiny thing he spotted, but also the dead pilot.  This didn't last too long as he stood with his teammates.  He just looked bored after that.

Parker was not one who allowed himself to dwell on the negative if he could help it.  He preferred coming up with distractions for himself.  Which is probably why he was usually in a chipper mood even if the crap hit the fan.  Many probably thought he was just being his normal ADHD self.  Parker of course knew the seriousness of the situation.  It was his way of dealing with the reality of being a combat pilot in this war though.  When he was alone--or at least he thought he was alone, that is when he allowed his real feelings to come out.  Parker was not fond of showing sadness in front of others.  It was probably a macho thing in reality.

Captain Wilson nodded to Hardy as he reported in, and watched and kept count as the rest of the squadron came in.  As the last pilot entered the room, he nodded to himself.  "Sit down, everyone."

As they found seats, he put his hands behind his back, his face pensive.  Once they were down, he turned to them all again.  "I don't know if word made it out to you," he began, and his face was an odd mixture of somber and...anticipation?

"Upon your engagement with the enemy units on the lunar surface, the scrambling effect that's been troubling our communications with the outbound mission cleared up.  Chief Bixby is no doubt trying to puzzle through that correlation, right now...but I thought you should hear what came through in the clear."

He pressed 'play' on a remote on the desk in front of him, and an audio feed playback began.  Initially, the words were fuzzed beyond comprehension...but they cleared up in short order.

"...readings from Saturn orbit.  We are not close enough to identify what these readings are, specifically...and, additionally, it appears as though there may be some enemy vessels between our current position and the planet, and their equipment is interfering with our sensors," it played, in Lt. Cdr. Ritter's voice.

"Whatever it was, there was at least one massive energy burst of some sort that was visible to the naked eye, briefly...whether it was some kind of energy flare from the planet, or..."  The shrug that accompanied the pause could almost be heard.  "It may have been one of the enemy ships, or...well...we have no way of knowing, really, what it was.  We're keeping our equipment focused on that area to see if some kind of energy signature becomes recognizable, but...they're out here.  The aliens.  They don't seem to have noticed us, but we keep picking up traces of fold operations, further out in the Solar System, and the ion trails we've been able to isolate have all been matches for the alien drive systems that we've encountered.  Whatever they're doing out there, it seems to be demanding their full attention."

There was a sigh, and then Ritter resumed, "Given their level of activity, I want to keep these reports as brief as possible, to avoid drawing their attention.  We still haven't isolated the comm bug on our end, so I hope you've been able to do something about it.  I don't even know, for certain, if you'll be able to understand any of this.  But I can't escape the impression that it's significant.  Hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll have details to report."

It went silent for a moment, and Captain Wilson looked over the group.  "With the exception of Chief Bixby, you're my best and brightest minds out here.  What do you make of this?"

Cain spoke up, "Well sir, I know what op reports said about the initial contact.  That the SDF-1 main gun fired at two objects approaching in low earth orbit totally destroying them, before Macross Isle was attacked by the alien battlepods in a swarm. I've heard rumors that some malfunction happened with the SDF-1's gravity lifters when it attempted to take off.  Then shortly latter it performed what can only be a spacefold taking most of Macross Isle with it... along with the UN Spacey's taskforce wet navy ships 'Daedalus', and 'Prometheus'.  And... THE Henry Gloval, of the Global Civil war fame was in command of the SDF-1."

He shrugs, "...I think if anyone could see the SDF-1 through a crazy thing like a spacefold still in the gravity well of the planet... Captain Gloval could do it.  And if he survived... he's likely still fighting the aliens!"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:11, Tue 04 Aug 2015.

Vance listened to Cain's interpretation, his lips pursed in a thoughtful frown.  "Impossible to give you any sort of definite answer with the information at hand.  Saturn isn't known for flare activity, so that's unlikely, but not impossible...especially if the right chunk of debris hit the atmosphere.  It could have been a ship firing a large weapon...or a ship blowing up.  Without more information on the energy signature, it's impossible to know which one it might be...and whether it was the SDF-1 or one of the alien ships.  If it was an alien ship, we still don't necessarily know if it was destroyed...or by whom.  Much as it would relieve my worries to have the SDF-1 confirmed active, we just don't have the information necessary to make that assumption, Sir."

He gave a curt nod of his head and added, "With that in mind, Sir, we should see what kind of information we can confirm.  If it was an alien ship that was destroyed, causing the flare, then we need to know what destroyed it.  If it was one of their own ships firing on it, it could be some kind of mutiny or civil war breaking out, and if they get started fighting each other, maybe they'll leave us alone.  If it wasn't one of their ships that destroyed it, that means there's someone else with that kind of firepower out there...and we have no way of knowing if they're friend or foe.  Guarded optimism, Sir, is what I think we need."

Hanako nods in agreement with Vance as she says, "Indeed.  Better to be prepared for a hard fight and find none than to go out expecting a miracle and be let down."  Potentially no-one in the room desired the SDF-1 to be what is out there more than Hanako, as that meant the possibility that her family was still alive and on the ship, but she had forced herself to mourn them through her work, and allowing herself to get her hopes up only to have them dashed was something she wouldn't be able to handle.

"Energy flare?  Uh, Yeah... It's totally a ship firing their main gun."  Parker said with confidence in his voice.  Actually it probably came across like he was cocky and dismissive of any other evidence that might contradict this, not that he noticed.  "I saw the released footage of that day on macross like everyone else.  If you could see that flare from here with just mark one eyeball, it totally had to be that.  Uh hell I hope it is the SDF-1 blasting some aliens a new aft exhaust."  Parker grinned widely and let out a little cough as some of the moon dust covering him seemed to kick up from the air circulators.

Captain Wilson nodded, his face a mask of concentration for a moment.  "It would be good news, indeed, if that turned out to be the SDF-1.  I'm not sure how much faith I dare put in that, however, seeing as Captain Gloval was essentially chased away from Earth by the sheer volume of alien firepower coming at his ship.  If he wasn't safe to stay here, I can't imagine he's much safer out there."

He sighed, and rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a moment, a pained expression on his face.  "We'll just have to wait and see what further information Commander Ritter can send back to us, as he gets closer."  He looked at Vance.

"I'm going to hope your hypothetical mutiny is the cause of what we saw, Lieutenant Commander.  If it was the main guns of the SDF-1 firing, I can only imagine it will increase the aliens' desire to destroy it...and, frankly, having been in space to see the size of their fleet, I don't see how one ship, no matter how heavy its main guns may be, could withstand the onslaught if they attacked in force.  And if it's not us, and it's not them...that means there's someone else out there, with just as much or more firepower than the aliens...and we have no idea who they may be or what they may want."

He sighed and shook his head again.  "I'm giving Chief Bixby a couple of days to process everything he collected from your squadron's combined sensors and the Two-Ex...in the meantime, take a break.  Lieutenant Khan can cover the routine patrols with her squadron for a day or two.  You've all earned a break."  The sad tone in his voice made it clear, he was referring to the loss of Begay.

"See you here, in forty-eight hours.  Dismissed."

Cain shrugged at the dismissal, stood and gave a crisp salute to Captain Wilson, and gathering his flight helmet moved to leave the briefing room.  His expression was one of agitated weariness... like an athlete whose game had been delayed a third or fourth time due to weather.  Cain was ready to start dealing back some pain to the enemy... all this 'hurry up and wait...', was getting on his nerves.

He left the mission planning section of the ship heading for his bunk to briefly gather his sketch pad and pencils... to make his way down to medical.  He still carried his helmet on his elbow and was clad in his flightsuit, perhaps an unconscious means of remaining ready at any moment to hop back into readiness.

He'd briefly read the waiting text message when he'd gotten to his bunk on his PDA from medical about his step-sister Nina, 'Patient remains in a stable, but persistently unresponsive coma'.

He still had mixed feelings about her... she was another child of his father who he'd never even met before... but she was also a pilot, like Cain himself.  Guess something of their father was in her as well... part of him wanted to know how she dealt with the depredations of their father, did Edwards even know she existed, did she know a side of him Cain did not know?  Did she also have good reason to hate Edwards as much as Cain did?  All questions .. he could get no answer too because she was seriously injured...in fact her injury was chief cause to his transfer to the ARMD Space Carrier!

Cain found his way to her room the nurses and doctors some smiling some shaking heads in pity at his familiar presence for he visited 2nd Lieut. Nina Petrovic quite often, despite her unresponsive state.

He sat down in the chair in her room next to her bead and looked her over.  The young woman had intravenous cables feeding her nourishment and fluids while others monitored her vitals. Her expression was always serene, her sharp features calm in repose her soft darker blonde hair tied back from her face by the nurses who regularly moved her to keep her from developing bed sores.

Cain grimaced, and pulled a stray strand of hair from her face.  He did not know this woman and yet she was blood... at least of his father.  Yet he cared for her angry she remain comatose wanting to make a connection to one of his father's strays who had come so far.  She was family... broken family~ and all that entailed, but family nonetheless.

His shoulders slumped and he sat back... finally pulling out his sketch padd he got to work...

Cain sketched a lunar surface with the earth detained above... to one side a guardian mode veritech parked on the surface and clearly a VF pilot in flightsuit and helmet seen from behind, identity unseen, staring up at the grandeur.
But between the lunar surface and the earth was the softly penciled image of Nina lying in repose in her medical bed.. almost dreamlike her position one not entirely out of place as if thoughts of her were also on the lunar pilot's mind...

Cain set his sketch padd aside at the foot of Nina's bed, leaning over to take her hand and squeeze it he whispered, "..please wake up Nina..."

The nurses find him asleep head resting on the the side of her bed his hand, still holding Nina's...
This message was last edited by the player at 13:15, Tue 11 Aug 2015.

The schedule resumed, as expected...until just a couple of hours before the squadron was expected to report to meet with the Captain again. A ship-wide message came across the ship's PA, and for those who were off the ship at the time, on either their personal comms or in their planes.

An audibly shaken Captain Wilson spoke.  "Attention, all personnel.  We just picked up the following transmission, on one of the open comm channels commonly used by Resistance members."

The audio shifted.  Bursts of static cut in, at times obscuring what was being said, and the sound of klaxons rang in the background.  "Io Base has fallen.  It wasn't the UEDF...I don't know what these things are.  There are...I don't know how many.  We thought they might just pass us by if we stayed quiet, but...*static*...wrong.  *static*...beyond outgunned.  And they're coming your way."  There was another big burst of static, which cleared just in time for the sounds of explosions to carry along.  The voice resumed, with a rising note of desperation, "It's too late...*static*...up arms to protect our planet.  We can't afford to split our strength now.  But it may not make any difference."

Another, louder explosion sounded, and cries of injured personnel could be heard.  "We were wrong.  God forgive us...we were wrong."  A loud noise that could have been an explosion started, and the signal dissolved into static.

Wilson's voice came back on the comm system.  "We are analyzing the signal to verify its authenticity, and trying to corroborate any information with Commander Ritter's expeditionary team.  Thus far, we've had no contact with the Commander.  While this is not necessarily unexpected with the Harry Truman in such proximity to the Asteroid Belt and the amount of debris that could be obscuring signals, it's alarming in light of what they could be flying into if this message is on the level.  Long story short, we are resuming standard battle operations.  The Ranger will be setting course for Mars orbit at best possible speed within the hour, to improve our chances of regaining contact with the Truman."

There was a pause, and then Wilson added, with a grim tone, "I hope you've all enjoyed the reprieve.  It sounds like the war may be coming back to Earth.

In reply to Donovan Wilson (msg # 100):

Cain was on one of the many extra patrols he'd volunteered for... he just felt more 'at-home' in the cockpit of a Veritech... and in truth he was itching to be doing something useful.. namely.. spoiling for a fight, with the alien invaders.

The routine 'hurry up and wait', climate was getting on his nerves... he wanted to stay sharp and simulators could only take one so far... real in-cockpit flight time in Zero-G was the best training.  He spent much of his patrols shifting from Jet to Guardian to Battloid mode shifting position to cover a 3D imagined attack pattern from various vector to increase how quickly he could react to the sudden appearance of foes from three of four different directions at once... drilling and drilling until the practice became second thought.

When the Captain's all-personel message came through, Cain was just returning to Jet mode on the final leg of his 1 hour patrol, having successfully reacted to a 3-vector simulation attack in 10.6 seconds... still too slow by his standards...he wanted to shave at least a couple of seconds off his targeting time.

Listening to the Captain's words and the partially garbled recorded message... Cain scowled.

{So the Alien bastards were finally coming back to Earth... it had to happen eventually...!}

"About God Damned time... my kill markers are getting lonely!"

When the all-flights return call came over his comm cancelling all patrols and calling all planes back to the RANGER, Cain smiled and pushed the drives to 110% tearing back across space... eager to get back to the war...