The two veritechs move into position for the combat air patrol, and remain at the velocity of 0.25G’s while using veriner thrusters to make course corrections and adjust direction.

Upon leaving the tubes she links up with her other craft and heads towards the Cat's Eye, designate Waypoint 1, checking in with it and the Rabbit as they close. Once there they break off to their wing-pairs own patrol stations.

"Reindeer 17, Gunsight, outbound CAP at Waypoint 1. Breaking off to patrol stations now." She informs evenly. Jotting down time of arrival on her leg-board with a grease-pen.

"Reindeer 17 to CAP wingpairs. Clear to your patrol stations. Check in once on station with status." She adds to her own planes as she points her nose to her assigned station and gooses the throttle.

"Bean(stalk), clear line-abrest, go tactical." She calls out to her wingman as they head further into the void. *

She glances up at one of the rear view mirrors. "Is Siili behaving?" She asks, still not, despite all the sim time, all-together used to flying with a passenger.

---

* OOC: Translated; form up on her right, 1km away.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:01, Tue 19 Mar 2019.

Lameck is watching for any spikes in any spectrum in their immediate vicinity. He looks up, always polite to address the person he is speaking to, "Yes Ma'm, she is behaving."

"Copy that Vixen" Cate replied.

Cate looked at her controls and adjusted her knees slightly to get more comfortable in the cockpit. She adjusted her pitch and throttle to the required vector coasting at little of the way till she was one click away. She checked her sensors tapping in the reference point. Using the thrusters she adjusted the drift till it was stable with Vixens and Vinyl.

"In position" She reported

The duo of VF-1's make their way from Waypoint 1 (Cat's Eye) to their positions relieving the on-station CAP.

Shortly after arriving on station and after his brief conversation (if it could be called that) with Maj Tikkanen, Lt. Phiri notes (having looked up) his pilot look down at her instruments, then off to her left. Less then a second later the RWR (Radar Warning Receivers) on their bird light up indicating they have just been spiked.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:47, Sat 23 Mar 2019.

Lameck nearly crapped himself at the warning light and beep of being spiked. He quickly tapped to silence the audible and get a read on the instruments before looking around for the possibly bogey. He speaks briefly to his pilot, "Ma'am, we've been spiked! Bingo tally. Do you have a tally?"

OOC: As long as I've been playing with DST, I never picked up that aviator speak, nor know what the hell to do in a cockpit. I'm just a dumb grunt, so please bear with me on the lingo, and procedure. No ego, so feel free to correct me, please. Thanks for your patience in advance.

Read sensory instruments to get more information.
17:25, Today: Lameck Phiri rolled 37 using 1d100 with rolls of 37.  Sensory 75

Attempt to jam the lock.
17:26, Today: Lameck Phiri rolled 100 using 1d100 with rolls of 100.  ECM 69%.
Crap...

Trace back and see if we can get our own lock.
17:27, Today: Lameck Phiri rolled 11 using 1d100 with rolls of 11.  Weapon Systems 100%.

Initiative, just in case you need it. unnat 20.
17:30, Today: Lameck Phiri rolled 17 using 1d20 with rolls of 17.  Initiative+3.

Lt. Phiri is able to track the spike to a source to their left, roughly in line with them. In short order Lt. Phiri has locked the offending source of EM up. The source of the EM spike turns out to be Reindeer 04. (Capt Pak's bird)

With the lock established Maj Tikkanen puts the engines into idle and snaps Siili's nose towards the EM source (Reindeer 04), while still continuing along on their current course. "Tally, ho." She replies evenly as she gets tone.

"Target's ID?" She asks in a calm tone. For some reason Lt. Phiri gets the sneaking suspicion that the Maj already knows the answer to that...

OOC: No worries, I'm no pilot myself. What I do when the lingo/jargon/technical-terms fail me is just state in plain language what I intend to convey and just put in a something that says 'my character is saying/doing this'.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:36, Thu 28 Mar 2019.

The first Combat Air Patrol comes and goes with nothing out of the ordinary occurring other then the ‘friendly’ buddy spikes.

---

The second Combat Air Patrol is mundane and boring...

---

At three hours and thirty-nine minutes and twenty-seven seconds into the third Combat Air Patrol what would later be known as ‘The Battle of Pluto’ begins.

The four wing pairs from Hävittäjälentolaivue 11 are at the UES Macross’ Ten O’clock (relative to the vessels bow) when (what must be) several hundred thousand kilometers away from the UES Macross’ Ten O’clock (again relative to the vessels bow) five large neon green balls of bright light appear. One ball is significantly larger than the other four. The attached RC-4C (Callsign Golpher Nine) vectors towards the nearest wingpair (Vermillion 7 & Akula 6).

OOC: You’re in ‘combat’ now. Please make one post. Please DO NOT wait for the other character in your wing pair to post. One of my pet peeves is a player stating “I’m waiting for so and so to post” in a situation where I have not noted a posting order.

Aksa is caught mid yawn as the three green balls of light appear ahead of her. In an instant the adrenaline kick in and it's game on.

"Vinyl, spin us up, watch our EM." She says, wanting all the systems that are in stand-by brought on-line, weapons armed and ready to receive targeting data, and everything else warmed up and ready to go. But to keep our emissions controlled so as not to alert the enemy to our presence. "Confirm telemetry link with our AWACS." She adds.

"Reindeer 17, Gunsight. Contact. Possible Bandit's. Estimate target bearing (insert range, bearing) past the Fence." She says, alerting command, or at the least confirming what the Cat's Eye and Rabbit are calling in. "I count 5, repeat 5 flashes of green light, one larger then the others." She adds. Did I just witness a de-fold? She wonders to herself.

"Reindeer 17 to CAP elements. Contact. Possible Bandit's (insert range and bearing). Hold steady, maintain EMCON. Interrogate with IRST if so equipped." She informs,

She then points her IRST towards the area where the 5 flashes of light occurred and see's about gaining any more information such as closure, and a more refined estimate on distance. With multiple spread out elements getting a bead on the bandits, they might be able to triangulate a fix. 

---

Action 1: Commander type stuff.
Action 2: RSI: Roll of 15 v 58 PASS
Action 3 - 6: Holding pending enemy action or friendly orders.

[Private to GM: Theater Warfare Roll check made to see if there is anything sneaky she should do, roll failed. 84 v 68]
This message was last edited by the player at 04:54, Thu 28 Mar 2019.

Cate quickly fumbled for her controls "Crap" she cursed to herself, checking her sensors, quickly switching controls to weapons hot. Adjusting her flight pattern she checked her Infra-Red Search and Track system in her haste she fumbles the sensor control knocking it off kilter. Biting her lower lip and concentrating she tries again this time making a worse job of it, she paused and looked at her hands they were shaking "I'm having issues here with my IRST"


Action 1: Adjust bearing to match with flight leader
Action 2: 12:25, Today: Cate Robbie rolled 52 using 1d100 with rolls of 52.  IRST sensor test 45%. Fail
Action 3: 12:27, Today: Cate Robbie rolled 74 using 1d100 with rolls of 74.  IRST sensor test 45%.Fail
Action 4: Report issue
Action 5-6: Holding pending enemy action or friendly orders.

Complacency, the real enemy for many in patrol situations, had not completely set in yet, but the CAPs were starting to feel routine.  That was up until this very moment.  At least Lameck did not feel like crapping his flight suit this time.  Nonetheless any stupor he might have been falling into was instantly vanquished with the blips appearing in the black.


Lameck nods, "Aye Ma'am" as he taps away at his MFD to ready and begin calculating telemetry and anticipated targeting data.  He confirms the green light link with the Cat's Eye.  He links everything to a single push of a MFD button to go active and start feeding the weapons systems so he and Vixen can start laying down the hate as necessary.

OOC:
Action 1: Sensory PASS
Action 2: Weapons Systems PASS
Action 3: Comms with Cat's Eye confirmation PASS
Action 4: Computer Use to link it all together FAIL?
Action 5: Ready ECM, if necessary PASS
Action 6: Hold to lay the hate...

Tikkanen looks at her radar and realize the flashes of light occurred WELL outside sensor range.

Phiri also confirms that the flashes of light occurred WELL outside sensor range. He also confirms that the uplink with the Cat’s Eye is good to go.

Cate tries to use her IRST as if it were a FLIR and then quickly realizes this.

Telemetry comes in from the nearby Cat’s Eye, Callsign Eyeball Three. The telemetry also indicates that the flashes of light are well outside of radar range.

---

While waiting for the rest of the CAP to form up, the pilots are reduced to using the most basic of sensory instruments: The Mark One Eyeball.

The five flashes of light appear to be alien warships. The bigger one is flanked by four smaller ones, two per side. Flashes of white light indicate either missile launches or the vessels launching their own space fighters.

OOC: You guys are WAY outside sensor range, so please keep the sensor rolls you made for use later. But feel free to make a perception roll (1d20).

As an FYI in game the IRST is really only good for providing bonuses for infra-red guided missiles. The way you guys are trying to use them is as if you had a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared Imager). Luckily some of you have both IRST’s and FLIR’s.