Before she could open her mouth, Cain let loose with something that blew her mind.  Not in that she believed a single bit of it (aside from politicians being power hungry idiots, which was a universal experience the world over), but because of how out there it was.  This was someone she was supposed to fly with, and trust her life to.  He'd already been barely restrained from flying off on his own earlier, and this time, they hadn't even finished the briefing before he was convinced they should toss the mission aside.

When he finished, she started to raise a hand and attempt to speak, but Vance beat her to it.  He made a great deal more sense, in her opinion, and showed, once again, why he was entrusted with his position.

Still, she was taken quite a bit off guard with the whole thing, and looked between the two men with an awkward and confused expression before looking back at Keyes.

"A-ano... I just wanted to know if I may hear the some of the broadcasts from the SDF-1 we picked up."

Cain looked at Vance and shrugged, "Tell ya the truth man... I hope your take is what it really is... but I've learned to be disappointed by people with political power and am Never shocked when they fall to the lowest honorable motivations ~ guess we'll find out when we get to the moon."

Then he looked at everyone's reaction to his opinions, "What?  Yeah we should still go! We've been ordered to... what other choice do we have?  Plus, if the UEDF is going to drop the hammer on someone... I'd rather it be me than the rest of the crew of the RANGER!  Captain Wilson is Still in Command of one of the last ARMED Stations... if the UEDF pulls some shit ~ Earth, as a whole, is going to need him free to act in it's defense.  WE... ultimately don't mater... in the balance of that!"

"If the Captain disregards their order's they will immediately know he's a threat to their political plans and could prepare trouble for the RANGER before they get to Earth orbit again!  Once he returns to Earth Captain Wilson can spread the truth and it will be very hard to stop him from doing so onboard the RANGER... I trust Captain Wilson to do whatever's necessary."

He nods to Hanako, "I agree, can we listen to and or carry a copy of any communications recorded from the SDF-01?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:34, Mon 26 Aug 2019.

"Ummmm...well, a lot of it is just operational chatter...flights on patrols, reporting status, or comm chatter during skirmishes with the aliens.  And a lot of it is really garbled...like, the aliens are jamming signals.  If we didn't know where they were, and weren't listening for them, we probably wouldn't even register it as anything beyond background radiation bleeding into our comm spectrum."  Bixby shrugged.

"It takes a lot of filtering and processing, along with a little data extrapolation, to come up with much of anything coherent...with a few exceptions.  We picked this up just a few hours ago...I've only had time to clean up the audio, the computer's still chewing on the video signal that came with it, but..."

He slipped a datacard into a reader and started playback...there was a fanfare, which didn't quite sound like it was played by actual brass instruments, then a burst of static, which cleared up just in time to hear, "...the first annual Miss Macross Competition!"  The announcer (presumably...they all had 'that' voice) continued listing off prizes for the winner.

Bixby stopped it at that point.  "It goes on like that...an occasional burst of noise obscures the signal, stuff that we just couldn't get rid of no matter how much the computer chewed on it...but they introduce contestants, have interviews, announce finalists..."  He sounded almost disappointed as he explained, "The signal dropped out completely before they announced a winner, although we've gotten stuff since then that confirms they're still there."

For a moment, he got a case of little-boy-face, as he added, "You remember Jan Morris, the actress?  She's one of the contestants!"

Vance's face clouded in a scowl when he heard the fanfare...and then the announcer.  As the playback continued, he looked around the room to gauge the reactions of the various people there...although Bixby seemed unusually animated by the whole thing...Guess he's got a thing for Jan Morris... Vance thought.

When Bixby finally stopped the playback, Vance spoke up immediately.  "They're on a warship...surrounded by an alien armada that is apparently attacking them at will...and they're having a beauty pageant?"  He shook his head in disbelief.  He knew Gloval by reputation, and the man was a fighter, through and through...but to see (well...hear) the rest of the ship's populace had become so accustomed to war that they decided to have a beauty competition in the middle of the fighting put that in a whole new perspective, for him.

Cain gave Vance a similar lopsided 'Are you kidding me?' look when Chief Bixby played the recordings.

Then he pondered it for a bit...

"Miss Macross?  As in the Island name and the city that developed around the reconstruction project?"

"Didn't the SDF-01 take a large section of the island with it?  I also believe a SLV Beachmaster and a CVS Carrier involved in evacuation operations went missing with the Battlefortress and the Half the damned island.  You don't think they managed to save a good chunk of those civis do you?  I mean the Beachmaster and the Carrier are submersible... not really made for vacuum but in a pinch... they could hold pressure!"

"I'm just saying if you suddenly found yourself with a large population of civis on a Warship.. how would YOU keep them distracted over a long  unscheduled space journey?"

"But surely they would not have enough provisions for any significant populous?"

Then he though a little more, "Well I guess they must have saved some civis.. if this Jan Morris is still alive?  Isn't she that blonde day-time soaps actress?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:35, Wed 28 Aug 2019.

Vance shrugged.  "I dunno...I recognize the name, but I couldn't tell you anything she was in..."  He glanced over at Bixby, who was obviously a fan, and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, Chief..."

He looked back to Cain.  "You're right...the Daedalus and the Prometheus both vanished pretty much at exactly the same time as the SDF-1.  And..."  He shrugged, and continued, "I mean, up until we got the news that they'd located the space-fold drive for the SDF-1 somewhere out close to Jupiter, we all thought the aliens had blown up the ship and everything around it...always wondered why they left a 'caretaker task force' watching Earth when the rest of their fleet moved out, since it seemed kinda like they left because the battle fortress was destroyed and there was no longer any reason for them to stick around.  I don't know how space-folds work, so I don't have any idea how they'd have taken a chunk of the island and surrounding seas with them...but it looks like they did.  I mean, those two ships would explain why the configuration of the SDF-1 was different on Mars than it was back before the aliens attacked..."  He sat back, pondering the massive number of imponderables that seemed associated with what they were just learning.

Hanako had a few things she would have said if she hadn't been literally vibrating with nervous excitement when she heard the recording and the name of a prominent civilian.  The moment Vance stopped talking, she blurted out, "There were shelters for the residents plus the crew in and around the SDF-1 and my family was directly involved in Veritech development manufacture and maintenance on the island so if there's enough of a civilian population to hold something like this then it is entirely possible my family is on the SDF-1 kyaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

She did it all in one breath, too.  If anyone was still wondering why she'd been acting different lately, it just got answered.

Cain smiled, wanely at Hanoko, "Glad to hear it LT!  My mother was moved from the Philippines E.B.S.I.S. monitoring station to Alaska last I heard to some hush-hush military project or another.  My lil' sis complained about not wanting to go where it was cold all the time from her beach house in..."

"Wonder if I'll ever see them again...", he trailed off into silence his mirth replaced with somber foreboding.

Co<mmander Keyes cleared her throat subtly.  "We're all glad to hear that your family may be alive, Lieutenant...but staying on the topic at hand, we have no reason to believe UEDF is attempting to muscle out the Robotech forces.  We are all, theoretically, on the same side, and while they have displayed the expected shortsightedness common to politicians, nothing potentially alarming has come up."  She looked at Cain with the barest hint of a smile, and continued, "I'm glad to hear you're not actively opposed to going.  That would be tantamount to mutiny and would put the Captain and myself in an extremely awkward position."

She looked at the group.  "As there appear to be no further questions regarding your recall to the moon base, we will continue on course at cruising speed.  The four of you should be ready to launch in six hours.  While I recognize that front-line duty can be a little rough, it would be advisable for all of you to try and put on as finished an appearance as possible.  While there will doubtless be military personnel at this debriefing, there are also most certainly going to be politicians, whose perception of what you say will be filtered heavily by their perception of how you look.  You've got six hours...shower, shave...get a haircut...make sure your nails are clean, polish your flight boots...all that fun military-flight-school-inspection prep that I'm certain you've done dozens of times."  Her voice softened, as she added, "How they see you will impact how they continue to treat us.  Give them every reason to assume we're all professionals."

Cain's eyes went wide and he immediately stood and crisply saluted, "Ma'am, I apologize ma'am!  It was never my intent to suggest any mutinous action ma'am!  We are soliders... we take orders! I only meant to suggest a possible reason for the seeming short-sightedness of some of the given directives, ma'am!  I apologize to my fellow officer's if my comments were taken in such a fashion, it was not my intent, ma'am!"

His expression held no mirth now.. he was deadly serious!
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:14, Thu 29 Aug 2019.

Commander Keyes held up her hands in a kind of attempt at a calming gesture.  "Nobody's accusing you of mutiny, Lieutenant...not even attempted mutiny.  Personally, and off the record, I think it's kind of ridiculous that they're pulling you in days ahead of the Ranger, just for a debrief that could easily be handled by standard communications, so even though I don't share your expressed suspicions about their motives, I certainly understand any reluctance to go.  I just don't think they would be so understanding, is all."  She smiled, almost apologetically, as she spoke.

Vance managed to shake the look of surprise off his face.  "Easy there, Cain...pretty sure none of us thought you really meant anything mutinous.  I think the Commander was just making the case that, if your scenario was correct, UEDF could make a case against us for refusing to go...that'd put Captain Wilson in the position of having to arrest us and turn us over, or actually turn rogue and really commit mutiny."  He shrugged.

"And since you said that you weren't suggesting we refuse to go, it's all an academic argument, anyway...doesn't matter."  He turned to Commander Keyes.

"Commander, I want to suggest Lieutenant Khan act as Command officer for the Ranger Air Group in my absence.  She's not 9nly got seniority, but she's got the combat record for it."

The orders were given, the necessary shuffling around made...it was decided, for the sake of flight operations, that three more pilots would accompany them to the Moon, giving them the planes to fly a diamond formation with the Two-Ex in the center, on perpendicular flight planes...that would maximize their scanner coverage and actually give them enough planes to put up a fight if the enemy somehow managed to get the bounce on them...six Veritechs, with experienced pilots, could hold their own long enough to get reinforcements from either the Ranger or the Moon base, depending on where along their flight path they were.

Orders were passed along to Lt. Kelly Jones, Isaih Rhodes, and Alec Fairfolk to report to the flight deck six hours later, along with Hardy, Moriya, and Edwards...and, of course, Bixby.  The basics of the mission were laid out...they were to minimize radio chatter...while the mission was not, technically, a classified operation, it was supposed to remain quiet...and make sure that the four pilots who'd been involved in the recon operation at Mars, where the SDF-1 had been sighted and confirmed operational, were delivered safely to the Moon base for debriefing by UEDF brass.  Best wishes were given, they were assured that the Ranger would have four planes on standby to help until they were closer to the Moon than the Ranger, and Lt. Khan was notified of her temporary status as Commander of Flight Operations until such time as Hardy returned...

Within ten minutes, all seven planes were on the flight line, awaiting launch...

Kelly worked with her crew chief to get her craft ready for launch, testing flaps and controls.  The VF1A was in good shape and quickly passed tests, she gave a last thumbs up to her crew chief and lowered the canopy, pulling her respirator into place on her helmet and turning her radio to assigned coms for the flight.  Her accent is rich and genuine UK, sounding friendly.

"Echo four, Wildcat, ready for launch.  Radio check."

She reflected with a smirk on just how she got that nickname.  Of course some assumed it was related to sexual exploits, or described how she did her piloting or such.  But the real story always caught up to her.  She'd been chased by a puma from the slit trench with her drawers in a bunch around her hips and toilet paper flying and trailing everywhere during a survival training exercise.  Wildcat stuck.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:12, Fri 11 Oct 2019.

Vance settled into his cockpit, helmet in place, as his crew chief checked a couple of things before descending the ladder and removing it.  "You bring my bird back in one piece, you hear me, Academy Brat?" he admonished.

Vance laughed softly.  "I'll bring OUR bird home, Chief, don't you worry..."  Vance still remembered the first time his chief had given him that warning...and made the mistake of calling him 'college boy'.  It was, Vance had learned, an old habit, held over from the era when most officers had gotten a university degree and with it, their commission...it had bred a new respect between his ground crew and him when they learned that he'd earned his flight status the old-fashioned way...the blue-collar sensibility they all shared had created a closeness that most pilots aimed for but never quite achieved.

He buttoned up the cockpit once all the systems had checked out, calling on the comm system as the canopy seal engaged.  "Echo Lead, standing by for launch..."  The engines had the perfect whine of their high-idle setting, a sound that he felt as much as heard, and the familiarity of it was a great reassurance to him.

Cain settled into his cockpit attached his umbilical cables to the life system for the long journey, sealed his helmet giving the flight crew the passing thumb's up without ever look at them... his mind still a swirl of loss and resigned disappointment.

He tried to resist looking around the flight bay... too many memories best left in the past.  He doubted he would ever see the RANGER again... but it was probably for the best... he'd lost family here that connection he'd so wanted with a fellow 'Edwards' who had in common the battle-scars and baggage inherited from his father.  A search for solidarity with another of his own blood... denied before he ever got the chance to find out who his step-sister Nina was.  Then the loss of Parker... his kid wingman... again... Cain's story... the Eternal Survivor when pilots~ better people, people unlike him who were filled with life and hope.. and not anger and resentment died left and right while HE kept on surviving!  People who deserved life ..perhaps more than him.. and yet.. HE Always survived ~ HIM, the screw-up... the loud-mouth, obsessive, with the Asshole father!  All he had was his dedication to protecting the Earth and what little family he loved... but then now he's being pulled from the fight.. not allowed to join the SDF-01 to help, not allowed to seek the enemy and force them to leave his world alone, Not able to save his step-sister Nina's life...how could he protect his mother or little sister playing the 'Got Ya!' word games with the Brass when he should be out here fighting... the only Damned thing he was ANY good at?

He could hear his father's biting sentiments now ~ 'Dyings a job for grunts Boy, let somebody else die for their 'Country'... if you were ANY different from me you'd find a way to stay in the fight and likely die stupidly ~ Your more like ME than you Know or Admit, Boy!'


He took in a breath and slowly let it out... trying to silent his emotions and briefly fogging half his face plate, 'Will I EVER find peace from the Demons of Regret, Anger and Loss that laugh at me continually?'

He pre-flight checked his plane ~ himself all on automatic going through the motions like a zombie his mind on his self-perceived personal failings and regrets ~ anger simmering in his belly all the while.  It was the radio check that brought him back to the conscious here-now of their orders and mission.

"<TC> Echo Five. Pegasus, Engines Hot. Ready for launch."

His tone was mechanical but the undercurrent was noticeable to those who knew him, Cain did not want to be doing this, but orders were orders.

He muttered, 'Time to see how much flying Horse-shit the brass has ready for us to take...'
This message was last edited by the player at 10:55, Fri 11 Oct 2019.

Hanako had left the hairclip in when she suited up.  It may not be full uniform, but it did keep her hair out of her eyes, and it was cute - and less distracting than taping a photo to the cockpit console of a highly maneuverable and fast craft in a zero g environment.  She did, however, remain professional as she nodded in thanks to her flight crew.  She did not have the joking relationship with them that Hardy did, but she still appreciated their work and they knew it.  The fact that she actually listened to them and gave them useful feedback probably helped.

Helmet and suit sealed, she climbed into her VF-1J and ran through the pre-flight check.  All green, just as she expected.  She took note of the loadout as the canopy closed and followed the ground crew into takeoff position.

"<TC>Echo Two, ready to launch."

The others called in ready, and in short order, the seven planes were in space, in an octohedron formation with the Two-Ex at the center.  Bixby tied into the other planes' sensors, and they were on their way back to the Moon.

"Whaddaya think they're gonna ask you about?" Rhodes asked, after they got orders from the Ranger to switch to short-range only.  His tone implied that he didn't really expect anyone to know...but it was a long flight ahead of them and he hadn't ever been particularly good at long flights in silence.  It made him antsy...

"Pretty sure they told you as much as they told us in the pre-launch briefing, Rhodes...probably just trying to make sure we're actually sure we saw what we say we saw, since nobody else has been able to verify the condition, or even existence of SDF-1 since the aliens attacked."  Vance, for all his certainty displayed aboard the Ranger, sounded like he was uncertain of just what to expect...and not thrilled about the prospect of facing that uncertainty.

"All depends upon if they have already decided the narrative they want to hear or if this is actually a fact finding inquiry to support whatever narrative protects them from public backlash... its all the same in the end."

"Expect to have your integrity as a competent pilot to be called into question..."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:53, Sun 20 Oct 2019.

Bixby's voice came in an almost-mocking laugh.  "They're gonna have a hard time questioning the sensor logs I brought along.  Human perception can be a funny thing...even if they decide that we convinced ourselves that we saw something that wasn't there, they're not going to have an easy answer for three planes all registering the same object that the pilots reported.  Going to have an even harder time explaining the recorded broadcast snippets...although they might question the sanity of the crew, with them hosting a beauty pageant while they're trying to fight their way through the aliens.   But they can't just dismiss it as overactive imagination."

The Two-Ex adjusted course minutely.  "Everyone be sure to keep your sensors on passive.  With our formation, we should pick up any alien patrols in advance so they can't get the jump on us, but I don't want any extra power output highlighting us for them."  The ECM package on the Two-Ex could mask them from casual sensor scans as long as they weren't broadcasting energy output...that made things a lot more difficult.

Kelly kept her opinions and observations to herself, she was on loan.. more or less, and didn't really have a camaraderie with the people of her flight.  She did frown deeply listening to the Chief talking, though, muttered a little under her breath.

"Never heard of esprit de corps, it seems."

She decided she might not like the pilot of the 2X, but that didn't have a thing to do with duty.  If those men and women were trapped that long and far from home for as they have, giving up their lives left and right, what right did they have to judge them for something to lift their spirits in a dark time.

Besides, her old unit in the UK military had done an 'amateur night', where the men dressed in drag and the women in suits judging them.. in much the same fashion.  She frowned deeper.  Yes, she decided, that 2X pilot was probably a self righteous asshole.

She shrugged and checked over her instruments again.  Oh well.

The flight progressed in silence, and relative peace...a couple of times along the way, Bixby ordered everyone to shut down engines and coast, while he ran ECM against the possibility that a sensor contact turned out to be an alien scout ship...but nothing came close enough to identify positively.  Autopilots kept the Veritechs on course as pilots napped...if they could sleep...until the Moon started to loom large through their canopies.

"TC:  Moon Base, this is Ranger Flight, on approach.  Request approach vector..."  Bixby's voice had an edge to it that was easily picked up by those who'd flown with him before...he tended to sound either bored or playful, depending on his mood...tense was a tone that didn't often color his words.

There was a brief pause, followed by a slightly surprised voice.  "Copy that, Ranger Flight.  UEDF officials are waiting to meet you in the hangar.  Follow approach beacon Alpha Alpha Two Three."  The beacon appeared on the screens of all the planes, providing a constantly-updating stream of speed and heading information to put them on the approach path.

"Great...waiting on us...that doesn't create any worrisome implications in my head..." Vance muttered, knowing the short-range comms between the planes would pick up the comment and hoping they were still far enough out from the Moon that they didn't overhear it there.

He tweaked a couple of settings on his console.  "<TC>Roger that, Beacon Alpha Alpha Twenty-three.  Beacon is locked and preparing for approach.  Could you guys do us a favor and notify the Ranger that we've arrived safely?  Wouldn't want Captain Wilson worrying any more than necessary about our status..."  It was uncertain just how far ahead of the Ranger they were, but the Moon Base had long range comm gear that the Veritechs did not, and hopefully even had the Ranger on tracking systems.  How they responded to the request would give some hint as to whether they were actually here just to get debriefed, or whether there was something more serious in the works...

Cain snicker at Hardy's comments, "Well nothing for it boss... let's get down there and find out just how much ketchup were gonna need on this big shit-sandwich".

Then as if on que.. the landing strip came into sight.

"<TC> Landing Strip spotted, Echo Lead.  3 O'clock."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 15:04, Fri 08 Nov 2019.