Vance chuckled.  "Yeah, it's been a week or two, hasn't it?" he asked, his dry tone making a joke of the time estimate he mentioned.  "This one should be pretty simple...SHOULD be..."

Giggling at the dry humor, Hanako smiled and seemed to be more awake.

"I would prefer not to have to fly into a capital ship and explode a second time.  Or fly through the aftermath of nuclear blast again."

She suddenly looked thoughtful as she mused, "Perhaps that is why they have not let us fly together.  Our missions tend to be rather... exciting."

Hearing the familiar voices, Bixby pulled himself out of the cockpit of the Two-Ex, where he'd been making some final tweaks.  "Nobody should be blowing up today, Lieutenant," he commented drily.  "There's not enough of us going to want to pick a fight, and if we do our jobs right, the enemy should never realize we were there."

He looked over at Hardy.  "Have you had a chance to brief her on the mission parameters yet?" he asked.  "I thought DiAvantos was flying this one..."

The Alert sounded, and it was almost lost in the cacophony of the Veritech simulator.. the stress of waiting to hurry up and die had been too annoying for Edwards.  So he had sent up the perameters of their upcoming mission to the tactical sim-Techs to make the possibilities of the mission as close to projected difficulty as possible and then proceeded to die ~ repeatedly; running the sim at the highest difficulty possible ...over and over and over again!  Currently in the sim he'd lost his right battliod arm, one foot thruster, and his wings were riddled with holes but his main body was still at 40% structural integrity... that was really good ~ actually, the best he'd done so far as he used the bulk of smaller Demios Moon as sensor cover from converging fire of 6 flights of pods.  He had one Nuclear reflex missile left ...if he could hold out just a few more seconds he could kill them all!  Officially, from the sims readouts he was already dead his pilot's compartment had been breached nothing lethal but his Life support had been registered as destroyed.. he only had another 30minutes of air left and that was not enough to get back to the simulated victory conditions point of Ranger's Simulated hanger. The scouting part had been successful the living to tell about it afterward not so much... but it was further than he'd gotten before, that had to means something.  The target lock warning from the foes sounded at the same time as the ship alert klaxons and Cain cursed as the simulator automatically paused and shut down~ ending the scenario before the conclusion.

Popping the simulator 'canopy' a scowl on his face, "Damn it, couldn't you have waited jus' one more second?!?"

The technicians looked up and smirked, "Whaddya complaining aboot?!?! Yur were dead annieway!" , the thin technician with the thick Irish accent commented, the one Cain had learned was named Finn 'The Jr.'

The big burly tech named Terrance spoke up, "An alerts and alert Ed!"

Cain climbed out of the simulator pod and paused just long enough to snatch up his flight helmet, before dashing off to the Flight Deck, "...ya don't have to remind me.. Don't call me Ed ~ I'm On It!"

----

Cain enetered the Veritech flight deck at a sprint.. his bird was already warmed up and the flight deck crew waiting impatiently.  Climbing into his cockpit without any word he gave them the 'thumb's up gesture as the canopy locked into place and sealed.  Cain was buckling in when he click on the Comm-net of the Tactical channel, <"...Echo 5, on deck, Ready for launch ~ On Standby.">
This message was last edited by the player at 07:53, Tue 13 June 2017.

Vance grimaced.  "Brandy's down with the flu, I guess...or something she ate last night disagreed with her.  Can't imagine military food EVER causing that problem..."  Thick sarcasm covered his words.

"But, no, I haven't briefed her yet..."  He turned to Hanako.

"Recon...that last big wave of alien craft was headed for Mars and Captain Wilson wants to know what they're up to.  We're gonna do a high pass, sticking close to Deimos, and using the fallout from the explosions we triggered there to mask our presence, and act as passive eyes for Bixby to process at a safer distance.  We're supposed to avoid engagement...ridiculously heavily outnumbered...just spy and scoot as soon as Bixby feels like he's seen enough."

He looked at the Chief.  "Did I miss anything?" he asked, with a grin on his face...the kind of teasing look that long-term veterans would exchange with each other.

Hanako listened to the others discuss the mission, sifting out the important mission facts from the friendly banter.  Hearing that it wasn't a combat mission made her feel a bit better.  While she enjoyed practicing her skills, she never did like the feeling of being fired at.  Being peeled out of a cockpit and covered up in splints and bandages tended to make one a bit less eager to fly headlong into danger.

"So this is a recon mission, then, not a CAP?  That is a relief," she said, feeling less tense than she did when she first got the alert.

"It will be good to fly with the both of you again."

Bixby nodded.  "If you do any shooting on this one, something will have gone incredibly wrong...and odds are extremely high, at that point, that none of us will make it back home alive.  So, yeah...don't get gung-ho on me, because I'm not done fighting this war just yet."  He gave them a tired grin...he'd flown with both pilots often enough to feel safe with their discretion in the cockpit.

"Looks like Edwards has already mounted up, we should probably get in our birds and get going," he commented, looking down the flightline.  Four planes waited in launch position...one with the cockpit closed already, and a helmeted head could be seen inside.

He gave a wave and turned to the Two-Ex.  "We've got enough flight time to talk through any questions before we get to Mars...let's get moving.  It'd be downright depressing to get there and discover that whatever the aliens were doing, they'd already finished and were moving on.  Waste of a good flight..."  With a dry laugh, he headed for his plane, climbing into the cockpit before settling the helmet on his head and starting his launch checklist.

"Haaaaaaaai~" Hanako replied with the tone of someone obeying only because they are required to do so.  The grin she gave Bixby right afterward, however, let him know she actually meant it.

With practiced ease, she tucked her hair with one arm and put on her helmet with the other, sealing it in place before climbing up the ladder to her cockpit.  She quickly performed the pre-flight check, let air control know she was ready, and then waited for her turn to launch.

She understood that their Veritechs had their usual armaments so they could sortie at any time, but she felt a bit uncomfortable flying a stealth recon mission with missiles.

"Right, Chief...on it."  With a smoothness of motion that bore silent witness of the numerous times he'd done it, Vance turned and strode to his plane, setting his helmet atop his head as he climbed and settling it securely into place one he was settled into his cockpit.

"<TC> Flight Control, Echo Lead.  Recon mission is standing by and ready to launch, on your order..."  He made the call while he was a few trivial details away from finishing his checklist...technically, breaching protocol, but he'd done the list so many times that he'd already seen the ready status of his plane without specifically looking at the last few details...just, noticed them peripherally as he was checking other items.  So, he knew he was good to go when he called...

The launch clearance came through immediately, along with a grim, "Good luck," from Captain Wilson.  Hanako and Cain launched, followed shortly by Bixby and Hardy.

"<TC>Okay...Triangle formation, centered on the Two-Ex...I'll tie into your sensors and get us the best possible monitoring alignment going forward.  Fan out to maximum range until we get closer to Mars, so if anyone picks us up, they'll only see one or maybe two planes before we get a chance to divert...Lt. Moriya, you take point, bearing 0 degrees from me. Lt. Edwards, the port aft flank, Lt. Cmdr. Hardy, starboard aft, bearing 240 and 120, respectively.  Should be ranged so you can just barely pick up the other two points of the triangle on your sensors, I should be your only constant strong signal."

Once Bixby explains the formation, Hanako boosts forward, slowing down only when she's a fair distance from everyone.  Once she does, she runs rather silent, the tight band communication through the Two-Ex being her only comms output.

"This is Moriya.  I am in position." she says, her comm being routed through the Two-Ex so everyone can hear.

<TC> "On it Chief!"

Cain's Veritech, banks slightly and side drifts to position, using as little vector thrust to keep his thermal signature as low as possible as he slides into the course correction.

<TC> "In position, linking sensor telemetry now..."

Cain's tone was clipped, curt and all professional... practiced... he'd done this many times before now...
This message was last edited by the player at 09:57, Fri 23 June 2017.

"<TC>Copy that, Chief..."  Vance banked slightly and throttled back, dropping into the position Bixby had described...the other two fighters were almost phantoms on his sensor screen, but the Two-Ex was a clear sensor return.

"<TC>Echo Lead in position..."  He switched over the sensor feeds so Bixby could tie into them and assume some degree of control over their operation, while he focused on maintaining his relative position in the formation.  Out there, so far ahead his eyes could barely see it, Mars lay ahead of them...

Information started streaming in, the software in the Two-Ex correlating and extrapolating information, which it then presented to a frowning Chief Bixby.

"Well, that doesn't make much sense..." he muttered under his breath.  He ran the system again, with a diagnostic to make sure everything was coming out right.  When the results came back, he gave a disgruntled 'hmph'...

"<TC>Soooo....there's no sign of them.  I mean, there are ion traces that indicate they passed this way...but nothing to indicate any current activity..."  He fell silent for a moment, contemplating the situation.

"<TC>Let's keep going.  The ion traces all lead to Mars, we're not close enough yet to see if anything leads away...and I'm fairly certain they don't have anything out there close enough to see us.  The captain sent us out here to solve a puzzle...it's a little bigger than I was expecting, but it's still out there.  Take it slow and easy, Lieutenant...but take us to Mars..."

Vance flew along, holding formation, his eyes darting from his instruments to gaze out the canopy at erratic intervals.  His experience with the aliens had been that any time they weren't where they were expected, bad things were about to start happening, and he wanted to be sure he saw them coming if the tried to follow that pattern.

"<TC>Last time we flew this far with no sign of enemy activity, the Ranger's task force lost a destroyer..." he muttered aloud, apparently forgetting that his mic was still live and he was transmitting on one of the tactical frequencies...

Being the one on point, Hanako knows she's probably the one most at risk of danger from a surprise attack - which the aliens have been very fond of performing.  However, that's only if there's a surprise attack.  Besides, it isn't like she's totally defenseless.

Oh.

Well.

Best not do anything to attract attention, then! she thinks to herself as she does her best to ignore Vance's unintentional broadcast.  While she is mostly focused on her instruments, she, too, is also looking around outside of her canopy for anything out of the ordinary.

Triggering his comm Cain spoke, "<TC> Echo Lead, If Echo 2 would prefer, I'll volunteer to take point... after-all, I'm not a CO...and let's face it ~ mostly considered expendable by the brass.  I don't mind.  I AM bearing most of the anti missile ordnance... though the Zent's prefer particle beams so its not as if its THAT big a risk.  Your call boss."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:54, Mon 04 Sept 2017.

Bixby's voice cut through in terse tones.  "<TC>The flight arrangements are by design, Lieutenant...there's a reason Lt. Moriya's out front.  Please keep comm chatter limited to essentials...we don't know where they are, and we don't want to attract their attention, if we can help it."

The combined feeds from the sensors on all three planes gave him a pretty strong indication...the ion trails of a multitude of enemy craft preceded them, though the trails were starting to dissipate, so the Veritechs weren't likely in much danger of flying up anyone's tailpipe and starting a fight that way.

Bixby indulged in one editorial comment.  "<TC>They're definitely heading for Mars' orbit, if not the planet itself...all the ion trails proceed in a straight line.  Point plane adjust course point-two-five degrees to port...we'll try and get behind the moons and let one of them mask our approach to the planet."

Mars was, in fact, getting bigger...it had gone from a slightly brighter and larger point of light to a reddish marble to something about the size of a softball through the cockpit canopy, and the ice caps and Olympus Mons were visible and growing.

Hanako remained silent over the comms until the course correction was given.  Very briefly, she replied, "<TC>Acknowledged," before making the necessary adjustments to her flight path.  Idly, she wondered what they might find out there.  A few Zentradi?  An outpost?  A full Zentradi base built right under their noses?

She fully trusted Bixby's capabilities and his ability to discern the pertinent facts from the readings, but that did not put her too much more at ease.  She was professional, yes, but she was still human, and she had a gut feeling something was going to happen.

Vance listened in, watching the shift in formation and adjusting his flight path to maintain relative positions to Hanako and Bixby.  He resisted the urge to fiddle with any of his sensor settings...he wasn't used to flying with them focused on a specific arc...but he knew Bixby was processing the data as it was coming in, and changing anything would interfere with that process.

As Mars grew larger, he picked out the smaller specks that were the two moon.  Phobos and Deimos...Fear and Madness, he'd been told the names translated to.  He gave a grim chuckle to himself, thinking that while the fear was held in careful check, there was all kinds of madness running rampant in this mission...

It was Phobos the flight was headed for...and Bixby's sensor readings, enhanced via the connection with the trio of Veritechs, showed heavy ion trails through the region of space near the planet...including some unusual patterns that he'd never seen before.

He keyed in a tight-beam transmission, the narrow wavelength of the message highly unlikely to be picked up by anyone else and, unless they were directly in the path of the transmission, impossible to decipher.  "<TC>Ranger, we're approaching target...seeing all kinds of evidence of heavy enemy traffic through this area, and registering new ion patterns...looks like some new ship-type has entered the area.  Sending a data-burst with our findings thus far, can't keep this connection active when we're around the planet."  He flipped a switch as he stopped speaking, and was rewarded moments later with a green indicator, showing he'd successfully transmitted the data.  He could only hope the Ranger had received it all.


"<TC>Okay, Lt. Moriya...adjust speed to keep Phobos between you and the planet.  Hardy, Edwards, close up formation on her...I'll hang back far enough to stay clear of any signal interference from the radiation..."  They were close enough to the moon, now, that the wreckage from their earlier mission there...using a nuclear stockpile detonation as a screen for their approach to Mars...was becoming visible.

Cain calmed his anxiousness, {Am I spoiling for a fight?  Not good.  Get a grip Cain...'scouting mission' remember?}

Triggering his comm "<TC> Echo 5. Acknowldged."

Angling his Veritech in he pulled in close to Lt. Moriya's/Echo 2's starbard side, the bulk of Phoebos growing on his cockpit and the Wreak of the past mission pinging on his sensor returns.  Now actually able to make out details of her bird.  Close enough to flash her a 'thumb's up' gesture...
This message was last edited by the player at 12:27, Thu 02 Nov 2017.

Keying her direct comm to Bixby, Hanako responded simply, "<TC>Acknowledged."  She then altered her speed and flight pattern per his instructions, being very careful not to attract attention.  After all, aside from the head-mounted lasers, her Veritech was completely unarmed.

The mission was also to remain completely undetected and not to engage the enemy, but the extra incentive to remain out of combat did help, she had to admit.

She glanced over at Cain's Veritech when he pulled alongside her, just able to see the gesture.  Despite her professionalism, she found herself responding with a V held sideways next to her face, and a wink.

Whether or not someone would ever be able to see her winking through her helmet at that distance is anyone's guess.

Vance eased his throttle, keeping his power output at a minimum, and closed in on Hanako's plane.  Looking down at the carnage below, he shook his head.  "Never expected to be flying over this again," he muttered, to himself.

Of course, prior to the war, he'd never expected to be battling alien craft in space, either...when he'd signed up, it was still just the UEDF against the rebel forces that didn't want to serve under a single flag.  He shook his head slightly at the thought...because he really hoped this didn't end up being as cataclysmic as that had been, even as part of his mind laughed sardonically and reminded him that THIS was still part of THAT, and it hadn't ended yet...

With a sign, he keyed his short-range comm...it should be safe to use with Phobos between the planes and the planet.  "<TC>On your five o'clock, Echo Two.  Raven Lead, we should be ready to commence operations on your call..."

Bixby made a few last-second adjustments.  "<TC>Okay, Echo Lead, over the north pole, Echo Two and Echo Five, at 120 and 240 degrees off that around Phobos' circumference.  Stay as close to the surface as you can for as long as the radiation will allow you to, just far enough over the horizon to get a full view of the planet.  I'm collating information so any differences in readouts between your ships gets highlighted and we can take a closer look at any anomalous readings."

He paused for a moment, then added, "<TC>And...go..."