Meiko is for a moment very happy, hearing her CO's voice, she takes a seat.  She nods soberly at the news, reaches for the tumbler and raises it towards the Major for a toast.

"Once a Knight... Is never enough."  She intones, one would assume glasses would click.  She will take a good sized quaff and set it back down, staring at the glass a moment before raising her eyes again.

"What's the SITREP, Pirate?"  She eyes the glass, then picks it up and toys with it, taking another, smaller, sip after a moment.

Ethan quickly grabs a seat, looking around at his depleted squadron, taking note of who is present and who is missing.  He listens to the XO's comments and quickly asks, "XO, rumors have us near bloody Pluto, is that tru?  Any word on what's gonna happen from here?"

Aksa continues along on the tour, noting in reserved silence as Lieutenants Levina and Ambrose split away from the group after 'something comes up'.

Turning back to her own tablet, she continues what she was doing there. Mainly confirming her action reports for both the Battle and the Recovery Operation were processed and signed off by their recipients as well as jotting some engineering ideas down for later.

[Private to Darkside Trooper: She is also working on a package to be submitted, recommending that those that had participated on the VF and Pilot Recovery operation (Ferry Pilots, SAR folks, etc.) be recognized for their efforts...(insert appropriate level/type here based on nationality etc. *Clarification: For those under her 'command', she can't really recommend herself for anything anyway.)]

As the tour makes its way past the Medical Center she pins that location on her tablets map feature...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Mon 01 Oct 2018.

In reply to Meiko Levina (msg # 151):

Jason takes a sip of the whisky. "Well the Black Knights are being de-established. I've been given Hensagliska to command..." he then briefly explained why "....their CO bought it clearing the island after the space fold."

"Hensagliska is being increased in size to sixteen vee eff one dee's. I don't know if I can get a you a lot in the squadron. But  I'll try."

"The rumors are true Sub Lieutenant Ambrose, we are in orbit around Pluto."

"I don't know what the overall plan in, but I know recovering the civilians from the shelters on Macross Island is a priority. After that I guess we'll space fold back Earth orbit."

Trying to gently remove/pull the fanjets wing from the airlock and is unsuccessful.

[Private to Jack O'Neil: You can pull really hard, or simply cut the wing off with your head laser.]

In reply to Jason 'Pirate' Davis (msg # 154):

Meiko takes another sip as she ponders that news.

"Thank you sir.  It would be an honor.  If I can't be with you again, see if you can't find me slot with the three I have been since it started.  We all lived through it, together, that battle.  If I can't be with the Marines left, put me with them if you have the pull.  They are all fine pilots."

She shrugs, then takes a deeper sip, nearly finishing her glass.

"What's the skinny on where we are?  The toilet walls say pluto.. or Uranus.  That might have been there before the jump though."

"Of course it could not be that easy" Jack grumble to himself as he notice that be can't remove the plane the easy way. "Shifting to laser to cut of the wing" he then proceed to use the head laser to cut off the wing.

In reply to Darkside Trooper (msg # 155):

Thinking about his family and the memories he left in his room, Ethan asks "Any chance we can get back to our rooms to recover our belongings?"

A few minutes after submitting her recommendations for the recovery operation Aska receives a chime on her tablet.
[Private to Aksa Tikkanen:
>Report to ready/briefing room for 90th Fighter Squadron, room 621<]

"I've put in a request for this to happen. I haven't heard back yet."

In reply to Jack O'Neil (msg # 158):

It takes Jack a minute to cut the wing of the Fan Jet off with his VF-1's single head laser. He's careful not to over heat the laser and turn it to slag.

Skull 6 is standing by to ensure that the Fan Jet doesn't float away after being disconnected from it's wing. The two veritechs then land (in guardian mode) in one of portside airlocks/recovery bays.

As Lt. j.g O'Neil and the pilot of Skull Six witness several rescue personnel (actually graves registration personnel) opening the cockpit of the Fan Jet. The hope that anyone is alive inside is short lived. An Asian girl in her mid-teens is sitting in the lap of the pilot, a Caucasian male in his late teens or early 20's. Neither body shows much sign of struggling to get out of the cockpit, indicating that decompression was quick and both probably lost consciousness rather quickly.

The bodies are removed from the Fan Jet Cockpit and placed in body bags. Some breaking of bones is done to fit them in the body bags. As the bodies as being carted away Commander Roy Fokker approaches, speaks to one the graves registration personnel. After the graves registration personnel point to a particular body bag Commander Fokker checks inside. Upon doing so he completely loses it, clutching the body as if it was a family member. Recomposing himself, but still visibly distraught he accompanies the graves registration personnel to (probably) the morgue.

Upon hearing her tablet chime she reads the incoming message.

"Pardon me." She asks the Tour Leader, then asks if they can show her where on the map a certain location is.

She then makes her apologies, has Lt. Kotila take notes to cover what she will miss, then dismisses herself from the group.

She makes her way to the designated room, enters quietly, signs in, and looks around. She avails herself of any coffee should it be offered, refilling her thermos.

[Private to Darkside Trooper: If room is full or near to it, she'll just take a seat nearby the entrance in an unobtrusive manner.
If room is empty, she'll find a seat towards the front and wait.
If room has one to a few folks in it, she'll greet them with a nod, but doesn't interrupt any ongoing conversations.
Etc etc.]
This message was last edited by the player at 19:34, Tue 02 Oct 2018.

Watching his commander officer leave with the body bags Jack can't help but feel sorry for him and wonders if someone need to keep a eye on the man.

Feeling the drain from bringing back a loved one Jack is glad that his patrol shift is over and after having checked that everything is okay and left a report to head chief about the veritech, Jack leave the hangar and heads out to get something to eat.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:27, Wed 03 Oct 2018.

"Until they get the squadrons re-organized I'll have you assigned to Hensagliska. Get me the names of those other three pilots and I'll see what I can do, but no promises."



"Yeah South Ataria Island is now Pluto's second moon." He pauses a second before saying something else, but refrains from doing so. "The plan right now is to collect all the civilians from the shelters and then go back to Earth."

"Anymore questions? I have a squadron commanders meeting in fifteen."

OOC: The Fold drive being gone isn't common knowledge...yet.

She smiles, and scribbles down the names of the three she knows on a sheet of her notepad, rips it off and offers it to him.

"I might have murdered the spelling on the Finn's name a little.  I added their callsigns from the battle as well."



A snort from the female pilot.  "Situation Normal... yeah, FUBAR."



She finishes her drink, neatly sets it on the commander's desk and stands.

"Thank you for telling me in person, sir."

And... exit stage left, drop curtain, fade scene?

The next week is like a blur.....

Aksa Tikkanen seems to disappear, she's seen a few times by the others but only in passing and is apparently really busy and really can't talk about what she is doing.

Jack O'Neil continues to operate with VF-84 flying CAP's.

Ethan Ambrose also continues to fly with his squadron, flying CAP's as well. He does get a chance to retrieve his belongings from the military base on Macross Island. This requires an EVA, but he gets the hang of it.

Meiko Levina, ends up flying CAP's with VMFA(AW)-144 “Hensagliska" (USMC), she ends up flying with a different WSO every time she goes up. She is still not given a chance to retrieve her personal belonging from the UES Prometheus.

Douglas Jennsen, a reserve pilot from the 28th Fighter Squadron (USAF) is also flying CAP's.

---

An odd operation begins about 3 days after the space fold. A number of the spacious hanger decks in the left engine boom are cleared of the mecha and vehicles stored there. This makes it quite cramped within the hanger decks of right engine boom. The exceptions seems to be the two veritech launch decks in the right and left engine booms.

The vacated decks are then depressurized, and whole buildings from Macross city are brought into the ship (with veritechs doing a lot of the moving) and placed in a city like arrangement. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the higher ups intend for Macross City to be transplanted into the UES Macross. The only question is why, especially if all the ship needs to do to get back to Earth is fire up its fold drive again..

---

A large salvage effort is also occurring on the UES Prometheus, and the UES Daedalus. both vessels are being made space worthy. Apparently command intends to bring them back to Earth when the UeS Macros space folds back to Earth.

---

During downtime many personnel are asked if they want to transfer to the UN SPACY. Said transfer doesn't include any promotion or benefits. It just something that command would like to do in order to promote unity. The reason for this isn't really explained and makes no sense because all the UES Macross needs to do to get back to Earth is fire up its fold drive again.

OOC: Free free to post what you do on your downtime. Don't seek out Aksa, she's not around to be found.

If you want to transfer to UN SPACY, please PM me.

Wrapping herself in the comfort of being among fellow Marines she is a little astonished by the request to join Spacey, it doesn't make a lot of sense to her, and she has plenty of loyalty to spare for her service.

Spare time is spent sleeping and scheming on how to procure alcohol.  Consuming alcohol is entirely dependent on schedule, as busy as they are she likely has little time for other than a night cap.

Scuttlebutt flies about why they were doing what they were doing, and just why they haven't jumped back to earth.  Lots of nervous pilots, lots of stories flying around.  Meiko tries to focus on work, though now and then she can be found just staring off... remembering.

"Has... any word from Earth been received?"

Feeling a little more at home after retrieving his personal belongings, especially his memoirs of his family and of course his underwear.  Ethan enjoyed the EVA adventure to retrieve his belongings, making him more comfortable in space. All the flight ops are also paying off as he routinely spends his CAP time screwing around to improve all aspects of space flight.  Ethan would find reasons to extend his watches to take excursions on Macross Island to work on guardian and battloid modes.  He is always truing to perfect his skills to honor his family.

Trying to get into a regular routine, Ethan spends his time with squadron mates.  One unsavory task was honoring their fallen commander in giving him a proper burial, one of the many causalities of this new war.  Ethan also finds himself enjoying the time spent with his new comrades from the first day of the war, always looking forward to hearing their tales from the days work.  Ethan feels Meiko's concern for nightcap supplies, noting the squadron's supplies is dwindling quickly.  Ethan notices the absence of Aksa, his wingman, but attributes it to the chaos they all find themselves in these days.

Also Ethan has checked out the process of bringing the civilians onboard, and their struggles below decks.  He got to know a few of them during his time off on Macross Island, noticing the construction with the city buildings coming onboard he wonders if life will return to normal onboard the ship.  Amazing things going on in a short time.

Relaxing somewhat once the stability have returned to the ship Jack return to his old habits by training in various means, he can often be seen running large areas that is available when he is not spending time with the squadron or other assignment.

If possible Jack will try and find those that he flew with and try and spend time with them.

Douglas is unsure how long it has been.  He is exhausted, has had no sleep since the attack, having spent all of his time assisting with the Macross City refugees.
Befire the attack happened, he had been placed on public relations duty because of his reserve pilot status.  Basically, he was dressed in his dress white "ice cream suit" while telling tourists the history of Macross Island and the SDF-1 while guiding tours.  The attack happened during one of his tours, and he ended up leading almost a hundred civilian residents and tourists, and five Marines, to one of the emergency shelters00.  At one point, he had picked up a lost rifle, and helped the Marines fire at one of the gigantic warriors to lead it away from the shelter.
When they made it to the shelter, there were nearly three hundred people, including another twenty military.  Finding himself the ranking officer, he decided to button-up the shelter, silencing the protest of the Marines by reminding them that their assault rifles had proven useless on the enemy.
When the space fold happened, Douglas did not fully realize what had occurred, just that the sudden lack of gravity, and a look at the security screens, confirmed they were in space.  The resulting panic tested the young man's patience, and his yelling caused him to nearly float into a small child.
Showing people how to move in the lack of gravity helped calm people, and allowed children to have some fun.  He had set people to securing supplies while he took an inventory and names.  Luckily, the shelter had been built with hermetic seals, a solar-powered genetatorand batteries (with panels outside on the roof of the entrance), air scrubbers and food and water.
Once they had been rescued, he had spent a great deal of time helping to get people set up with places to sleep and supplies of food and water.  He also felt the need to explain that they were on a military vessel and, therefore, under martial law in a wartime situation.
Now, he just wants to find something to eat and somewhere to sleep for a couple of days.....
This message was last edited by the player at 05:59, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Meiko hears nothing substantial to her questions. Instead she is pretty much kept busy.

Ethan volunteers some of his off duty time to assist the civilians. While on duty he is asked if he'd like a transfer to the UN SPACY, something his squadron CO (the former XO), and XO (the next senior pilot) have already done.

[Private to Ethan Ambrose:
Feel free to add in hooking up with a civilian if you want

PM me if you want to transfer. At this point it does not matter if you do or don't.]

Jack, along with the majority of VF-84 Jolly Rodgers follow Commander Fokker's lead and transfers tot he UN SPACY. While Jack isn't promoted Commander Fokker is promoted to Captain (OF-5).

[Private to Jack O'Neil:
Your now a 2nd Lt in the UN SPACY Fleet]

Douglas soon links back up with the survivors of his squadron, the 28th Fight Squadron 'Scorpions.' He is soon flying CAP (Combat Air Patrols). The sqadrons (among others) is soon assisting in the salvage effort to move whole building into the UES Macross. One night after a sortie, Douglas runs into one of the US Marines he had ordered to join him in the civilian shelters. The USAF veritech pilot is led to a barracks where the rest of the Marines he ordered into the shelter are. The Marines show their gratitude by getting Douglas good and drunk that night.

[Private to Douglas Jennsen:
You can mention hooking up with one of the Marines (male or female). Yeah its fraternization, but you were drunk. ]

Aksa is seen a few more times, now wearing a UN SPACY Ground Forces uniform, and Major (OF-3) insignia. Again she seems REALLY busy going to and from meeting s and so forth and doesn't have much time to chat.

[Private to Aksa Tikkanen:
You can post doing whatever. Just not interacting with the others.]

OOC: I will be getting a separate post up.

At the insistence of the alarm, Douglas sits up groggily in the bunk.  Rubbing the sleep from his face, he is surprised when he looks up blearily to see a pretty asian woman half dressed in Marine cammies.  So, that actually happened?  It wasn't a drunken hallucination?
"Which time do you think is the hallucination, sir?"  There is a mischievous smirk on her face.  "If you hadn't saved our asses out there, I might almost feel insulted."  She sits down in the desk chair to pull on her boots.
He stands up, the blanket falling away.  Corporal... um, Cunningham is it?  Do you know any good hangover cures?
"Yessir.  Corporal Teruka Cunningham," she as she looks up, eyeing him with a smile.  "I can think of a good one, but we don't have time.  I'm running late for muster."  With her boots tied STRAC, she stands and grabs her cammie blouse and cover.  "I suggest some rigorous PT, a shower, and a good breakfast, sir.  Or as close to it as you can get right now."  She moves and kisses him on the cheek, then to the door.  "Mixing your drinks and eating before drinking help, too."
He finds his own clothing and begins to get dressed.  Thanks, corporal.  I have never been drunk before.
She peeks out the door.  "Then perhaps we should do away with the drinking, next time, sir.  Or, am I going to have to get you drunk every time?"
She smiles and winks at him before disappearing into the hall.
He sits forseveral moments, rubbing some feeling into his face before he realizes what the Marine corporal had said as she left.  What have I done?  He smiles, and chuckles, then looks up.  Seeing a photo of his parents on the night stand, he reaches over to lay it down to hide them from view.  He had been lucky enough to find most of his belongings during one of the rescue sorties.  He retrieved his military duffel, his rucksack, and his gymbag.  However, he could not find his hardcase containing his competition rifle, or his fencing kit and epee.
Wearing underwear and t-shirt, he stands up, weaving a moment as his balance centers catch up with him.  He decides to go through a series of push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks, hoping to metabolize more of the alcohol before he hits the head and the shower.
Thirty minutes later, he finishes putting on a cleaner flightsuit and his boots.  His eyes look a little less bleary as he rubs the short stubble on his face, deciding a second day without shaving should not get him into trouble, unxder the circumstances.  Soon, he is carrying his helmet and gloves, and wearing his web-belt and holster while on his way to find breakfast and coffee before heading for the squad room.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:01, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Having change to the UN SPACY Jack spend much time getting used to the new routines and if needed understand the difference between the two divisions, thankfully not being promoted leaves him less to take in and can focus more on the same jobs he did before.

With everything going on Jack is kept busy most of the time but due to lesser rank have lesser paperwork to deal with, though flying more CAP remove some of that "free time". It's during this few times to find those he flew with before to catch up with.

Feeling a bit lost in the wide coeridors of the ship, Douglas is having trouble finding somewhere to get foor, or at least some coffee.  He nearly runs into another pilot, this one in a UN Spacy flightsuit.
Crap.  Sorry, he says to O'Neil.  Hey.  Can you tell me where the dining facility... er... mess hall is?  I'm still trying to get used to this ship.