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.