Vance was on his feet, immediately.  "Volunteering for duty, Sir!" he barked out.  Before anyone could add anything, he explained, "I'm one of the few pilots familiar with exactly where the hot spots on Phobos are, Captain, and if you're going to send our only EWO out there, I should be there to help make sure he comes back."

His last approach to Mars had been riding the shockwave of a blast that destroyed the stockpile of nuclear arms the rebels had hidden on Mars' moon.  The thought that flying into a scouting mission against an unknowably large force of alien ships would be easy by comparison actually made him snort softly at the idea.

Cain chimes in standing as well, "You'll need a wingman to watch your back... and I'm currently wingman 'free'; so I'm in if you'll have me..."

Lt. Khan arose a fraction of a second behind the other two.  "Count me in, Captain.  Nothing against my squadron, but I'm sick of playing Home Guard, my place is back out on the line."

Captain Wilson nodded.  "How about it, Chief?" he said, looking over at Bixby.  "Will three planes get you a broad enough sensor screen to do the job?"

Bixby nodded.  "We could, maybe, use a fourth, but three will work and I wouldn't want any more than four.  That many of us operating together in a limited area and I'm not sure we can screen the energy outputs enough to prevent attracting attention."

Wilson gave a nod, and turned to look at the trio of volunteers.  "We'll be hitting your departure point in six hours.  Crews have been working to repair the battle damage, but we'll focus efforts on your planes...they should be ready to go by then.  Get some food, and some rest...this one could be tricky."

Cain nodded and gave a crisp salute.

"Sir, Yes Sir! We won't let everyone down."

Cain turned and regarded 2nd Lt. Khan... curiously... he had been so busy with training and volunteering for as many flight sortie as the 'Doc' would allow him to take he'd not really gotten to ...ok not really 'taken' the time to get to know the other squadron's pilots.

With the attrition rate... it seemed the wisest thing to do... but seeing this mission would likely be a half-suicide mission... perhaps learning who he was flying with might not be a bad idea.. his life and the mission might depend upon it.

Her tone did not hold the eager tenor of a rookie... it would be nice to work with a confident but unbiased Vet for a change.

He walked over and met her eyes. He was tall 6-foot something at minimum, his mop of sandy blonde/brown hair not quite in his eyes... which were green and intensely stern ... perhaps unconsciously so, "2nd Lt. Khan, want to grab some grub in the mess... talk some strategy... my last wingman... wasn't big on them.  Be nice to coordinate a lot better... I don't want to loose another good pilot & solider. Earth can't afford it now..."

... somewhere in the back of his mind the thought registered, {hmmm... easy on the eyes... looks like she can fight too... hope so~ don't need anymore regrets or losses.}
This message was last edited by the player at 12:34, Wed 12 Oct 2016.

Alexa nodded curtly, her mind already mulling over what she knew of the Mars scenario and the aftermath of their earlier action there.  "No, we certainly can't afford any losses right now.  We should probably get Hardy and Bixby there, as well, since it sounds like you, me, and Hardy will be the eyes and Bixby will be the brain, processing what we see.  Anything we're going to coordinate should coordinate with them."

She gave him a level look, saying nothing further...but carefully weighing his reaction.  She hadn't gotten where she was by taking anyone at face value...

In reply to 2nd Lt. Alexa Khan (msg # 42):

Cain nods in reply, "Sounds like a good idea. You wrangle Bixby.. I'll gather Hardy for a pre-launch tactical discussion... say meet in the mess in 10 minutes?"

Clearly all business-like but his gaze lingers on the lovely red-head, an unconscious reaction... his mind far ahead thinking about the mission, but admiring the view before turning away to seek Hardy.  There is still a young hot-blooded man under all that stern dedication... even if he does not consciously realize it...

His parting thoughts, {...nice ass.}

Without any appreciable warmth, Alexa nodded...not even a smile flickered on her features.  She turned, without comment, and made her way over to where Bixby was seated, leaning forward to rest her hands on the desktop the Chief was using to scribble notes.

"So, Chief...Edwards would like to sit us all down and talk through tactics on this scouting flight.  Figured with you coordinating us, you should be involved.  You have a few minutes?"  For all that she outranked him, Khan's tone showed the kind of respect that grew out of addressing someone who was eminently competent at his duties--and whose competence had saved their hides on more than a few occasions.

Bixby nodded.  "Wouldn't hurt to make sure we're all on the same page on this one.  Especially considering what happens if the aliens realize we're there and watching them..."

He gestured for Alexa to lead the way.  "After you, Lieutenant.  I assume one of you officers is buying, right?"

Cain walks over to Vance, "Hey Boss-man...we're meeting down in the mess to go over some mission planning and tactics and get some grub... be nice if you would join us, last meal and all that..."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:59, Mon 21 Nov 2016.

Vance grimaced.  "You might want to find a different term for it...I certainly hope we'll be having meals after this mission.  But, yeah, I think it'd be good for us to all sit down together...make sure we're all straight on what needs to be done and how to best do it without getting ourselves killed."  He gave a humorless chuckle, and added, "I'm all in favor of plans that don't involve us dying."

He gave a nod and gestured.  "Lead on, Lieutenant."

Cain nods and leads the way to the mess his stride determined, stern expression on his face.  As usual he is VERY serious.. intence~ and rarely lets his 'hair-down'... perhaps only Parker ever saw the 'relaxed' side of Cain when he would indulge in his sketching art and was not either hogging the combat simulator striving for that impossible "perfect score" or pushing himself to fatigue in martial arts practice~ always seemingly striving to beat that 'impossible enemy' whose bar he set ever higher than he could reach.  Relaxing seems to be a thing of the past now for the taciturn Veritech Pilot.. Vengeance seems to be his only goal now!

Cain takes a seat across from Chief Bixby... which indecently is next to Alexa Khan.. but he does not even look at her his hard gaze at the Chief.

He is... direct, as his usual, with all things, "So Chief what are the odds of survival on this mission?  We still have no intel on what the enemy's sensor capabilities are... so we have no idea what it takes to avoid detection... at least as far as I have been informed!  Can you jam the enemy sensors with Electronic Warfare and do we have any intel on what the enemy data systems are like.. can we hack them?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:49, Fri 02 Dec 2016.

Bixby listened dispassionately.  He may have been 'only' a non-com, but he was actually one of the oldest pilots on the Ranger, and he'd seen plenty of hard-charging lieutenants come and go.

"Well...while we have no hard intel on exactly how effective Electronic Warfare is against the enemy systems, we've got a lot of observation to their reactions and lack thereof under different circumstances.  I can do things with the Two-Ex that not even Hardy's got clearance to have explained to him...I'm pretty sure I can keep you obscured from enemy sensors."

He gestured for one of the servers to bring over a pot of coffee, and continued, as he waited.  "One of the reasons I want to hang close to the moon is all the radiation from our last mission there is already creating a great big sensor beacon...as long as you don't go too far out from it, it'll be about the same as approaching an enemy plane out of the sun...so much light behind you that they can't pick you up until you get close.  And that's WITHOUT any help from me."  The server arrived, and he gestured to his coffee cup, looking askance at the other three to see if they wanted theirs filled, as well.

"Now, I don't KNOW, exactly, what a safe distance is...how far out you can go before the background radiation doesn't screen you anymore...but I can make a pretty educated guess, based on how much energy is ambient there right now versus how much energy the Two-Ex has to expend in EW operations.  Compare the two numbers, extrapolate a ratio based on the apparent limits of the Two-Ex effective range, and use that ratio to calculate a safe range, plus a little because of my bird."  He took a sip of his coffee, and added, with a humorless smile, "I have no intentions of dying on this little excursion.  And I'm for damned sure not going to leave any of you hung out to dry.  So, yeah, I'd say we've got decent odds of coming back alive."

Cain listened to the chief and nodded pulling up a touch screen pad he manipulated data on it while taking in the Chief's assessment of their electronic warfare capabilities...

Looking up he continued, "Good plan 'A' is we will not likely get spotted... fine.  Now for plan 'B' in case the crap hits the rotating air handler... We need to be ready to deal with a large number of battlepods if we are to make good our escape.. cause on that long range of a sensor surveillance run.. there is NOT going to be any reinforcements or cavalry to the rescue. If the 'Ranger' is spotted by their fleet its TOAST.. we all know the enemy ripped the proverbial and literal ASS out our of our unspacy fleets... without so much as a single casualty within their warships.  Bad odds for a single A.R.M.E.D. station/ship to face down."

He pulls up data on the touch screen and lays it on the table for all to see,"... to that end I've come up with some 'tactical' plans in our load out of weaponry to make survival more than a prayer and a hope! We need to have our ordinance specially set for the roles we need to have covered to make this mission a success."

Looking at Alexa, "I've done some review of your simulator runs Lt Khan, I may have more kills but you have more kills with less shots fired.. I think you're the better shot between us.  So You're gonna be our 'sniper'... I'd suggest loading your bird down with nothing but a full load of medium-range plasma missiles... to reach out and touch the enemy at our maximum engagement range."

Looking over to the LC Hardy, "Sir you've logged more flight time than any of us.. so your our 'scrapper'... your bird should have all short range HE missiles maximum payload."

"The one thing that can ruin our day is if they launch a full barrage of missiles to overwhelm us.  So I'm on anti-missile duty... my loadout should be nothing but short-range fragmentation missiles to fill space with flak to intercept incoming missile fire.. I'm covering the retreat."

"We will be hiding in the shadow of Demios and Phoebos 'fear and pain'... so visual contact will be sketchy at best.. the enemy will have to rely on sensors to track us.. we can use that.  I intend if we must fight to bring 'fear and pain' to the enemy. If the tech-boys can wrangle it up we should each carry a single 'wild-weasel' missile that mimics the signature of a veritech... to send the enemy off after a moving ghost their radar can actually ping off."

"From the battle recordings I've studied of the enemy.. they fight like a veterans no-doubt... but they seem over-eagar like a bunch of rookies spoiling for a kill rate.. like they have something to prove!  Especially, when they have the upper hand. The fewer the enemies they have seems to make them all scramble for the quickest kill like they are all competing with each other for glory or somesuch.. we can use that!  If suddenly the number of their enemy double and split going two different directions.. you can bet they will split their forces almost equally for the greatest chance at the 'kill'.  By using our 'wild-weasel' missiles we can cut their forces chasing us on half by average until we are too far away for them to change course."

Then he looks at Chief Bixby, "THAT is where You come in Chief!  Your bird will be carrying the 'crowd-pleasers'!  I'd like you to request from the Captain Wilson, two tactical nuclear missiles carried on your EW bird.  The first one is to use when/if we are spotted... we wait for them to come swarming vying for the first come first kill thing they seem to always do.  Then you drop a nuke in their faces to thin the herd!  We then rabbit using Khan's long range missile fire and LC's missiles to keep them at bay while we run for it.  When they regroup we all launch our 'wild-weasels' to cut their forces while we retreat back along the sensor shadow of the two moons and the radiation bands... the 'wild-weasels' make for the Demios surface like we're trying to hide in the surface cover.  All the while I'm on anti-missile fire duty keeping their long ranged missile ordinance off of us as we flee.  Once we can no longer use the sensor shadow and have to make a run for it... you smack them in the nose with the second nuke and we turn and burn!"

"We want to keep this a missile battle for the ranges.. if they get into gun range ..we've screwed the pouch and likely won't get back alive.. theire will just be too many of them.. keep our distance, keep them guessing, and smack them hard when they try to swarm in on us!"

He slides the datapad to the center of the table to let all see his tactical map and the phases of the surveillance operation leaving the 'Ranger' taking its scanning position and the escape route and ordinance use plans all worked out.

Cain runs a hand through his unruly mop of sandy-blonde hair and shrugs,"{sigh}..its not the Only way to do it.. but It's the best I can come up with!  If one of you has some better ideas~ sing out!"

Looking at Chief Bixby, "..and for the record Chief.. I might suggest you mention to the Captain Wilson, that it's high time we organized a Special Operations Wing of Veritechs a.. 'Shadow Squadron'... of our BEST pilots who train specifically in team/role tactics like this for special high-threat missions just like this. We need some Aces up our sleave here... that can be handed a suicide mission and be ready to do the 'Mission Impossibles' we need doing and know they can do it, succeed, and come back alive!!"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:54, Tue 20 Dec 2016.

Vance gave a quiet snort of laughter.  "We ARE the 'Shadow Squadron', Lieutenant.  We've only got three squadrons of Veritechs available, none of which are operating at full strength anymore.  If we pulled anymore experienced pilots, we'd run the risk of leaving the remaining squadron members with compromised leadership, if anything went wrong and we didn't make it back.  And if we're going to carry tactical nukes...if there are any left aboard the Ranger at this point...then it's probably going to fall to the three of us to carry them...as I recall, the Two-Ex has a pretty limited load-out...otherwise, the Chief wouldn't need us flying escort every time he goes out."  He flashed a teasing grin Bixby's direction.

Bixby gathered up the datapad, looking it over.  "A backup plan is always a good thing to have, and most of them aren't this detailed," he said, as he looked it over.  Without looking up, he answered, "Hardy's correct.  I only have a couple of missile mounts on my bird.  If you want any sort of wild-weasel missile, I'll be the one to carry them.  They aren't a standard package, but I think I can modify a couple of the HARM missiles to broadcast instead of receive."

He continued poring over the information, as he added, "And the enemy DID take casualties when they attacked Earth.  It took a destroyer captain doing a suicide dive into their ship...and it was one of the smaller ships...but they aren't invulnerable."  He looked up.

"They're just tough as all hell."  He set the pad down.

"I like most of what you've got here...but there are a couple of points that should be refined.  We won't need a sniper, for the kind of response you're preparing against...Lieutenant Khan is just as capable as the Commander, here, even if he doesn't like to admit it."  He looked back at Vance with the same kind of teasing smile.  "I've got the in-flight combat logs to back that up, if you'd like..."

Without waiting for Hardy's response, he continued, "Keep your anti-missile load-out, give both Hardy and Khan an assault load-out.  If we take two nukes, we're basically taking everything the Ranger's got without requiring them to dismantle some of the ship-to-ship missiles and reconfigure the warheads to fit a Veritech missile.  They've both flown through some pretty heavy nuclear winds...we can take one, save it as a last resort...detonate it just outside point-blank range.  The energy pulse from the blast would scramble anything the aliens have, as far as we know, to try and detect or track us, and the light from the blast would make visual tracking impossible for at least a minute or two.  That's a lot of time to make a Veritech pretty damned hard to find in open space."  He nodded, then looked grimly at all three of the combat pilots.

"Edwards is right, though...worse comes to worst, we can NOT lead them back to the Ranger."

Cain chuckles, "aheh, Ah.. yeah I didn't mean the pilots would be permanently assigned to the 'Shadow Squadron'... we don't have enough pilots for a permanent Special Operations Squadron.  Normally the pilots would stay with their regular duty and patrol squadron assignments.. but say once a month for two to three days they would train with the rest of the 'Shadow Squadron' in team tactics in advanced training for highly specialized operations... like this."

He looks the other pilots in the eyes.. actually somewhat surprised his ideas were so readily accepted.. he expected his plans to be shot down... as 'too aggressive'... as if there was such a thing...

Cocking a head he looked at Lt Khan, "What do you think, Alexi~.. er Lt Khan? Do you have anything to add or suggest?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:03, Wed 21 Dec 2016.

Alexa looked around the table.  Of the four pilots there, counting herself, two of them...Hardy and Bixby...had been aboard the Ranger longer.  Bixby had actually been in the air on the day of the aliens' attack.

"I think, as long as we make sure this 'Plan B' is DEFINITELY a plan B, we should be in good shape.  Based on what we've seen of the aliens' tactics thus far, I'd guess that something definite is drawing them to Mars...far too many of them veered off in that last encounter, they were going somewhere specific, with a definite task in mind.  And they do appear to be particularly single-minded in combat, which I'd warrant carries over to other military operations, as well.  I don't foresee any need to fight, as long as we don't do anything stupid."

Her eyes took on a decidedly grim look as she added, "But it would be stupid to go in there without being prepared for one.  They want to tangle with us, we'll give them a reason to respect Veritechs."

Back on the bridge, Captain Wilson looked over the information about the enemy forces that had proceeded on to Mars...and shook his head.  "I'm not sure three fighters is enough..." he muttered to himself.  Granted, they were supposed to avoid engaging the enemy...it was an armed recon flight.  But the enemy had displayed a disturbing habit of missing the memo when it came to such things.

"Who are the next three on Echo Squadron's depth chart?" he asked aloud, looking over at one of his information officers.  The man punched a few buttons, calling up a chart that ranked Echo Squadron by an algorithm built around flight hours, combat flight hours, kills scored, and sortees flown without injury or significant damage to the plane.

"Looks like Moriya, West, and Di Avantos, Sir," came the ready reply.

Wilson mused for a moment.  Lt. Moriya was, effectively, Echo Squadron leader now that Hardy was in charge of Fighter Operations.  If things went wrong, she was needed to oversee Echo Squadron...their most experienced squadron needed an experienced leader.  With Hardy and Khan going on the recon mission...and Abernathy still tied up in physical therapy...he couldn't afford to send her. And at least one of the other two needed to stay to serve as an XO, in the event that Moriya ended up in command.

He debated for a moment, with himself, then nodded, and hit the mic on the ship's PA system.  "Second Lieutenant Di Avantos, report to Lt. Commander Hardy in the Mess Area immediately."  Knowing Hardy would have heard the announcement, he called Hardy on his personal comm unit.

"Commander, I want you to have a fourth fighter down there...two two-plane elements.  If you end up tangling with the enemy, I want everyone to have a wingman, for your own survival.  This is not up for negotiation, Hardy..."

Cain listens to Lt Khan and nods in approval think, {Good... solid pilot and soldier.. we need more of her~... pilot's like her...}

...shoving thoughts aside of how the light is catching her enticing lovely red hair...

Then Cain comes up with an idea...  and pulling up his datapad begins furiously calculating rapidly...

He seems to have forgotten that there are others there when he stays at this for a while a smirk slowly dawning at the corners of his lips...

He stands.. "I need to go discuss something with the Technician Engineers on the Veritechs.. something that might be useful..."

Cain, always so focused and obsessively driven ~ he hardly waits for the decorum of a salute or dismissal or even a response as he turns ready to leave going back to his calculations...

{You can stop him to explain before he leaves if you are interested at all...}
This message was last edited by the player at 14:26, Mon 23 Jan 2017.

Vance watched Cain for a moment, as the younger pilot was working through something in his head.  He debated just letting Cain go, but...

"Uh...Cain?  Care to let us all in on what it is you've cooked up?  I mean, considering we're all gonna live or die together on this one..."  Part of him instantly regretted making any reference to death...Don't tempt Fate, Vance...but aside from a brief quirk of a grimace, his face remained normal.

Cain comes out of his calculations with a confused look briefly on his face... then realizes he was starting to walk away and actually blushes, "Er.. uhm.. Sorry Sir... uhm.."

He takes his seat again and tries to recover some dignity for his social slip of decorum... eyes briefly flashing at all at the table... lastly at Lt Khan...

"Sorry Sir... it just occurred to me that the Zentradai.. use no projectile weapons and only use particle beams on their battlepods... likely because there is no lag for projectile travel or need for carrying a limited ammo supply..."

Sliding his datapad across the table for everyone to see... his math...

"But what is a hindrance for our GU-11 gun pods is also a strength we don't currently utilize.. our bullets do not disperse over long ranges like energy beams~ baring gravity they retain their velocity forever until they hit an object... effectively they have unlimited range over time."

"A calculation of math will tell us given their speed and vector exactly where and when they will likely be passing through a volume of space... after being fired down range!  Well it occurred to me we could write an algorithm for our targeting computers to fire a burst of rounds in an indirect fashion to be where the enemy will arrive given a constant speed and direction... its a simple ballistic trajectory for artillery... its just math."

"We could have a secondary firing solution for our targeting arrays to calculate indirect fire 'sniping' at an enemy with our gun pods highlighting in our HUDs where our bullets will be so all we need do it put the automatically leading 'dot' on the targets approaching along a known vector and speed.  Totally undetectable as the enemy will simply find themselves flying straight into a barrage of high-Velocity DU projectiles possibly never knowing what hit them or where the attackers came from!"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:13, Tue 24 Jan 2017.

Bixby grinned, drily.  "Yeah...that little phenomenon is actually already part of the targeting algorithm.  We don't often use it, because most of our engagements have been in a gravity well of some sort, which influences the trajectory of the rounds.  Nobody's bothered to write a subroutine to compensate, because different bodies have a different gravitational coefficient, and even if you wrote one that, say, automatically detected that you were orbiting Jupiter, there would still be the question of the relative position of the various moons.  Theoretically, yes, you could program algorithms to detect and compensate for all of that...but there's only so much computing capability available in a Veritech cockpit, and the designers chose to concentrate on direct-fire targeting systems."

He nodded.  "If we're ever fighting in deep space?  Like, out beyond the Kuiper Belt?  It's a solid tactic.  It'd even work here inside the Solar System, provided you had sufficient distance from any significant planet or asteroid...the amount of deflection caused by ambient gravity from the Sun or planets more than a couple of AU's away wouldn't shift a round significantly over the range of our targeting sensors.  But trying that around Mars?  It might work, if you were at just the right angle and really lucky.  Earth?  A lot harder.  Jupiter, or any of the other gas giants?  Their gravity influences a lot of space..."  He chuckled grimly.  "Now, a missile?  You can actually give them a trajectory and range, and then have them lock onto a signature after traveling a certain distance...might even be able to program them to lock onto specific signatures.  That's your best bet, for a fire-and-forget weapon system."

Vance tried following the conversation...he understood, in general terms, what they were both saying, but he'd never worried that much about the fine details of how the targeting systems worked.  And the little that he knew about gravitational fields and just how far gravity actually exerted influence...

He tried to imagine how all of that would work and felt like it would induce a headache, which was the last thing he needed just before they launched a recon flight.  "Uhhhhh..." he began, before recognizing just how incredibly unintelligent that sounded on the heels of the discussion...

"What's the urgency on this, Cain?" he asked.  "I mean, you looked like you were heading off to solve all the world's problems or something.  How's this going to help us on a recon flight over Mars?"

Cain ponders the Chief's words and muses, "Yeah... hadn't thought of that... local gravity wells would certainly mess with those 'open space' simple Newtonian mathematics.  Effectively there are various gravitic "cross-winds" in space."

He looks at the LT, and blushes, "...here I thought I had a new possible targeting system for space combat..."

He shrugs, "...not really an emergency Sir, just knew that IF such fire-control targeting algorithm's were to be added to our Veritechs targeting computers it would take a bit of time for the Techs to upload such for our up-coming mission! If it might be useful figured there was no time to waste getting such a firing software update to the techs ~ so if needed we could use it next mission."

"...I guess instead I'll see if a gravity tidal shear map of the local gravity 'cross-winds' we are likely to encounter in our mission zone can be added to the fire-control of our veritechs to auto adjust for the local gravity fields if we decide to use some indirect fire from our guns.  Can't hurt to be too prepared!"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:36, Fri 03 Mar 2017.