The two badly damaged veritechs (both missing an arm) only manage to 'tow' the Centaur Hover tanks because the ground mecha posses tow cables.

As the two head towards the SDF-1 a large rectangular shape (sitting lengthwise) rises from behind it. The shape twists and turns revealing itself to be an ARMD class space carrier. A few veritechs are directed to land then as apparent by the vectoring towards the space carrier. One of these is Knight 4.



As the two veritech pass over the SDF-1, the vessel is 'landed' on a sheet of ice. When it come time to conduct a braking maneuver and turn around for landing Reindeer 18 has no problems maintaining a hold on the ground mecha, despite a few access panels popping off the fuselage that spin off into space. Oggy 3 on the other hand loses his grip during the braking maneuver.  The Centaur Hover Tank continues it's forward momentum and with the tow cable still attached to Oggy 3 once the tow cable goes taunt it yanks the veritech towards  the hover tank. The two mecha crash into each other. Oggy 3 gets a grip back on the other mecha and manages to head towards launch bay 4.

Reindeer 18 is first to reach lauch bay 4, which is big enough for three veritechs to lined up in a row and then a second row of three. Some ground crew direct where Raindeer 18 is to 'place' the hover tank (in the back row) she is towing and then directed to land beside it, in the 'middle' of the back row.

Oggy 3 arrives to see Reindeer 18 waiting. Ground crew directs Oggy 3 to set the over tank down in front of the firs on and then to land in front of Reindeer 18.

The two wait a minute of two for two other veritechs to land within the bay, apparently the decision was made to completely load the bay before transitioning to the hanger. After the hanger/launch bay doors are closed it takes several minutes. A green light comes on and the inner doors begin to open. Once they are fully open the mecha are directed to park in the back of a massive hanger.

The two guardian mode veritechs walk to their directed to parking spots next to each other.   The Centaur Hover Tanks, no longer in zero G 'waddle' over to thier designated parking spots on the other side of the hanger massive bay.

OOC: Ok you two can 'meet' each other in person for the first time.

Aksa waits for the pressure indicator to go green once she has parked and then pops the canopy to a slight hiss as the pressure of the bay and the pressure within her cockpit equalize. Without a helmet she just unplugs the headset from her VF-1 and rolling up the cord stuffs the tail end in a breast pocket and pulls the headset down about her neck.

No longer needing her sunglasses she pulls them off and, zipping down her flight suit a few inches, slings the glasses from the V her flight suits top creates.

She gratefully accepts the help from the ground crew in disembarking as she is tired and weary from the ordeal and, truth be told, not quite in possession of her space-legs just yet.

She pats the side of her VF-1's nosecone. "Sorry I got you so banged out there girl. But, thanks for looking after me."

She looks about the hanger bay and see's the Centaur crew and as they are kith and kin makes towards them. [Language unknown: "Ni pro si anmine? Rut k ect..."] She says as handshakes, tears, and back-slaps (in that order) abound.

As they are likely shooed off the busy deck towards the interior of the SDF-1 she see's the pilot of Oggy-3 and waves.

Ethan see's a pleasing on the eyes 5'9" Nordic female sporting blonde hair with darker roots up in a pony-tail, her eyes a piercing grey. Her black and grey flight suit has its sleeves rolled up and she wears a pair of matching Nomex flight gloves. She has a ground crew headset around her neck and grey lens Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses hooked onto her suits neckline.

Aside the squadron patch and name plate the only item that really stands out is her rank insignia, indicating she is a Kapteeni (Captain) in the FAF (Finnish Air Force).

She holds out her hand, and shakes Ethan's hand with a firm, but not overpowering, grip.

"Kapteeni Aksa* Tikkanen, Finnish Air Force. A pleasure to meet you." She says whilst making solid eye contact. "I guess we get to live a little longer no?" She adds with a weary smile.

* Pronounced 'aaK-SHAA'
This message was last edited by the player at 16:55, Sun 19 Aug 2018.

Finally getting the Centaur hover tank into the hanger bay, and landing his veritech, Ethan breaths a sigh of relief as he contemplates the difficulty he encountered in operating his veritech in the vacuum of space.  Ethan mused to himself how confident he was in his training back on Macross Island just hours before.  Now he finds himself in the vacuum of space, in the middle of war with giant aliens.

Quickly completing his post-flight checklist, Ethan is eager to exit his cockpit and check on his VF-1J.  Excepting the help of the ground crew, not the usual crew he confides in after all his previous flights, Ethan thanks them and looks over his badly damaged veritech.  Seeing the damage, Ethan promises himself he will not let his baby get damaged like this again!

While taking the time looking over his baby, the ground crew is trying to get him out of the hanger.  Possibly, getting ready to take on more veritechs.  Ethan looks over at the hover tanks and sees the crews that he helped save from Macross city.  His eyes easily spot the blondish attractive female dressed in a flight suit waving his way.  Ethan waves back and approaches his new wingman, woman, Reindeer 18.

As she reaches out her hand, he accepts the handshake that follows with her introduction.  Ethan responds, "Aye mate, it's a fine day to meet you...I am Leftenant Ethan Ambrose of the Royal Australian Navy Air Force.  Quite the day for us I'd say, and I'm damn glad my wingman and I ran across your lot."  As Ethan begins to think about Amelia and the fate of the rest of his squadron.  "Where do we go from here ma'am?  It appears our day has changed from where we started the day."

Ethan glances around to see where to go from here.

As Aksa and Eath meet each other a LBR-08 Masamune is directed to 'park' next to the Centaur Hover Tanks. A familiar VF-1J (Vermillion 7) is parked nearby as well. A pilot wearing US Navy insignia indicating he is a pilot belonging with VF-84 Jolly Rodger's (i.e. Skull Squadron). Its quite obvious the pilot was flying a veritech from a different squadron.

[Private to Jack O'Neil: You did the same landing procedures as the other characters. I just don't want to write everything in a separate post.

Since you are assigned to the UES Macross you can show the other two pilots to Skull Squadrons ready room.]

Finally being onboard the SDF-1 Jack finally sigh in relief and let the stress leave him, at least he manage to help the Masamune unit. Shaking his head to get his act together he spot the other two Veritech that have flown with him on Earth, smiling slightly he makes a wave towards them and heads over.

"Greetings fellow pilots! Name is Jack, flown as Vermillion 7. Thanks for the help out there and good to see that you two also survived...whatever happened" Jack wave his right hand in a waving motion. "Anyway, if you follow me I can show you to the Skull's ready room. So we ain't in the way for the crew"

Ethan greets the Skull Squadron pilot, "Great meeting you Jack, bloody good to see you made it.  I'm Ethan Ambrose, Royal Australian Navy, lead the way mate."

"Kapteen...um, Captain Aksa Tikkanen, Finnish Air Force. A pleasure." She says alongside a firm handshake, adjusting her pronunciation a bit to fit the English speakers. "After you." She adds.

"I believe Knight 4 was diverted the the ARMD platform nearby." She informs, since one out of the quartet is decidedly missing.

As she walks thru the corridors of the massive ship she looks around, acclimatizing herself. So this is the ship that caused all the fuss. she muses inwardly.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:26, Sun 19 Aug 2018.

Jack leads the other two veritech pilots through the ship. After a few minutes the three get to their destination.

---

As the three pilots enter the designated ready room for VF-84 Jolly Rodgers. There are seven veritech pilots sitting down among the 20 available chairs. An eighth, Commander Roy Fokker is on a phone talking to someone.

The back wall has a large TV monitor. To the left is a female head, and the left a male head. Off to the side is a coffee pot and a platter of

OOC: For those who don't know 'head' is 'Navy speak' for the bathroom.

Aksa wordlessly looks over the other seven pilots to ascertain their nationality, branch, and ranks. Seeing the coffee on she makes her way over to it and, seeing that a few other pilots already have availed themselves to it, pours herself a cup sans additives, just black and bitter.

She takes a seat towards the back and nurses the warm drink as she tries to process the past few hours events. Finding that she will likely need a bit more time to decompile that in her head she instead looks about her environs and notes the difference between a spacecraft based ready room and a terrestrial based one. Of course, with the space the SDF-1 has to offer it isn't near as cramped as the images of Earth bound aircraft carriers she'd seen.

She removes her gloves and neatly folding them up stuffs them in the thigh pocket of her flight-suit.

Unless spoken to she remains silent with her thoughts, and her coffee.

OOC: The pilots of VF-84 are all US Navy

"But Claudia, I know Rick is out there somewhere, I can't just abandon him." After a pause of about a minute his voice increases. "Aye Aye Captain I guess friendship is a little more important to some of us then it is to others. Sorry to bother you Sir."

Commander Fokker then looks at the assembled pilots, and fills in his squadron.

"As some of you already know we are down four airframes. Chuckles, Easy, and Taco are KIA. But Lieutenant O'Neill is back with us and it looks like he brought some friends, so some introductions are in order."

[Private to Jack O'Neil:
'Taco' was the XO.
'Chuckles' was your roommate.
'Easy' was a female VT pilot]

"Commander, this is Captain Aksa Tikkanen, Finnish Air Force and this is Lieutenant Ethan Ambrose. We flew together during the battle on Earth and meet up here. If you haven't meet the Commander before this is Commander Fokker." Jack introduce Ethan and Aksa to the other pilots. "Have you heard anything of Lieutenant Meiko Levina, sir? She had a leak during the battle in space and landed on the ARMD. And where are we?"

During Ethan's entry into the ready room, he spied the coffee and needed a cup to calm his nerves.  Walking across the room to the coffee pot, he politely nods to the heads that inquisitively look his way.  After getting his coffee and hearing the tense conversation from the gentleman on the phone, the probable leader of Skull Squadron, the famous Roy Fokker.

Hearing Commander Fokker hang up the phone, Ethan turns his attention to the Commander.

Upon hearing the introductions, Ethan greets the room, "Pleasure Mates"

When Jack finishes, "Excuse me Commander, do you know the lot of the other squadrons?"

"Pleased to meet you." She says, and shakes the hands of the few pilots nearby that turn and or reach backwards over a seat to introduce themselves by name and then callsign.

Inevitably the question is posed regards Aksa's callsign. What is it; do FAF pilots use callsigns?

"Ah, yes, we do, I go by Äkäpussi." She says evenly. Nearby, after a slight pause, there are a few soft snickers, then laughter.

And this would be why my CO asked me to wear a generic name plate at the display...she realizes.

"Alright, I'll bite, what's that in English?" A nearby pilot asks.

"Vixen; after one..." She pauses, knowing where this is going to end up, and smiles with a shrug. "...of Santa's Reindeer."

OOC: So it’s pronounced ‘Aka Pussy’?

OOC:

https://www.wordhippo.com/what...-word-for-vixen.html

There is a Audio button so you can hear it pronounced correctly.

As a cultural note, one of the heights of Finnish humor is word play based on meaning and pronunciation. So, After long research, äkäpussi fit the bill. It's one word for Vixen, Santa's Reindeer, and she's a Laplander so, land of Reindeer. And, as you split it, can also be, A.K.A (Also Known As) Pussi. It's gets cruder from there, like, old bag, harridan, shrew... (come to think of it, would make a good nickname for miss Misa Hayes too...that old sourpuss)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:24, Mon 20 Aug 2018.

"Well until everything gets sorted out and we figure out the status of your squadrons I'm adopting you two." Roy clicks a remote that shows Macross Island floating in space, along with the UES Macross. Both the UES Prometheus and UES Daedalus can be seen as well.

"When we space folded we took Macross Island and the surrounding ocean with us. Yes that's the Prometheus and Daedalus sitting in a sheet of ice. We were supposed to de-fold on the other side of the moon, but intel says we're in orbit around Pluto."

"The rest of the ships air group is clearing the island of alien mecha. Once their finished we'll begin transferring the civilians from the shelters to the SDF-1."

"Those of us with fully functional veritechs will be tasked as the heavy lifters under the direction of engineers to clear debris around the shelters so docking tubes can be connected."

"Those of you whose veritechs are deemed too damaged to take back up on so short notice will have a more grisly job. There are around hundred veritechs floating around Macross City or onboard the Prometheus whose aircrews were killed when we de-folded. We need to recover these veritechs. You'll be ferried out to a veritech in Rabbit shuttle, where some EVA specialists will assist you in removing the body and take over the veritech."

"But we all get 4 to 8 hours of mandated rest before we head out." Roy motion points to a female veritech pilot and spoke in a somber voice. "JoJo, I need you to clear Easy's bunk so Akipussy has a place sleep." He then points to Jack. "I need you to clear Chuckles' bunk for Ambrose."

Like many in the room she gasps when it's learned that they are near Pluto, and pushes a queasy feeling down as she listens to the rest of what Commander Fokker has to say.

"Commander Fokker." Says after he has finished and the room has quieted down some, raising her hand.

"I recommend standing up a mobile EOC* to coordinate with the Rabbit teams in the field. I...I hold a 'Readiness Contract' with the FRDF** and have training and experience in Emergency/Crisis Management; recovery and rescue operations, that sort of thing." She says, just a bit uncomfortable bringing it up. She pushes that aside and continues.

"Also, if there are any space based AWAC platforms operational, and the Air Group is willing to task it, one could stand in as an ECC***. That way we don't have to rely on the bridge to coordinate. I figure they have more then enough snow on the roof as it is." She offers; then, lowers her hand to let anyone else reply. She has some more ideas, but, if she can't get Step 1 approved, it does no good to waste time detailing Steps 2 thru whatever.

*   Emergency Operations Center
**  Finnish Rapid Deployment Force
*** Emergency Communications Center

38 v 48 Theater Warfare: Rescue and Recovery Operations: PASS
This message was last edited by the player at 04:25, Tue 21 Aug 2018.

Nodding solemnly at Roy's order Jack is still glad that so many of the Skull's got through the hassle, still the surprise of being at the edge of the system was something that will not leave him soon.

Trying to feel more useful he tries to go through his knowledge about Disaster Response but either due to all stress or out of his depth he comes up with nothing.

11:08, Today: Jack O'Neil rolled 68 using 1d100 ((68)). fail

"Very well Captain. Once your settled in report to the CIC deck. Rescue and recovery ops are being planned there."

"Anymore questions?" Roy answers a few more questions and dismisses before he everyone lists where the briefings will take place for both operations.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:22, Thu 23 Aug 2018.

After being dismissed Jojo takes Aksa to a two person stateroom in female officer country. Jojo explains that while Aksa is off with rescue planning she clear out Easy's things and get some fresh linen on the deceased pilot's bunk.

Leaving for the CIC deck Aksa heads up to the CIC deck, having to ask for directions a few times. Once there she spends the next few hours helping to plan various aspects of the rescue of the civilians and recovery of the derelict veritechs. She then heads back down to her temporary state room where Jojo is asleep. Several boxes are arrayed in the corner, probably the deceased pilots belongings.

---

After being dismissed Jack shows Ethan where his stateroom is. With nothing for either pilot to do, they clean out Chuckles gear and box it up. Jack heads down to laundry and gets some fresh linen for the now empty bunk.

OOC: I am going to assume anyone who needed to got toiletries from the ships PX. Unless your Jack your going to have to wear the same flight suit as you have been wearing.

Aksa thanks JoJo for her efforts and understanding, but is confused as to why the genders are segregated, but she guesses that's an American thing and leaves it at that.

On the other hand, she is nigh horrified to learn that the squadron shower area is devoid of a sauna. How do these people even function?!

---

After her time in the CIC she makes her way to the ships BX and picks up a fresh flight suit and utility uniform as well as the necessities which includes a thermos for coffee, and as many coffee insta-packs as she can manage before the inevitable 'rationing' of that commodity begins.

With her goods in tow she drops the lions share off at her temporary lodgings and then with her new set of utilities heads to the ships exercise facilities to use the shower there, but more importantly, it's sauna. After a good hour soak she stops by the ships laundry to have her rank flight suit cleaned.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:09, Thu 23 Aug 2018.

"So Lieutenant Ethan, where are you from? Good see you under better environment" Jack start the conversation as he place Chuckles things in a box.

In reply to Jack O'Neil (msg # 23):

"Jack, it is amazin' how this day unfolded and joining up with you blokes was a saving grace."  Patting Jack on the back in appreciation.  "I grew up in West'n Australia, a small plot in Rockingham.  This morning I was part of the Fighting First of the Royal Australian Air Force.  How things have changed.  How about you mate?"

"Yeah, it was good luck that we joined forces" Jack reply with a grin. "Half Swed/American, lived in Florida. Joined the forces in '03 and Skull's for two years"