Zedil scowled at the viewscreen, analyzing the information that was being shown there.  He was, at the least, relieved to be headed back to the Micronian planet...

It had seemed like an insult, initially, when Breetai had ordered him to remain behind with a small task force and maintain a watch on the Micronians' activity.  It was a dismissal, it seemed...with the Battle Fortress fleeing the system, the threat from a single planet that was just beginning to make its way into space seemed trivial.

He'd learned respect, the hard way, for the Micronians.  His task force was down several ships...and Breetai hadn't seen fit to replace them.  Apparently, the Battle Fortress had been taking its own toll, out at the edges of the star system.

But his relief came from the fact that he no longer needed to tolerate Khyron's insouciant manner.  His aggressive tactics were the sole justification for his rank...and it irked Zedil to have to show any respect for the Zentraedi whose reputation sometimes had him doing as much damage to his own troops as whatever enemy they were fighting at the time.

Much better, Zedil agreed, to be away from that, back operating on his own and trying to find some way to exploit the Micronians.  He lacked the facilities to reduce any of his own troops to send in as infiltrators...he'd been limited to more conventional methods of intelligence gathering.

And then, not so long ago, the relay team he'd left on the Micronian's moon had gone silent.  Discovered, no doubt...how, he was unsure.  After so much time, with such a consistent stream of reports, it had seemed like they'd found a flawless camoflage...

Yet another reason to NOT underestimate the Micronians, he reminded himself.  Despite Khyron's braggadocio, their diminutive enemies were more resourceful and dangerous than anything the Zentraedi had faced before, or at least anything Zedil could recall.  Yes, they were massively outnumbered...but in spite of that, they fought on...fought even harder, it seemed.  While the Zentraedi could turn out a fleet that could destroy the whole world in a single sortee, Zedil had his doubts about any lesser measures they could take.

This would require a very measured approach...

"Send out five recon squads.  Let's make sure these sensor reading are accurate.  I want to be sure where ALL of their ships are."  Not that long ago, he would have raced in without a second thought.  The Micronians had eliminated two of his larger ships, already...at heavy cost to their own forces, yes, but they could repair their equipment faster than anything he'd ever seen, while his own troops were all combat personnel.  His ships all still bore very visible scars of their prior encounters.  He did not want to find himself surprised by unexpected Micronian forces.

Fifteen pods launched, fanning out in a dome shape that preceded the Zentraedi task force heading back to Earth, in clusters of three, all close enough together to lend fire support, but far enough apart to expand the available sensor data massively.

One of those clusters sped past Mars, dodging around the still-expanding cloud of wreckage that was left from their one undisputed victory against the Micronians...the one ship they'd managed to destroy without suffering major losses of their own.

Captain Wilson scowled, looking over the reports in his ready room.  Apparently, whatever message they'd intercepted had really stirred things up with the anti-unification factions back on Earth...some of them thought the whole thing was a hoax, staged by the UEDF to get them to 'play nice'.  Some bought it whole-heartedly.  Most were stuck somewhere in between; with mounting evidence that there was, in fact, some greater threat beyond the scope of the planet (initial attacks had been written off as state-sponsored propaganda, but there were too many consistent reports across too many news sources for most to keep swallowing that logic), they were inclined to believe that something had happened, but they weren't necessarily ready to accept that their leader had just told them to stop fighting...that went against character for him.

So, things at home were still unstable.  The UEDF was also apparently channeling a lot of funding into several black projects back on Earth, because it was getting more and more difficult to keep the repair stations on Luna operating at full capacity.  His inquiries had been met with brusque statements that his superiors were 'aware of the problem'...but little more than that.  Definitely with no shift in results...

Commander Ritter's expedition could do little to shed light on what had happened to the rebel group...only a confirmation that they, too, had received the same message on the same channel, along with a statement that they ion trail they'd been following had gone cold as they were going through the Asteroid Belt, so it was possible that the whole thing was staged to throw the UEDF off the rebels' trail.

Too many unknowns... Wilson growled to himself.  He'd had Bixby analyzing every fragment of the signal that they'd received, trying to figure out some way to verify or disprove it...because if it was true, then the aliens were either on their way back toward Earth, or they'd already laid claim to the entire outer Solar System.

Revolt Squadron was coming along...the lull in the fighting had given Alexa enough time to get them whipped into half-decent pilots, scrubbing out the Academy nonsense that some of them had been taught and injecting a good dose of battlefield-proven tactical theory in its place.  But outside of simulator time, none of them were combat pilots, yet.

Every time one of them forgot that, she set up simulator time with them flying against whoever Hardy sent down from Echo Squadron.  And that kept the new kids from getting too big for their britches.

Her sensors pinged for attention momentarily, then fell silent again.  She scowled at the console a moment, before running a diagnostic cycle.  Everything was fine, it seemed.

"Uh...Lieutenant?"  One of the more mature voices in the squadron sounded on the comm channel.

"What is it, Jenkins?"  She'd finally managed the art of answering those comm calls without sounding bored or annoyed.

"My...uh...my sensors are acting weird...like they had a hit and then lost it."

Alexa stiffened slightly in her seat.  "Yeah...mine too.  Keep an eye on it.  Could have been some orbital debris that barely crossed the edge of our range...but it could be something else."

She called back to the Ranger and gave them a heading for the there-and-gone bogey...they were far enough out that Ranger probably couldn't pick up whatever it was, either...but they'd be keeping a sharp eye in that direction.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of Hardy's command style, but Anastasia couldn't argue much with results.  Things were running smoothly, the rookies looked like they might actually have a chance of surviving a first battle, and the flight rotations were as balanced as they'd ever been.  He might be a Wyoming farmboy by birth, she observed, but the man was doing something right, even if it was largely just standing back and letting his people do things their own way.

She mused on all of this as she looked over his service record.  Regular evaluations were supposed to be part of the job, as well, but Hardy couldn't very well evaluate himself and Captain Donovan had been preoccupied and pushed it onto her.  Today was Echo's down day...Fox and Revolt were flying the combat patrols...so today was the day to get the evaluation done.

She just needed to wait for Hardy to get there.  She glanced at her clock...two minutes left...

Cain was for once NOT in the combat simulator or in the gym practicing martial arts or sparring.. he was in his cabin.  And again.. he had sketched and drawn through all his blank sheets of paper in his sketch pad.  The Ship's quartermaster had refused to give him more as Cain had already filled 5 pads with sketches already!

Something about 'month's allotment used up' and now Cain would have to wait for resupply..whenever the Brass felt it important enough to actually do one... considering the state of affairs.

The Training chiefs had began to 'ration' Cain's combat simulator time or he'd be there now.. the rookies of Fox and Revolt needed the sim-time too.

So here he was bored out of his mind waiting.. and doing what he did when he was bored... working on playing the acoustic guitar his little sister had bought him as a gift.  Cain SUCKED at playing guitar... and he knew it.. but his little sister, Cynthia, had insisted he try to learn so he could play accompaniment to her piano playing... of which, in his opinion, she was a virtuoso!

He sighed... again practicing from the thin basic playing booklet he keep in the guitar's case.  He'd actually gotten to the point where he could play a four-string chord decently well... but the rest.. his finger s just seemed to have a mind of their own...

He sighed again... and tried more practice scales... like everything Cain did.. he kept at it like a life or death fight... eventually.. he might get it right...

Well maybe enough to, at least, spare other listener's ears...

Vance was sitting the in Officers' Club, sharing horror stories about the day the aliens arrived and attacked the UEDF forces, when he realized he was due to meet with Commander Keyes.

"I'll have to tell you about what happened to some of the other orbital platforms, later..." he said as he stood up.  The 'old-timers' nodded sagely, the newcomers were wide-eyed at what they'd been hearing.

"It wasn't pretty," he added.  He tired of the topic quickly, these days...but it had to be brought up any time some young buck started going on about how excited he was to get out there and 'kick some alien ass'.

As if it was just that easy...  Initially, he'd been annoyed at the presumption, implying that those pilots who had been out in space the entire time were somehow incapable of defeating an easy foe.  Then he started thinking about the kind of hazard those men would be when they actually had to face the enemy.  Better to slap them in the face with it now, where they can recover safely...

He gestured to the bartender that it should be put on his tab...one nice thing about the promotion was the pay raise.  He didn't drink much, so running a tab didn't create a large dent in his paycheck.  He moved quickly, returning salutes as he went...the downside of the promotion, in his mind...and was face to face with the Commander within moments.

"So...how'm I doing?" he asked.  It was a blatant breach of proper protocol, but thus far, she'd tolerated it.  And he figured that failure to present the 'proper' degree of regard for protocol would be a good way to minimize the chances that they'd promote him again.

"You're barely on time, Mr. Vance.  This isn't a combat operation, there's no risk involved in arriving on station ahead of schedule..."  She managed to keep the annoyance in her tone trivial--after all, in the grand scheme of things, there were definitely bigger threats to the operations of the Ranger than an almost-tardy Flight Commander...

She glanced at the files again, without opening them.  She knew what she was going to say.  "Your approach isn't exactly orthodox...which has been noted in your files," she began.  Before he could complain, she continued, "Also noted is the fact that we're not exactly operating in conventional circumstances, as well as the fact that your methods have been achieving good results, thus far."

She gave him a tired smile.  "In other words, Lieutenant Commander, I'm afraid you're out of luck and stuck with the job."

She opened her mouth to say something more when the ship-wide alarm klaxon sounded, announcing the approach of incoming bogeys that had not been identified as yet.  "We'll finish this later..." she declared, as she rose to depart.  They weren't sounding battle-stations just yet...but her place was on the bridge, before battle-stations sounded.

Cain heard the alert klaxon... and hoped it meant an end to boredom.  Putting his guitar in its case he left it open on his bunk as he stepped over to his locker and got into his flight suit.  Snatching up his helmet he was out the door in less than three minutes making his way to the pilot's ready room...

No scramble order had yet been given... but Cain had little else to do... his next scheduled patrol was still four hours away, might as well be ready for whatever, and it got him out of his bunkroom doing something useful.

Flight Operations was ordering Lt. Khan to pull her rookies back to provide close cover for Raven Squadron, defending the Ranger.  Chief Bixby debated with himself, whether to run for the hangar and get out there with the Two-Ex or stay and continue analyzing the incoming data that Revolt Squadron had picked up.

The enemy planes were not yet in sensor range for the Ranger...but if they continued on the course that had been detected, they'd be in range in seconds...and in weapons range within a couple of minutes.

Captain Wilson looked at the information over Bixby's shoulder.  "Go ahead and sound the scramble for Echo Squadron...sound First Alert for Fox, we'll have them ready in the cockpits if this proves to be too much for Echo to tackle alone.

The Flight Ops officer nodded, reaching out with a sure hand to flip a series of switches.  <i>Ranger's automated systems responded, adding a second alert tone to the Battle Stations alert.

"ECHO SQUADRON--SCRAMBLE ALERT.  REPEAT, ECHO SQUADRON--SCRAMBLE ALERT," blared out during lulls in the alarms.  A second vocal alert sounded..."FOX SQUADRON TO YOUR PLANES AND STANDBY.  FOX SQUADRON, STANDBY IN YOUR COCKPITS."  The alerts repeated, as Bixby compared the sensor feed from the Revolt Squadron plane that had picked up the enemy and the sensor information from Ranger.

"Sensor contact with the enemy in ten seconds," he announced.

Wilson looked over at him.  "Go get to your plane, Chief.  I've got a dozen people who can read a sensor display, you're the only qualified EWO I've got.  You'll be more use to us out there."  Without waiting for a discussion on the matter, he gestured for the regular sensor officer to resume his station, and added, without looking back, "That wasn't a suggestion, Chief."

Without another thought, Bixby dashed from the bridge, on his way to the flight deck to retrieve his flight gear and board his plane.

Vance was already on his way to the flight deck when the scramble sounded...he picked up his pace, going from a determined walk to a fast jog.  He was into his flight gear in record time, and moments later was climbing the ladder to his cockpit.

"Time to find out if they're just looking around again, or if they actually have something in mind..." he said to his ground crew, as he settled in.  It had been several weeks since any alien craft had been spotted inside of the Mars orbit of the Solar System...with the exception of the listening post they'd broken up on the Moon.  While he knew that hadn't been long enough for his squadron to forget how to fight the aliens, it was long enough for their edge to be a little blunted...

He could only hope the aliens had suffered the same downtime...and the same effects.  Without letting himself dwell on that notion much further, he fired up the engines and dropped the canopy, taxiing to launch position as soon as clearance was given.

At the sound of the Klaxon scramble alert... Cain broke into a fast jog pulling on his flight helmet and sealing his flight-suit gloves; changing direction to the flight deck...

He could not help but smile anxiously, {Finally... something to do... those aliens are certainly not sitting on their hands! One way or another its gonna come down to bloodying their noses enough they think twice about attacking earth... might as well get on about punching some alien faces in before reinforcements arrive!}

Cain arrived just in time to see Echo Lead climb into his waiting bird, engines already idling.  He also wasted no time hitting the cockpit ladder release at the side of the fuselage barely waiting the the ladder to fully stop before he was clambering up to the open cockpit.

Flashing a "thumb's up" to the flight technicians he closed his cockpit and sealed it, patching his helmet into the comm-net of his Veritech and attaching the umbilical cables to his flight suit... patching himself in the fighter's life support systems.  Almost immediately he turned down the comm-net chatter of the scramble alert as the communications flight control routed the Echo Squadron to its own encrypted comm frequencies.

Cain's hands flash over his controls and displays reading his systems readiness and weapon's stores... appreciative the Techs got his usually requested load-out of ordinance to his specification on the money.

{"Echo Five, 2nd Lt Edwards on deck, systems green.  On standby, awaiting clearance to launch! Echo Lead, got a sitrep, Sir?  Is this a precaution station alert or do we have inbound bogies?"}
This message was last edited by the player at 04:46, Fri 01 Jan 2016.

Cain's question was apparently answered by the first pair of fighters launching.  Flight crews scrambled, with expertise born of experience that went far beyond drills and exercises, to get the next pair queued for launch.  In short order, all of Echo Squadron was launched or on the flightline next to launch, as 2nd Lt. Khan's voice came on the comms...

"<TC>Echo Lead, not sure if they picked up on us or not.  They're on the Ranger's five o'clock, just beyond her sensor range...if we hadn't been tied in, they never would have picked up the enemy.  Captain Wilson ordered us to fall back and cut sensors, so their position may have shifted--but it looked like they were flying a standard patrol sweep.  I suspect they're still in that general area..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:30, Thu 25 Feb 2016.

Cain triggered his comm, {"Echo Five, to Echo Lead.  I'd like to volunteer to go on point sir to sweep the enemy forward formation and relay back the enemy status before we engage.  Could tell us if we need reinforcements immediately if they are out in-force sir!  By the time they are on our scopes.. its will be too late to alter our force quickly."}

Hands flying across his controls again he set his Veritech head laser to 'agis-fire' to intercept incoming missiles, and of course selecting a track of music for his next engagement...

Smirking to himself, {...something from MANOWAR this time, I think!}

"<TC>Copy that, Echo Five...on your way.  Echo Four, take his wing.  Hanako, take the evens and go down the Ranger's six o'clock axis, I'll take the odds and go down the four o'clock...if anyone comes sniffing after Cain, that puts us in a position to sweep in and pincer them."

He banked his plane into the new flight vector, watching half the squadron follow him on the scope in his cockpit.  He kept his attention rotating...visual sweeps of space around him, the comm panel, and the sensor scope, noting the increasing distance between the two halves of the squad and the scout element he'd agreed to send out...

And trying to decide whether he wanted the rest of the scope to remain clear, or show an enemy craft approaching.

Cain pondered Echo Lead's directions over the Tac-Comm, 'hmmm... pincer maneuver eh?  Al'right... let's get 'creative'... a obvious scout mission.. more of a lure for prey.'

Switching to tight-beam laser comm with his assigned wingman, Echo Four, <"Echo Five to Echo Four, Parker... you up for a little creative rabble rousing?  Echo Lead gave us leave to forward scan the enemy formation... he's moving our force to a pincer formation.  Why don't we make use of that to actually lure a hopefully as eager force of the enemy to follow us into the kill-zone?  I'm asking cause it's a bit beyond the Echo lead's 'expressed' orders... follow if you want or not if you don't .. but I'm doing it.  Gonna try to draw fire across their forward formation and lead them into the pincer.  Help or keep your head down buddy.. but you deserved to know what I'm a shooting for!  Echo Five - Over!">

Cain started his fight music, and immediately went weapons hot... sliding the wings of his veritech to full forward sweep for maximum space maneuverability with is attitude verniers in space.

Across the Tac Comm {"Echo Five~ Acknowledge, Echo Lead! Proceeding with forward scouting sweep of the enemy. Let's see what they brought us to play with today!"}

'I Surrender My Soul Odin Hear My Call'
'One Day I'll Sit Beside Your Throne In Valhalla's Great Hall'
'Like So Many Before Me I'll Die With Honor And Pride'
'The Right Of A Warrior Forever To Fight By Your Side'
'Send A Sign Raise The Sail Wave A Last Goodbye'
'Destiny Is Calling Immortality Be Mine!'

Hands on the HOTAS, Cain pushed his drives to 100% and tore away from the formation pushing for as much speed as the Veritech could provide... his flight suits chest constricting and his shoulders while the life systems automatically enriched the O2 flowing into his helmet all to keep the blood from rushing from his extremities to his head as sudden G's increased...

'Call The Witch To Cast The Runes, Weave A Magic Spell'
'We Who Die In Battle Are Born Not For Heaven Not For Hell'

Forward sensors swept for the enemy units as the 'klicks' of space were ate up at a frightening rate by the maddening speed the protoculture driven drives pushed the Veritech. The 'feet' of the veritech wide for maximum thrust leaving a drive trail flairing on any Thermal sensor scopes as Cain charged the enemy forces.. no sneaking up here...

'We Are Sons Of Odin The Fire We Burn Inside,
Is The Legacy Of Warrior Kings Who Reign Above In The Sky'

Cain directed his Head-lasers Agis search for the potential~ likely inevitable missile target locks upon his Veritech forward toward the direction of the enemy forces in priority... as drawing their attention was EXACTLY what he wanted to do!

'I Will Lead The Charge My Sword Into The Wind'
'Sons Of Odin Fight To Die And Live Again'
'Viking Ships Cross The Sea, In Cold Wind, And Rain'
'Sail Into The Black Of Night Magic Stars Our Guiding Light!'


As enemy unit began to show on his scopes Cain's weapons systems went immediately for target locks gathering the needed intel on numbers and composition... he continued straight toward their formation gathering as much intel as possible.

But... selecting from his ordinance he targeted the heart of the formation for maximum spread firing two Medium SR HE missiles and two Light Plasma/Napalm missiles at the enemy...

Cain braced himself as he pulled his 'B' lever... shifting the veritech without slowing to battleoid mode... swinging the Veritech's leg's forward toward the enemy so he was positioned feet down toward their formation as the sudden reverse-trust drove him mercilessly into the pilot's seat and the life system struggled to contract his legs and arms releasing the pressure on his chest and shoulders to force his blood to return to his brain...

Even ready for such a reckless maneuver his vision became blurry his head light risking unconsciousness... but that dog-determined will he was so renown for and his own natural G-tolerance for acceleration, he grudgingly admitted to himself .. a talent he inherited from his Hated father ...'barely' saw him through such a crazy maneuver.. and he retained consciousness.. mostly.  But that had been the plan~ that as the enemy dealt with the barrage of missile fire they could not ignore.. he would have precious seconds to get his senses back to himself...

Gritting his teeth, he weakly muttered as his senses reeled from the G's pulled, "s-Suck it... you Alien Aa-ssholes!"

'Today The Blood Of Battle Upon My Weapons Will Never Dry
Many I'll Send Into The Ground Laughing As They Die.'


'THAT should get them interested!', he thought as his battle computer automatically relayed intel scans back to the Echo Lead and the Ranger C&C.

'We Are Sons Of Odin The Fire We Burn Inside'
Is The Legacy Of Warrior Kings Who Reign Above In The Sky'


The Veritech came to a sudden stop engines stressed to the limits and the warning system-klaxons blaring... Cain kept up the thrust as the Battleoid began accelerating in the opposite direct away from the enemy... 'yeah.. I'm gonna catch Hell from the techs for this maneuver...!'

'I Will Lead The Charge My Sword Into The Wind'
'Sons Of Odin Fight To Die And Live Again'
'Viking Ships Cross The Sea, In Cold Wind, And Rain'
'Sail Into The Black Of Night Magic Stars Our Guiding Light'


As a parting 'gift'..Cain followed up the missile explosions with a long burst of the GU-11 Gun Pod strafing the enemy front line formation with depleted uranium Death!  Also~ just to keep the enemy dodging and not targeting him hopefully long enough for his Veritech to pick up speed to once again become a hard target... and maybe pick off any lazy enemies if possible!

'Place My Body On A Ship And Burn It In The Sea'
'Let My Spirit Rise Valkries Carry Me'
'Take Me To Valhalla Where My Brothers Wait For Me'
'Fire Burning To The Sky My Spirit Will Never Die'


Switching his head laser to Agis fire to focused to the aft he pulled the 'F' lever switching the Veritech back to Fighter mode and again still at full thrust the Veritech tore away from the enemy formation.  Once again forcing Cain into his pilot's seat as the life system reversed its efforts again to try to keep him conscious.. but Cain smiled as the Veritech accelerated.

'I Will Lead The Charge My Sword Into The Wind'
'Sons Of Odin Fight To Die And Live Again'
'Viking Ships Cross The Sea, In Cold Wind, And Rain'
'Sail Into The Black Of Night Magic Stars Our Guiding Light ...'

He went into an erratic series of jinks, and talloon rolls to avoid a target lock on his plane... part from skill and part from delirium for the G-forces being pulled...

Cain laughed... thinking, 'what a way to go...'; then aloud, "Hail GODS of WAR!!"

The Veritech tore its way back across space toward the pincer 'kill-box'.. blood in his eyes from burst blood-vessels Cain hoped he had given enough intel for Echo lead to make the best use of the tactical info...
This message was last edited by the player at 06:23, Sun 28 Feb 2016.

Aboard the Ranger, crews were monitoring the feeds from the fighters...

"Sir?  Captain? You should see this..."

One of the techs backed up the footage of sensor information they'd received from Cain's fighter, to the moment that he first began picking up signals of enemy planes.

"Right here, Sir..." the tech pointed to the screen, focusing Donovan's attention.  The Captain watched, one eye focused on the feedback showing what Cain was doing with his plane, the other watching the indicators of the enemy forces.

"What the frozen Hell..." Captain Wilson muttered softly, as Cain overloaded every sensor on his plane momentarily with the G-forces of his abrupt direction change.  The feed went erratic, at that point...

But it was still clear enough to see that, while a section of the enemy forces moved to confront the encroaching Veritech, the main body of the formation diverted, moving further away.  "Get me a course projection...need to know where they were going..."  He straightened, and started back to the central position on the bridge, where he could monitor everything more effectively.

"And make a note of that maneuver.  I'll let it slide, now...but if that hotshot tears his plane in two out there...and manages to make it back home safely, somehow...he's going to be piloting a repair drone for the rest of his career.  We can't afford to risk damage or destruction of the Veritechs outside of combat emergencies...we simply don't have the facilities to build more of them...airframes, yes, but if we lose the powerplants...with the SDF-1 gone MIA, we don't have the facilities available to generate new reflex systems."  He scowled at the thought...but said nothing further as the course projections came up on a tactical display.

"Mars...?" Wilson mused aloud.  "What the hell are they going to Mars for?  There's nothing left there..."
----------------------------------------
IN THE BATTLE ZONE

The skies lit up in Cain's wake as his battleoid reversed direction back toward the Ranger, as enemy battlepods took hits and ruptured.

And then lances of fire came out of the cloud, first weapons firing through it, and then enemy craft that displaced the expanding clouds of flame and plasma as they flew through it in pursuit.  It was impossible for Cain to get a visual count...and it didn't matter.  It was too many for him to deal with alone, especially now that they were vigilant for incoming fire.

Surprise was still working in his favor...none of them were dialed in and they were largely 'panic-shooting' at false sensor readings, thrown off by the energy distortions from the exploded craft.  But that wouldn't last long...

Vance was watching his screens, monitoring what Cain was doing as he flew in...

And then Cain's Veritech did a very atypical move, and the screen lit up with indicators of weapon detonations...and then return fire.  "Well, dammitallanyway," he muttered, then clicked his mic to hot.

"That's our sign, people...Echo Lead, tally-ho, weapons hot!  Follow in echelon, break formation when we engage.  Remember, these guys aren't the best dogfighters in the world, get them out of formation and our odds go up a LOT!"

His fighter banked over into a 45 degree turn that pointed the nose of his craft at the dissipating clouds of debris from the explosions of Cain's fire, tracking indicators started showing target locks as enemy craft came through the clouds...

And he rippled off several missiles at multiple targets, racing after his missiles and preparing to really stir things up as the formations mingled.  Streaks of light went past him as the planes following him did likewise...

Cain kept up the speed as he tore across space back toward the waiting 'kill box'... enemy chasing fire zeroed in on him just about as quickly as he expected despite his jinking and tolloon rolls.  'In a volume of space... when the target's vector and velocity are known, there is a limited amount of space where they can avoid return fire and the longer they are on the same heading... the easier it becomes to narrow down on where they are and where they will be to resolve a target solution.' {Text-book space combat, basically the longer they watch you run.. the easier it is to lock on to you and kill you!}, thought Cain.

An enemy laser burst glanced off his right side fuselage jarring the Veritech.. but only scoring the surface, then there was a shudder that shook the whole plane and peering out his cockpit Cain saw a fist side whole blown straight through his left-side wing,  then warning claxons warned of a series of hits to his left leg engine of minor damage, and his tail surfaces of mostly cosmetic damage... clearly a set of hits from a spray of laser-fire he narrowly avoided.  The leg hit had unbalanced the power output of his engines by about 6% and soon he would start to 'yaw' in his vector if thrust was not adjusted and re-balanced.  The battle computer saw to it ... the wonders of Robotech, and the Veritech slowed by about 3%... not significant but Cain could already feel the difference.  Also that hole in his wing had moderately compromised its integrity... so as not to risk shearing it further the battle computer was adjusting it vernier output so the wing would not be overstressed.  Meaning his pitch and roll in that side would be sluggish as the vernier's output was reduced and re-balanced with the right-side wing.

{Yeah.. I'm getting slowly shot ta pieces out here I hope Echo lead~}

Then came the full wash of Veritech return fire... a little unexpectedly early... Cain had not entirely led the enemy into the 'kill box' of the pincer formation, but he was not complaining.

Cain smirked, "...guess I'm not the only one eager to get this on..."

Switching to Wing Channel, <Echo 5 to Echo Lead, A little early on the hop Sir, but I'm not complaining... these aliens are good shots.  I think I pissed them off!>

Cain pulled the 'B' Lever and switched his veritech to Battloid mode swinging up his GU-11 Gun pod to fire three short bursts into the approaching enemy taking advantage of the sudden fullisade of the Veritech squadron's incoming fire to pick off any enemy that broke formation and had no cover-fire support, using the Battloid's greatly slowed speed and added maneuverability to confound the enemy fire that was zeroing in on him by majorly changing his speed vector.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:12, Wed 13 Apr 2016.

The space around Cain was radiant with laser fire, missiles and enemy craft exploding, the fading fireballs of earlier explosions...if it weren't for the combat tracking programs in the onboard computers, the chaos would be almost impossible for the human mind to process.

The enemy formation was badly compromised by the massed fire from Echo Squadron, but they reformed quickly...very quickly...into smaller formations.  It was a maneuver unlike anything that had happened in any of the encounters the Ranger's forces had been through with the aliens, unlike, even, anything that had happened in the initial attacks.

These smaller formations peeled off evenly, moving to counter the pincer that Hardy and Echo Squadron were trying to close on them, with a reckless aggression that seemed above and beyond the normal 'fight 'til you die' mentality that the aliens seemed to have.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Back aboard the Ranger, one of the navigational officers waved Captain Wilson over.  "Sir, we've worked out a course projection for the main body of the alien craft."  He pointed to his screen...were the marked course headed in a long, looping path to rendezvous with the orbit of the fourth planet in the system...

"Mars?!!" Wilson growled.  "What the hell do they want on Mars?  There's nothing there, unless they plan on blowing up an abandoned outpost..."

Cain pondered the enemy response to the fusillade of the Veritech wing... and wondered, {Is that a trained maneuver... it seems like a 'video-gamish' kind of response.. perhaps.. it could be used against them?}

He smiled and switched his music...

. . .  .  .
... . ... .
'Shriek the lips Across ragged tongue,
'Convulsing together. Sing violently,
'Move the jaw Cry aloud.'
'Bound up the Dead Triumphantly'

Pulling the 'F' lever... Cain switched to the veritech to Fighter mode and picking one of the splitting off clusters of enemy formations... he targeted the center of the formation with one of his few precious fragmentation missiles and the lead pod in the formation with a HE missile...

'The ragged they come and The ragged they kill!'
'You pray so hard on bloody knees.'
'The ragged they come and The ragged they kill!'
'Down in the cool air I can see.'

Cain fired a one fragmentation missile into the center of the Zentradei formation, then fired a HE missile at the lead enemy pod... hoping after they All had been perforated with fragmentation shrapnel they would follow that trained reflex and follow the lead right through the HE fireball...

'Hey, Yeah - I'm the one that you wanted'
'Hey, Yeah - I'm your Superbeast'
'Hey, Yeah - I'm the one that you wanted'
'Hey, Yeah - I'm your Superbeast'

Pivoting to hit them head on {a very gusty move of chicken} as they exited the fireball Cain barrel rolled into their direct forward arc and cut loose with a long burst from his GU-11 Gun pod at the formation waiting to see who would break first and provide a perfect profile to nail! Cain was ready to follow any break if they fragmented into an even smaller formation in response to keep his deadly barrage of DU rounds on a small grouping of targets.. hopefully they would all break the same direction... for multiple easy kills from his DU Barrage of Death!

. . .  .  .
... . ... .
'Stir the limbs across the wrist,
'Full possession of memory.'
'Bury me as a dog,
'Icy hands surrounding me.'


Then the target lock klaxons went off warning of incoming missiles.  Cain reacted on reflex pulling the 'G' lever to shift the Veritech to guardian mode as the Vertiech's legs swung forward to change his vector instantly and roll the Veritech over facing the incoming missile barrage from his rear arc...

'The ragged they come and The ragged they kill!'
'You pray so hard on bloody knees.'
'The ragged they come and The ragged they kill!'
'Down in the cool air I can see.'

The Head laser set to 'Agis' fire went to work on the incoming barrage of 6 missiles
clipping 3 of them off the bat and Cain fired one more of his fragmentation missiles into the approaching homing death and detonated the last of the missile volley.. mostly far enough away ... but his Left arm and wing took some minor damage from the resulting blossoming searing fireball.

{Sloppy Boy! Got to do better than that, or get Aced weakling!}, he heard the chiding and sneering tone of his father's voice in the back of his mind.

Cain frowned, {Fuck you!}

'Hey, Yeah - I'm the one that you wanted'
'Hey, Yeah - I'm your Superbeast'
'Hey, Yeah…'

Cain pulled the 'F' lever to switch back to fighter mode and got the hell out of the area to break lock on him~ hopefully... and try to reacquire his cluster of enemy pods and finish them off...

Triggering his Comm <"Echo 5. Where the hell is my wing man? Echo 4. I could use a little help here.. gettin' hectic and getting low on missile stores!" >

It did not look good.. only 2x HE, 2x Frag and 2x AP missile remaining... still had 39 short-bursts of ammo remaining... but weather Cain wanted to or not.. he'd have to rearm soon...
This message was last edited by the player at 16:48, Sun 24 Apr 2016.

The comm lines opened just long enough to hear, "I'm right he--"  The signal died in a burst of static as Echo 4 erupted in a ball of flame.  It was almost instantly lost against the greater backdrop of fire, missiles, lasers, and explosions that littered across the sky.

There was no denying it...this group of aliens flew with a very different style than what had been encountered by any of the troops...more reckless, more erratic...they still flew formations, but they were ragged and shifting, with ships veering sharply after targets.

In one of the ships, Zentraedi Flight Leader Azeem sneered as his shot finally landed on one of the pesky Micronian craft.  They were elusive, yes...

"You're not such a threat now, are you?  Khyron was right..."

And then his ship erupted as one of the Micronian missiles homed in on its energy signature and detonated.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back on the Ranger, Flight Operations was hopping, directions being called out as what remained of Fox Squadron was positioned to reinforce Echo.  "Confirm one lost, Captain," one of the radar technicians reported.  "Echo Four is down, registering damage on...well...everyone else in Echo Squadron, but thus far, nothing critical."  He didn't add the thought that, prior to the fatal hit, Echo Four had been almost completely untouched.

From another part of the bridge, another voice called out.  "Confirmed, sir, the main force is out of sensor range again, but speed and trajectory put them on an intercept with Mars..."

Captain Wilson shook his head...it was something to be puzzled out another time.  "Get Revolt Squadron on the ready line, position Raven Squadron to catch anyone who gets past Echo and Fox, and get a couple of destroyers to start dumping fire into what's left of the enemy formations and see if we can't help our fighters out!"

"Okay, skip trying to break their formations...they're not fighting with their normal tactics...break into teams of four and--"

And, at that moment, Lt. Harvey's indicator flickered out on his panel.  Vance swallowed hard, knowing what that most likely meant...he'd seen it happen all too often.  And it never got any easier.

He corrected himself, in a voice that was tight with suppressed emotion..."Teams of three or four, try swarming their formations, keep them shooting at one or two while the others loop around and attack from other angles."  It made sense that they wouldn't all fight exactly the same.  Human forces didn't...even planes flying in the same air forces adopted different tactics, depending on who taught them.

"Echo Two and Three, pair off with Echo Five.  Echo Six, Eight, and Ten on me, the rest on your own.  Keep your gun cameras running as much as possible, let's see if we can figure out the key to busting these guys."  There was no such thing as an impossible enemy.  You just had to know what your plane did best, and their plane did worst, and how to use your strength against their weakness.  The Flying Tigers had done it half a century earlier, using almost obsolete planes against the Japanese Zeroes in WWII.

Yeah, I could sure use General Chennault right about now... he told himself.  But the man was long since dead.  And the next best thing he knew was...well, his resources aboard the Ranger.  Himself, the other squadron leaders, Chief Bixby...

They'd figure it out.

A round detonated a little too close to his plane and snapped him out of his self-imposed pep-talk.  They'd figure it out...if they lived long enough...

...a ball of flame that illuminated Cain's cockpit briefly as he turned his head to see the tail end of the flowering detonation... then nothing.

"...Parker~ no...", and that cold familiar stab in his gut came over him... the loss the shock and the cold fury.

"...damn it!", the sick turn of the knife in his stomach as the cold certainty... no one would ever see the young pilot again or hear his voice.

The helplessness of the moment washed over Cain.. the regret and anger... and yes sorrow.

There were no words to be spoken, nothing said would matter~ a comrade was gone and never coming back...

It would have been easy to result to fury to scream in frustration.. to Rage against the unfairness of it all but to what point?  None of that would restore the young pilot's life.. and Cain would have to live with that... and wonder... could he have done something different to have saved him from such a tragic death?  But... the cruel truth was... he would never know for certain... and still it did not matter.  Parker was dead... and all the rage and recriminations in creation would never change that certainty.

All Cain could do... all any of them could do was to make sure Parker's death was costly... not that it would make it any easier to accept... but perhaps.. it might make the emptiness less painful...

AND as such Cain set to that task with a cold reckless brutality as he pushed the Veritech to its full thrust and strafed the enemy formations with a series of Short bursts followed by medium burst into the scattering battlepods unleashing missile after missile he punished the enemy killing with a reckless abandon... heedless of the hits that struck him in return.. shifting modes between Battleoid, Guardian, and Fighter Modes in a dizzying dance of unrelenting RAGE!

A burst of laser fire cut across the chest of his battloid mode inflicting moderate damage to the hydraulics in the right arm, now unable to open its right fist or use the hand.  A Command Battlepod particle cannon beam tore the tip off his port-side tail-fin as Cain barely avoided being bisected by the bright green energy beam, as Cain tracked the command pod with a long burst that kept the pilot moving but never scoring a hit.  A near miss from a missile detonated at his undercarriage in guardian mode flash frying the head lasers on his head unit and causing a persistent static in his sensor readouts...

And yet Cain's anger and pain did not subside.. he continued to kill using his weapons stores to almost depletion...

{I will make them pay... ALL of them!  For Parker...}
This message was last edited by the player at 03:01, Sat 14 May 2016.

For a few moments, the outcome seemed in doubt...the alien mecha fought with a ferocity and abandon which, heretofore, had been unseen.  But they were fighting against the best Veritech pilots Earth could field, in planes that were more maneuverable and motivated by the fact that they were, to the best of their knowledge, the last effective line of defense between the aliens and their homeworld.

Between that, and the fact that some of the alien craft opted to draw off and follow their main force, rather than remain in the engagement, the fight ended, tapering off as more and more alien ships were destroyed and the Veritech pilots had to become more and more selective about firing due to depleted ammunition stores.

Nobody in Echo Squadron had more than 10% of their ammo load-out remaining, and most of the proximity defense lasers were dangerously close to overheating, when Lt. Khan's voice came over the comms.

"<TC>Echo Squadron, withdraw.  Revolt will take care of the mop-up."  Her voice took on a darkly humorous tone, as she added, "Frankly, we need the live-fire practice..."

Cain was in a lull of his fighting frenzy.. there were not enemies within his guns range.. he had long expended the last of his missile ordinance, when he heard the TC call for the withdraw.

Almost on reflex he readied an angry retort but his sensor display went fritzy again from the battle damage and he smacked his display a few times for the grainy display to clear up again out of sudden panic of being blind and targeted by the enemy.  The action dulled his enthusiasm for fighting on his thoughts turning starkly sensible, 'What was the point anyways? No matter how many of them I kill... Parker is still gone.. and not I'm not gonna bring him back... getting killed myself!'

Given pause to think, the adrenaline rush fades and the emotional stress came down on him like a Veritech Battloid foot, and Cain started sinking into a deep depression.

Triggering his Comm, "<TC> Echo Five. Acknowledge. Returning to Base sans wingman, Parker~ Echo 4. KIA...", his voice decidedly.. NOT humorous!

Cain piloted his battle scarred Veritech back to the Ranger paying little attention to the battle carnage and floating wreckage of battle pods.  Adjusting the attitude thrusters... somewhat sluggishly from the control surfaces damage he'd sustained but eventually to slide into position matching velocities with the retrieval gantry... often times used to rearm the Veritechs in Zero-G.  But the reloading armatures with their ordinance were retracted and only the mechanical securing arms extended and locked on the securing hardpoints on the veritech and hauled it into the retrieval lock before closing the exterior doors and represurizing the lock.  Cain lowered the landing gear as the Veritech was lowered to the deck and the interior lock door opened to the landing bay. The tracks for the floor jack locked onto the forward landing strut and automatically rolled the battered Veritech to the nearest unoccupied repair bay.

Cain sat in the cockpit even after the deck technician gave him the thumbs up to open his canopy and exit... his emotions in a doldrum.  The Tech had to actually rap on the canopy~ his voice muffled by the sealed pilot's compartment, to jar Cain out of his dark thoughts, "Hey are you ok in there.. are you injured?"

Cain unsealed the cockpit and triggered it to open a blank shocked expression on his face, and retorted perhaps a little angrier than he intended, "...no I'M fine!"

The tech looked at him with confusion but turned his gaze back to lowering the recessed step-ladder from the fuselage for Cain to climb down muttering, "...must'a been rough out there this time?"

Cain made no reply as he climbed down.. his mood only darkened even more.

He was a little ushered away from out of the techs way as two more came to survey the battle damaged Veritech... each wondering how he managed to pilot it back but Cain just stood a few steps away and removed his helmet staring at it in his hands.. his thoughts and emotions in turmoil.

His anger and self-guilt reached a peek and angrily he threw the helmet straight down at his feet, "DAMN IT ALL!!"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:09, Thu 16 June 2016.

Vance let out a sigh of relief when the recall order was given...Echo Squadron had given better than they got, but there wasn't a plane in the squadron that hadn't gotten chewed up somewhere in the battle, and some of them looked like they'd been downright mauled.

"<TC>Copy that, Lt. Khan.  Happy hunting...and be advised.  These guys are harder to kill than the pilots we've been flying against.  Don't let you squadron get too stretched out hunting stragglers, because if one of their better pilots manages to get his systems back online, you're gonna lose people."  There was an earnestness in his voice that hopefully laid to rest any thoughts that he was talking up the enemy to scare the newer pilots...Alexa had heard that tone before, and hopefully, she remembered it.

His plane was still solid enough to land under normal procedures, rather than having to rely on retrieval gantries, so he was on the ground as the rest of his squadron made their way in, by whatever means they needed.  He talked through the damage he knew of with his ground crew, knowing there were probably hits that he'd not noticed in the heat of the moment...but he looked up in alarm when Edwards' ground crew began knocking on his canopy to verify his condition.  If his own plane was chewed up, Edwards' had been chewed, swallowed, and spat back out again.  There was every chance the man had been injured and held it together just long enough to get his plane home...

He let out a sigh of relief when Cain climbed out of the cockpit, and down to the deck, without any apparent injury, and Vance went back to addressing concerns with the crew chief.  He looked up, just in time to see Cain slam his helmet to the deck...and made his way over.

"It could have been any of us, Cain," he said, quietly.  He recognized the frustration...he'd felt it, himself, on many occasions.  "That much firepower turned loose, using unfamiliar tactics...nobody in the squadron made it home unscathed, and we're lucky that we only lost one pilot."

He paused, knowing that wouldn't be any comfort...and not knowing what would.  "Sometimes we die.  That's why we try to end wars as fast as we can.  And no matter how good we are, or the guys we're flying with, sometimes it's just not good enough..."  His voice caught, and he fell silent, thinking of all the good pilots he'd seen vaporized in space, or heard screaming in pain or horror as they realized they weren't coming home from this mission.  And he suddenly felt very old, and very tired.

Cain turns an angry gaze the LC's direction... making the burst blood-vessels in his eyes evident... clear sign he has pulled more G's in rapid succession from different vectors than is medically advisable.

But the angry drains away from him as he wipes the stress sweat from his brow and he lowers his gaze... replaced with a somber pause.

"...t-thanks Sir, er... thanks Hardy.  It's not like I've not seen pilots die.. in battle or even just in training... but its the first time I knew the pilot personally.  It's not the same..."

He sadly shakes his head, "...I just keep wondering if I could have done something different, or something better or if I did something I should not have done.. Anything to have brought him back safely?  When I know 'war is hell' and I could have done everything right .. and blind luck he or I could have bought it with a particle beam to the cockpit 'nuff said!  It don't make the doubt and loss go away... I just feel kinda cored out, empty inside ..where my heart should be.  And keep thinking~ how much I'm gonna miss hearing his joking voice..."

He crouches to pick up his helmet and slip it over the cook of his elbow.. and is a little unsteady on his feet.. adrenaline crash and battle stress already settling in. But he does quickly wipe his eyes... his expression briefly broken and hurt.

"I won't say~ 'I'll get over it', I don't think a sane human being should be able too, but don't worry.. I remember why we're fighting and I'll fly straight when you need me to.  I just need some rest~ I have a pretty blonde-haired little sister and proud military mother to go home too.. and no alien's gonna stop me from doing that!!"

He takes a deep ragged sigh and comments, "...I'd better get down to medical, think I over did it a bit in that fight~ feel like I've been used as a punching bag.. and a serious headache is coming on, probably should get checked up on.  Thanks again Hardy.. really!"

Cain turns to slowly leave the flight deck looking very tired...
This message was last edited by the player at 11:51, Thu 16 June 2016.

Vance stepped forward, resting a hand on Cain's shoulder, trying to will the younger pilot the strength and will to overcome the trials he was facing.  "Let's get you checked out, then," he said, with a nod.

He added, after a momentary pause, "I think, if you were the kind of person who could just get over that, you'd make a lousy combat pilot.  Remembering those we've lost is part of what makes us strong, keeps us from becoming so unfeeling that we become a risk to ourselves."  He shrugged, and added, as they walked, "And I know it's easier said than done, but try not to let yourself get too caught up in asking if you could have prevented it.  It's a tricky thing...you've got to be introspective enough to analyze your own actions and motives and their results and consequences...but it's dangerously easy to get so involved in the process that you end up constantly second-guessing your every action and instinct...and that's when you actually do start getting people killed, as they try to compensate."

The tension that crept into his voice as he spoke about it indicated that, from his own perspective, at least, the words were far more than hollow platitudes.  There was a raw edge to the way he said them, a barely-hidden pain that shone faintly through the facade of decisive leadership that he tried to maintain.

He gave a gruff cough, and clarified, "Hopefully, you get a day or two to work through it in your head.  But, after that...do what you can to move on, call it a lesson learned, even if that lesson is only, "Sometimes you draw the short straw."  Because I need every pilot operating in the here-and-now, not worrying about what-if's and should-I's.  These guys are too good to spare us that luxury...if we're thinking like that when we're flying, we won't be flying very long."

Cain... is a little not sure how to take the friendly gesture.. he's not had many 'friends' in his short-life... but he thinks it feels good to feel the support of a fellow veteran pilot.

He gives on of his familiar part-smirk which seems to be the closest the taciturn, obsessive, ambitious young pilot comes to a genuine smile~ perhaps he is one of those individuals who has has a hard life and really does not know how to deal with genuine 'friendship'?

"...yeah, Thanks boss!  But I'm of the opinion I'd better damn well get use to us loosing people cause this wars not gonna be resolved with successful sorties."

He walks step in step with the LC... clearly making an effort to act in better shape than he really is. Evidently, the LC has his respect and he wishes to have his as well.

"I went to OTS and know all through human history~ at least, every military conflict was eventually resolved with diplomatic means. Sometimes just wiping out the enemy and their nation was enough ...but rarely so.  However, right now... we're in a real shit-storm... we have no idea where these aliens come from, why their here, or what they want?  Strategically we can't win this cause we cannot deny the enemy their objectives cause we don't know what they are! We also cannot strike at the enemies infrastructure to hurt their ability to project this war and make it too costly to continue, so were stuck fighting for no real progress towards any conducive resolution~ well at least for mankind in general at least!"

He shakes his head, "If they would have attacked just 5 years ago... or before the Battle Fortress arrived we would already be dead... our Lancer space fighters are a joke compared to what a Veritech can do.  Earth was in the throws of the Global Civil War... we'd likely still be fighting the E.B.S.I.S. and their cronies if the fear of a vastly superior alien civilization showing up with weapons that would make our~ basically resource war, seem like kids slugging it out on a playground!  Only that threat and the UN's total domination of the Macross project made them come to the ceasefire and work together.  Then to the day we decide to turn the damned Battle Fortress on these aliens show up and attack... THAT can't be coincidence!"

"But it makes no sense.. what do they want? If what they want is the Battle Fortress out of our hands why not just blow it up?  They have at least a fleet of ships... they should be able to do that considering how they near totally decimated our UN Spacy forces!  They clearly don't need the fortress as they have more ships and much bigger ones at that... so what do they really want?"

He sighs, "So yeah.. basically we're fucked, until we can answer some of these questions cause we're just fighting for no benefit other than to stay alive. We can't win like that.. can't resolve the conflict! The aliens can just keep sending more ships until we've got nothing to defend with!"

He turns to look at his superior officer, "I don't know if you've been told anything about the strategic overview.. but I know UN Spacy is frantically trying to get another A.R.M.E.D. Station up and running, like the Ranger, but I think as soon as we do... we need to send one of them to make contact with the SDF-1 and start figuring out what is so special about that Battle Fortress that the aliens want so we can find a way to end this quick or Parker's gonna have a lot of company in the there-after... soon!"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:47, Fri 17 June 2016.

Vance sighed, and shrugged.  "We still don't even know for sure if the SDF-1 is out there to be found.  We know the aliens took off somewhere, and in a big hurry...we know there's been a lot of unexplained activity in the far reaches of the Solar System, that looks a lot like space battles...but we can't confirm anything yet."

He scrubbed at his medium-length hair, in a gesture of frustration.  "And, truth be told, I'm not sure we're not better off, at the moment, with the SDF-1 out there, who-knows-where, keeping the aliens busy.  We're holding our own against a token task force they left behind...but they had enough ships, when they first arrived, that they could swat us out of the sky by sheer force of numbers, if they really decided to.  At least this way, we have a chance that they'll get bored with us and go away..."  His tone made it clear...he wasn't convinced of the viewpoint.  It was sound, logically...but it didn't sit well with him, morally.

They arrived at the medical station soon enough, and the flight surgeon and his assistants gave both men examinations...Hardy's was cursory, as he'd experienced nothing beyond the standard strains of space combat.  Cain, however, got a more in-depth examination, that ended with the surgeon giving him a topical muscle-relaxing gel and instructions to use it every two hours for the next three days to prevent whiplash symptoms from developing after the strain to his neck and upper spine with the high-G maneuvers he'd done.

Other pilots trickled in, with a variety of minor ailments...many of them also related to pushing their Veritechs into maneuvers more extreme than the pilots' bodies were equipped to handle, even with the support of the flight gear.  The few seriously wounded personnel were routed directly to the main medical area...Echo Squadron would be short a couple of pilots for a week, and Lt. Khan was ordered to select two men from Revolt Squadron to fill in.

All this took place in the space of a few hours, after the end of the battle...but just as things were calming down on the flight deck, the bridge was bustling with activity...

It was at 1000 hours the next day that Echo Squadron was summoned to a briefing room...and found it shared with Fox, Raven, and Revolt squadron's pilots, as well as an array of comm gear designed to pipe the information to the rest of the Ranger crew that was either on duty or couldn't all fit in the briefing room...

Cain sat in his chair in the briefing room... stifling a yawn and absentmindedly rubbing the base of his neck... with his right hand... helmet propped on his knee.

He was feeling the body-wide 'little pains' of the stress he'd put himself through int he previous battle... he glanced at the ...empty seat next to him... and the dull ache of Parker's absence struck home.. Hard~ as it would every day from now on.. until it was someday's Cain's seat that would be vacant.

He scowled pushing the non-constructive thought away.. trying to focus on what was likely going to be a vital mission briefing... but his .. attention was unfocued... he could still hear Parker's joking voice in his memory.. from the last mission briefing only scant hours ago.. and.. its absence now.. really hurt. Deep inside where a man holds his guts.. cause he knew.. he would never hear him again and every briefing would remind him of that.

{Damn it all.. we were not even that close!  god... I'm really gonna miss him.}

Cain stared blankly at the floor... his eyes strained trying not to look at the empty seat next to him.. and his expression haunted..
This message was last edited by the player at 06:54, Mon 25 July 2016.

Vance settled into his chair.  Something didn't feel right...not 'normal'...and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.  Physically, he was fine.  He'd slept well...hadn't even dreamed, that he remembered, so it had been a pretty deep sleep.  There was the empty chair in the middle of the squadron...but he'd lost pilots before.  This was something else...

Part of it, no doubt, was the presence of ALL the Ranger's squadrons in the same briefing area.  That rarely happened...had only happened a couple of times, in Vance's memory.  The last time he could think of was when the Ranger decided to take the fight to the enemy and Echo Squadron had nearly been killed by being sent out in untested prototypes.  He certainly hoped that wasn't happening again...

He looked at the comm gear.  THAT was different.  Never, in his time aboard the ship, had a pilot briefing been piped out to the rest of the ship.

And, usually, when he arrived for a briefing, either Captain Wilson or Commander Keyes was already present.  Their absence, while not crisis-inducing, was uncommon enough to have him on edge.

"Whatever they're going to tell us, it's big..." he muttered, as much to himself as anyone around, though he took no pains to prevent it from being heard.

Captain Wilson walked into the briefing room with a look of resignation in his eyes.  "Good morning, pilots...and the rest of the crew.  We've received word from Commander Ritter...final word, it would seem..."  The resignation turned grim.  "I had Chief Bixby scrub the message, as best he could, to clarify everything...but I think it's information you all need to hear, and it's best if it's heard in Ritter's own words..."

He nodded, and speakers came to life, with an odd whine and crackle to them that indicated some kind of heavy interference.  "This is, in all probability, the last message we'll get out," said a voice, recognizable to the older crew as Cmdr. Ritter.  "With that said, I've got to set a few things to rights...both for the Ranger and her crew, and for the UEDF in general..."

There was the unmistakable sound of an explosion, and a burst of static, before Ritter resumed, "...have to confess...I've been operating undercover, feeding information to the Anti-Unification movement for years.  It started innocently enough...but the longer I was in, the more they wanted, and the higher the price became if they sold me out.  Lt. Cmdr Hardy, Lt. Khan...the rest of you from Echo Squadron that are still alive...I'm sorry.  It was my recommendation that you take the prototypes for the upgraded Veritechs into battle, knowing full well that they hadn't been properly tested.  Maybe, in some way, I can make up for some of the lives lost and suffering endured as a result..."

Wilson shot a look at the Squadron leaders...he had, briefly, spoken with them about Ritter's involvement...the Commander had been found out, but the UEDF had opted to keep him in place.  Wilson had managed to find a way to remove the threat to his crew without violating orders...but it didn't matter, now.  Ritter's secret was in the open.

There was another series of explosions, and some excited, frantic chatter that was barely audible...which indicated Ritter's ship was taking a beating and wouldn't last much longer.  More static broke in as Ritter continued, "We had...*static*...on Titan.  I've been sending a tight-beam signal to them for days, now, with no response.  I...*static*...known, I'd have stayed dark.  Think I led them to us.  They're coming back at you, but there's good news.  We think we found--"

There was another large series of explosions, and the audio cut out almost completely.  When it resumed, there was a tinny, dulled quality to it.  "...survived," Ritter said, his voice tired and pained.  "We won't make it back...but that doesn't mean we won't go down swinging..."  More orders were given, muffled and incomprehensible.

"Don't EVER give up..." Ritter said, his voice labored and almost gasping.  There was another explosion, and the audio cut out completely.

Captain Wilson stepped back to the podium.  "We completely lost the Truman's transponder signal immediately afterward.  Best analysis leaves us with only one conclusion.  The Truman was destroyed, a little more than a million miles beyond Jupiter orbit.  While Commander Ritter's treachery cost us dearly, he died fighting for his planet...and that's the way I hope you will all remember him."  He fell silent for a moment.

"There's more grim news.  Sensors have determined that the alien craft encountered yesterday are NOT part of the main fleet that was part of the attack that resulted in the SDF-1's disappearance.  Their flight characteristics don't match anything we have on file and their overall approach vector doesn't match any of the data we've been able to gather.  The one thing we do know about them is, they're heading for Mars."

He sighed, and added, "There's also a large force...apparently the same group that destroyed the Truman...which is also on an intercept vector with Mars.  We don't know why, and we don't know how many...they've got broad-spectrum signal-jamming going at full strength, and it took every trick in Chief Bixby's not insignificant arsenal to get as much as we did out of Commander Ritter's message.  We know there's a lot of them...and they're screening something.  Whether they've got some new weapon they're bringing back to Earth and they want to hide it from us, or whether they've got some new enemy they're trying to isolate...or some other, less comprehensible motive behind it...we don't know.  What we do know is this...we have to get back to Mars.  If this is some new weapons system, we need intel on it.  If they're fighting another enemy, maybe we can score some points by helping in the battle.  But we need to know what they're doing on Mars, and why they're trying so hard to mask something else's arrival."

He looked around.  "This will be dicey, at best.  We haven't faced their full fleet since most of them took off after the SDF-1 vanished...we've been barely holding our own against the task force they left behind.  We'll be flying against alien numbers unlike anything most of you have seen.  And, on top of that, they've brought in reinforcements.  This could turn into a suicide mission. But our forces need intel, and we're the only ones in a position to get it."  He paused for a moment, brow furrowed in thought.

"Any questions?"

Cain speaks up~ his tone not irreverent but resigned, "So, if a good majority of their fleet is coming to Mars... how are we 'hopping' this...Sir?  Assault and a Glorious but Certain END or a sneak and scouting mission which might succeed~ and I can't stress Might strong enough here?  I might suggest hiding the Ranger close into Phobos .. or perhaps the even smaller Demos.. cause if the enemy catch the Ranger with overwhelming numbers, by default, its a suicide mission. Our Veritechs don't have the Life Support to get us back to Terra.. unless their are anymore Mars bases that have not been blown to dust left?  If their are anymore Mars bases left... if we're quick a small detachment could set up surveillance there and IF we all stay quiet~ we might get to see what we can see.. and hope they move on at some point so we can evac and get our intel back to Earth Gov."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:34, Fri 19 Aug 2016.

Wilson nodded in response.  "All valid points, Lieutenant.  My actual thought is to keep the Ranger just beyond their known sensor range, outside of Mars orbit...and send a small team of volunteers in with Veritechs, under Chief Bixby's direction, to monitor what's happening on the planet."

He raised a remote, and a holo-image of Mars, with its two moons, came up before him.  "If the team takes up an approach vector that is synchronized to Phobos' orbit, they should be able to get at least to Phobos, and possibly even around Phobos, still in high orbit, so they can get a clear view of the planet.  The residual radiation left over from our earlier mission there should mask the energy signatures of two or three Veritechs, especially with the Chief running countermeasures against their sensors...as long as they don't come looking far enough to get actual visuals, you're good.  And with Bixby monitoring everyone's sensor suites, nothing should get close enough to get a look at you without you getting a chance to duck closer to Phobos."

Bixby spoke up.  "We can't stay long around Phobos...might have to dip in and out.  Radiation levels are dangerously high, even with the Veritechs' protection, and the closer we are to the surface, the worse it gets.  I'll have to wait until we're actually there and getting active readings on the actual circumstances to set up a definite strategy...but we can do it."

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.