"Ahh, I see. Do you have an estimate of how far, at least? How did you travel from their to the base, and how long did it take?"

Cerise speaks into her radio "Wraith, we don't have precise coordinates for the landing site; hold off on trying to investigate it until after we have dealt with the current base.
And please update as soon as you have good intel on the current base; it will take the ground troops long to get there, so we need to get moving as soon as we have a good idea of what we're dealing with."

Helen looked at the Alien and narrowed her eyes slightly "Was about one hundred klicks, I know cos we pounded it on foot" She snapped back. Her hand idly lingered on her knife looking at Cerise with barely veiled disgust. "I'm sure you and your alien powers will be able to find it." She sneered then out of respect to rank added "Ma'm"

Cerise wondered at what had triggered such aggression at this moment in this particular soldier. At any rate, other than the implied threat, there was nothing overtly insubordinate about what she had said; indeed, perhaps she could use her "alien powers" to help locate the base, especially given the approximate direction and distance from a known reference point. Of course if she were to do so, she would be out of communication until she could return. Probably best to rely on conventional means for the time being.

"Thank you for the report, Private, since you've given an approximate distance and approximate bearing, it will certainly make the final search for the landing site much easier. As to using my natural capabilities, it seems wiser to use your species' instead; nearly all of the technology around us came from humans, and it won't leave any of us out of communication while we search for the landing site."

Cerise then leaned in, so that she could speak quietly enough so that only Helen would hear

Cerise then returned to her erect posture and resumed "Mr Korvan, since it seems the Vulture is as repaired as it is going to be until we can locate a better means of making repairs, let's find Lt Thakun and organize our approach for making the raid on the base. Hopefully either the base or the landing site will pay off with the means we need to get back into space."

  Michelle was about to reply to Skyrah's last commit when Kakrle replied.

  Her posture and demeanor quickly changed as she respond; 

  It is at this time she realizes they never took the time to investigate the remains of their squad mates.

  When she got close enough to the battle area she radioed; "Switching to Guardian mode and going low to make a look of wraith squadrons downed mecha."

  She slows down and hovers over the battlefield reliving the moments in her mind as she passed the mangled remains of her former team. One of the beta's remains clearly visible as she looks directly at the remains of Banshee's burned cockpit.
  Her expression remained solid as if she was on a automated response to the scene before clicking on her radio again; "Command, One beta looks semi intake and likely to have missiles still in their launchers if you desire to salvage the parts." then her voice seems to be a soft whisper; "Good-bye Banshee."

  Her veritech then returns back to her designated area and continues her patrol.

  With Cerise's commit, he looks at Helen; "Private I believe you have a patrol to lead. Please get to it."


  He stands beside her as he watched the three get to their patrol then he speaks; "Well Ma'am I think we should should come up with some type of plan of action and get our troops focused on something quickly. It looks like morale is suffering, and with low morale we run into other issues and we cannot afford that right now."

  He then follows her into the Vulture.

"Agreed."

Cerise leads the way back to the engineering hatch, where Miriana was running her diagnostics and checking her double-checks of various subsystems and sensors.

"Great job on the repairs, Lt Thakun. Now we just need to find a place where we can take her to get her space-worthy once again.

With that in mind, I've brought Mr Korvan, so we can discuss the raid on the base. As of now we don't know if the Invid have left it entirely or not, however, assuming that they have left some sort of rear-guard there we'll need to have a battle plan to try to re-take it with a minimum of further losses. I can provide communications and sensor jamming cover for the raid, so we should be able to limit our exposure to just whatever is guarding the base itself, at least temporarily. Lt Valentine has an idea for bringing a handful of cyclones into the base under the cloaks of the veritechs or other large mechs, but it is untested, except in simulation, so it could be risky. The wizard claims that he is able to use magic to prevent detection of himself and that he has other capabilities that could prove useful, so he may also be important to the raid. Lt Valentine also indicated that her mech should be there; a delta that is space capable. This would allow us to, at very least, utilize our communication drone that we left at the edge of the solar system, to relay a no-go signal to the fleet.

What do you think, Miriana? Any ideas about the assault? Do you think it is even an advisable idea, given what you know of what the Vulture needs, vs what is likely to be there?

Another topic we'll need to discuss is that we need something for the troops to do. I'm sure Mr Korvan can dream up a million things, and there is the matter of attempting to salvage from the downed veritechs, but is there any work that you need performed or tasks completed, before he sets them to make-work?"

  GM Note, No prop was left, It still has to be built. And unlike tony stark labs, the vulture does not have all those parts without taking them from your mecha and shuttle.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:00, Wed 07 Oct 2015.

Miriana gave a quick nod in recognition as Cerise entered, literally having her hands full meant she could not give a proper salute, but there was still work to be done.

- "Sir, there are still several holes in the hull, but the closest estimate is that they are on the bottom of the Vulture and are unreachable unless we get it on a winch in dock."

She paused for a few seconds before giving her thoughts on the plan.

- "The assault is necessary. The crash fried the navigational computers, we've replaced the hardware but all star charts are lost. Sgt Swift mentioned concerns to morale should this be known to the men and i am in agreement, the base computers would hold at the very least basic maps in their computers that could be loaded into ours as, unlike the Invid, our technology is compatible. Thus, there would have been no reason for the ones defending the base to deliberately destroy this data during the attack. Add to that that it would likely have some spare parts necessary for repairs to the Vulture, and i feel retaking the base would greatly increase our chances to rejoin the fleet."

His comment about 'looking cute riding about on a Cyclone almost instantly made her mad!

"So stupid. Wants to get himself killed, in the most valuable piece of machinery we have, when I could do the same task, in a much smaller machine, with the proper skills. Yes, thats tactically sound. Lets commit suicide in a Delta, instead of using an asset thats trained and equiped for it." Skyrah mutters to herself as she assesses the situation, and just shakes her head at it all. "Oh well, for now he is me Squadron Leader until I am linked back up with my command."

She will continue to scan the area as she conducted her patrol. Now wishing she had not left her flute in her Cyclones packs. "...damnit. Saying I just want to ride around being cute in a Cyclone. If I wanted to flit about being cute, I'd show him a true Veritech Pilot's abilities."

"Ah, good to know. Probably we'll need to find the landing site as well then; Private Grey indicated that it was some sort of space dock facility, as opposed to just an open field; we may be able to use it to act as a jury-rigged dry dock to make the Vulture space worthy.

It sounds like we'll have 3 major objectives in the base, then; getting parts, getting that Delta veritech, and getting data from the computers. Since Lt Valentine has experience with piloting the Delta, she should probably be part of the group that heads for that. And since you are the most informed as to what parts are going to be most useful, you should probably lead that effort. I have fairly extensive training in computers, so I am suited to be part of that effort. I'm guessing that once you've identified all of the parts that could be useful, you may need the heavy lifting capabilities of the veritechs to retrieve some of them. We may want to stage a concealed depot nearby the base for the veritech to ferry such things to, so that we can pick them up at our leisure, should our assault provoke further activity at the base.

Unfortunately I think it is likely that we will retake and hold the base, unless the Invid have completely left the area; they won't broker it being in our hands, if they realize that we've occupied it.

Once we have the parts and information needed, then we'll need to find the landing site, verify that it will meet our needs, move all of the necessary parts and such there, or onto the Vulture, and figure out a way to get the Vulture there without drawing the scrutiny of more Invid. Luckily our first step is pretty clear: assault the base.

I guess we should pick the team for the assault, set up patrols and protocols for those that remain behind, and get started heading towards the base. Wraith have made it far enough out now that they will give us early warning if there are any Invid in the vicinity.

Mr Korvan, if anyone that's available can fly a veritech, even at a minimal competency, we sure could use that, at very least to get the extra Alpha back to the vulture, in the event that we manage to recapture the Delta. Can you ask around and see if anyone's had the basic training for that?"

OOC: In other words, does anyone have Mecha: Pilot Veritechs other than those who are already flying a veritech?

In reply to Skyrah Valentine (msg # 261):

Before clearing the comms he has just one more thing to say about the whole conversation they all just had.

Thirteen looked on the interaction between Helen and Cerise but, as usual, said nothing.

((OOC: I do not have that skill Cerise.))

   Korvan waits till both the Lieutenants finish and give him the chance to speak, while thinking of the new information about the navigation situation. his eyes move back and forth between both of the officers.

  "To answer your pilot question, There is only one other pilot that can operate a veritech fighter and she is laid out in sickbay."

  "I would like to point out that we have limited resources and should avoid any plans that have us trying to take and hold this now broken base should be scratched. This plan should be a get in, get what we need and then get out. We have six major Mecha, our three alpha pilots, who we need to begin to put into a rest rotation soon or risk not having them when we really need them. Sorry Lieutenants, back to the point, we have three veritechs fighters, one hover tank which might be usable, however I do not think its been checked out by our mechanics. A Bioroid Interceptor and my Battlepod. After that we have your Silverback and two HK suits and cyclones."

  He takes a moment to pause before he continues; "My personal suggestion is we Leave the vulture with its crew to continue whatever work they can, while keeping it powered down. We set up three teams to search for your priorities. A quick victory will help our troops with raising morale. Not to mention getting us space worthy once more."

  He looks at Miriana for a second before he turns and looks directly at Cerise "Lieutenant do to the circumstances you need to know certain things about the kids in your command. All of them have false memories, Lt. Michelle Grey is one of three who has any idea of this, Thirteen was also one of the three, and the third died in an accident. Its possible whatever happen to Thirteen is a result of this. I do know its why Lt. Grey was allowed to transfer from the Nerv and from the command of Dr. Ikari, Commander Rockatansky is trying to get her real memories to surface." He does not even look to see if Miriana demeanor changes. "They each have a psychosis and they are incredibly skilled and dangerous. It is for this reason I think Thirteen should be assigned to this mission. His hand to hand skills have him as a dangerous predator which we may need. even if his memories are damaged from some medical procedure, his muscle memory and training should kick in."

 He watches Cerise for her reaction and waiting for questions.

Helen backed away as Cerise leaned towards her, she heard the whisper but made no response except just to grit her teeth. She felt her teeth itching and her fingers she really wanted to deal some damage.

Helen looked at Korvan, "Yes sir" she said and began to move north not looking back she kept her eyes peeled forward as she made her way silently through the marshland north.

Cerise cocked her head and considered for a moment, before answering. "Do you know anything about Helen Grey? She seemed to be in a unit with some of the child soldiers, but, unless my read of her apparent age is incorrect, she does not appear to be a child herself. She also seems to display unwarranted aggression, which seems to match what you've said about the child soldiers. Is she one of them, perhaps just a bit older? Or is the aggression unrelated?

At any rate, I think I'd like Lt Cherkovski to lead to team to recapture the Delta, and obviously Lt Valentine will need to be on that team. I think you, Lt Thakun, should lead the team to retrieve spare parts. As I indicated before, I feel you could benefit from one of the veritechs for heavy lifting, so that means Lt Grey will be on your team. I'll take Thirteen and Silia on my team; I think being small and mobile may be important for getting in and getting data from the computer systems. I'd like Severian to come along, as he will be able to advanced recon. I'm not sure which team he'd be the most help for, once we've entered. The same goes for Ms. Ramsbottom, as well as you, Korvan. Ideally all three of you floaters would be able to magically appear wherever the heaviest resistance occurs; perhaps Severian has a magic spell for that. Barring mystical means, however, I think experience will rule the day when making such predictions, so, Korvan, I want you to lead a floating team, consisting of you, Severian, and our medic."

Cerise smiles as she makes what she considers a bit of dark humor: "Try to be as magical as you can with getting your battlefield leadership, Ms Ramsbottom's medical assistance, and Severian's unusual support into play where it is needed.

Please pick anyone else you would like for your teams; I'll do so as well, and let Lt Cherkovski know as well; he can relay his picks through us, or the bridge, so we can gather up. I think we want to head out in 30 minutes. I'll have Lt Valentine head back so the Alpha can be stowed, and she can head out on ground with the rest of us."

Cerise then waits for Mr Korvan's intel on Helen Grey, before radioing to Wraith once again.

"Wraith, please be advised. We've planned three teams for our assault on the base; Wraith one, you'll be leading the team to recover the Delta and Reader will be on that team. Batgirl will be on the team to recover parts for the Vulture. Kchek, please let us know who else you'd like on your team, so they can head out with us, bearing in mind that some may already be spoken for for other teams. Reader, please return to the Vulture ASAP, so we can stow the Alpha and you can head out with the rest of us."

In reply to Cerise (msg # 267):

"Yes Ma'am. Returning to base." Her voice sounded guarded over the communicator, as she tried to hide the fact she seemed agitated at something. Upon the confirmation she would turn and return to the Vulture.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:10, Wed 07 Oct 2015.

  Korvan shakes his head; "Sorry Ma'am I am afraid i have nothing to offer about the soldier of this base. And the presence of thirteen is shocking to me. I Know reader was assigned to challenge Lt Grey in combat. Keril Adams was another genetically altered child who was suppose to challenge Ayla Winters. My information on the children is do to my clearance with the project." Again he looks at Miriana for a split second. "None of the children are over the age of 16, the oldest of the group will only be turning seventeen soon. and she is one of Dr. Ikari's personally guarded secrets."

  His facial expression contorts showing his deep thought for a second; "Severian is a surprise too, I did not realize they were using Preyton Allies in Shadow ops team. Which means Commander Rockatansky kept it from me or he did not realize he was assigned here either. Which means Dr. Ikari would have brought him. But he seems a sincere enough person. Just does not intent to follow bad orders."

  "I'd also suggest you take Private Patterson with you in case you need something repaired, we should assume we will have one shot at this, and not assume we will get back into the base."

  When Cerise makes her joke, His eyebrow raises; "I am afraid I do not understand the concept of the whole humor thing Lt."     

"Good point, Patterson will be with me, then. Hopefully the veritech recovery team will not be in need of any greater repairs than the pilots can perform, but their goal is definitely a tertiary one, when compared to repairs and data for the Vulture.

And, my apologies about the joke. I intend no offense with this, but the physical similarities between micronized Zentraedi and humans are so great, I sometimes forget to keep in mind the vast differences."

If Miriana wanted to respond to the allegations Korvan was laying against Dr. Ikari, she gave no indication of it. Instead, when Cerise mentioned she should be on the team to get spare parts, she gave a quick nod.

- "I will see if i can get a list from my crew. However, i would need to mention that the damage to the lower hull can only be repaired at a properly equipped location. Even if that location is a pile of rocks with a trench running through it."

As Cerise made her joke, she smirked. She didn't really get the humor humans preferred, but the smile indicated she had just made an attempt at it. In response, she lifted her shirt, showing her stomach areas, and the complete absence of a navel of any kind on it.

- "Some of us are easier to distinguish than others, lieutenant."

Helen kept her eyes peeled as she stalked through the forest, her Saber battle suit moved with skill and grace as she pranced through the marsh. She knew she would have to keep the protoculture signature to a minimum or she would end up bringing a whole swarm of the invid on them. She longed to spot a scout patrol or two and then she would show them what her blades could do. Although she would probably prefer to knock them out of the air with her rifle. She longed for a bit of action. She gritted her teeth as the adrenaline course through her body. She made the hand signal for All clear

It took Cerise a moment to get what Miriana was referring to; she wasn't familiar with any Zentraedi or Human gesture that involved the showing of one's stomach. Then it dawned on her that humans typically are live births from a sexual reproduction process; that fact left them with a scar at the location where they were previously attached to their mothers. After she figure it all out, Cerise smiled, partially at what she perceived as a form of joking and partially at the pleasure of solving the puzzle. "Still, my species has that difference plus a few remarkable others." Cerise rapped on her midriff with her knuckles, so that a rock-on-rock sound was audible. <in zentraedi> "A Meltrandi doesn't care what exists between a Zentraedi's legs."¹

"As for the actual repairs, solving that problem will come later; we should focus on the raid first."

OOC: 1) A joke (that I just made up :) in Zentraedi that, basically, means that one doesn't look for the minutiae of differences when something is completely alien.

  As the two officers share their private jokes between themselves, Korvan just realized a tactical error in their plan before he spoke up; "Lt. I think we should put PFC Nyota with Lt. Thakun so she has a mecha that can give her heavy support both in lifting and fighting. While leaving a wingman for lt. Cherkovaki. I realize he is in a heavy fighter, but if we come under attack i have a feeling they will need each other in the air."
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:25, Wed 07 Oct 2015.

"I'll defer to your tactical expertise, Sgt. Nyota's Bioroid should be just as good, possibly better, than a veritech for most of the purposes that the parts retrieval mission will need. The only exception being, possibly, needing to ferry larger parts out; a veritech in guardian would be both faster and capable of flying. Perhaps the solution for that, however, is simply to stage any such parts, and have the veritech recovery team move to assist with retrieval once they have secured the Delta.
Do we know if Yasan has skill in veritech repairs? If so, it may be wise to send him with the veritech recovery team, since we don't know the current condition of the Delta."

OOC: honestly I had totally forgotten about Nyota; it has been difficult for me to keep track of who is available and what mecha they pilot. Karma Murphy is in the sick bay, and everyone else that is out of commission (mostly KIA) is marked as such in the equipment list, right?

Speaking of which, I also forgot about Yasan.


GM Note: Under combat gear, I have all NPCs listed Under the vulture listing, including those KIA. But i do understand.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:10, Thu 08 Oct 2015.

Listens carefully as the new orders come in from Cerise before opening his comm channel.."Kchek to Sue I read you, at this time I would like to keep my team as it is for this mission over"

He switches his comms over to his squad mates... 

Once done with his quit chat with them he switches comms back in anticipation for a response from Cerise.

Thirteen quietly followed Helen when she signaled. His movements were simple and used minimum effort. Privately he wished he did not have to use his armor at all but orders were orders.

Comms: "Affirmative, Wraith. But you'll have a wrencher with you as well, in case the target is in need of repairs. While we travel to the area, please identify a good rally point. Preferably somewhere that several objects the size of Alphas can remain visibly concealed. Transmit coordinates once you have them."