RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 3.0] - Out of the Mist

[Nashoba]

Star System: SX-06
Planet: Aqueous
Continent: Varnan
Third day of duty.

The 21st Squadron had set up their equipment on the western side of the SSS expedition site. They chose this location as it afforded a clear path for the fighters to take off an land on their daily patrols.

The ruins were not of a primitive culture, the SSS believed that the race who made this city had reached for the stars. The portion that was above ground was extensive. It easily covered several square miles. The expedition was proceeding methodically through them, cataloging what they found. They estimated that it would take years of study to just get it all photographed and indexed.

A group of the scientists had made a few forays into the forest, finding a wide range of plants and tracks of multiple animal species. During their first foray they took samples and made an discovery about the nature of the plants. They had an extremely high mineral content, with portions of the minerals being drawn in through the plants endotherm. The minerals were carried up through the trees xylem and stored in the leaves. The concentration of minerals was so high that it created interference with electronic signals and even RADAR.

A Tansaku-Class ship sat next to the improvised air strip that the Kawarime sat upon. It remained in case it was necessary to evacuate the expedition. Nine CRDM's were clustered at the edge of the ruins. and served as the working area for the scientists.

The weather patterns were temperate the day time temperature reaching a comfortable 24 degrees Celsius. In the evenings, after the sun had set and the twin moons had risen, a fog would roll out from the woods. Some evenings the fog was light and would settle creating a muffled quiet in the area. Occasionally the fog would roll in so dense that you could not see from one CRDM to another even though they were only five meters away.

Atsui had just left a meeting with the expedition leader in the Ke-P1-3a Control Center CRDM. On her way out she stopped to check the weather sensors. Going to be another quiet foggy night. she thought. As she left to return to the Ke-P1-5a - Sleeper CRDM that the squadron used as their billet.

She entered and grabbed a drink from the Ke-T8-M3102 Comfort Module they had installed and took a seat at the table to relax.

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko wandered around the makeshift base, keeping an eye out. Seeing Atsui, she slowly walked over, bowed, and sat down next to her. "If I may be so bold Chui, I've got a bad feeling about this. Deep behind enemy lines, vulnerable to an open attack, creepy fog at night, exploring some ancient city. This just screams of a surprise attack." Yaeko narrowed her eyes as they slowly scanned across the forest line, waiting to detect even the slightest movement. "And I don't think Command would have put a squadron like the 21st on a task like this unless they expected combat. Something just doesn't sit right with this."

 

[Kai]

Kail lay on her bunk staring at the ceiling. when she heard Yaeko speak, the instructor chided her gently. "Saying such things seems to make them more likely. please refrain from pessimism or I will have to remove its source. A squadron has no use for someone who only brings morale down."

The Juni sat up, and shuffled around on the bed, swinging her legs down and dropping to the deck smoothly. "We are here to patrol the skies, anyway. Nothing dangerous to us has lived in this city for millennia, most likely." She sat down at the table as well, the veteran Power Armor pilot seeming sour. Probably no one would know that her tenth birthday was coming up. Like she cared. she didn't live to this age worrying about her age. Or so Kail told herself.

 

[SSharp]

Lynn hummed along with the music she was playing on her communicator: an old piano piece that seemed to flow and dance among the clouds. Dips and dives and twirls pounded a beat that left Lynn with a warm feeling.

She suddenly fervently wished to speak with someone. Anyone, and switched the communicator off. She hopped off of her bunk and joined the table, not sure how she could enter the conversation.

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko turned around and took a quick glance at her old mentor. "Very true Sensei, although one must admit that it is good for a group to have at least one pessimist for every situation. Otherwise, there would be no one to be paranoid and to be extra alert and careful. I don't disagree with your statement, I just feel that there is more to it then is seen on the surface." She continued to scanning the forest line as a shiver ran down her spine.

 

[Nashoba]

All Yaeko could see looking out the hatch of the forest was the tops of the trees, illuminated by the external lights the expedition had set up to light up the area around their structures.

"Well, we do not have to worry about the NMX for the moment. The Gosei is powered up and scanning the system. They have standing orders to alert us as soon as they detect any ship approaching. Its the damn vegetation that I dislike. Damn stuff has so much minerals in it most of our equipment won't give reliable readings." Atsui finished her drink and walked over the locker where the squadron supplies were. She pulled out a Type 30 Flashlight.

"Ramirez-Shoi, grab a torch and we'll go check the fighters. Tarrim, Munkata I want you to check the perimeter of the camp along the tree line. Yagami check with the SSS security personnel at the ruins. Once we complete the checks we'll button up and take two hour shifts in the Control Center monitoring activity." Atsui said as she stepped out the hatch into the fog.

 

[SSharp]

SX-06
Aqueous

START

Lynn stood and bowed to her superior, and then left the Sleeper CRDM the way Atsui had entered.

Once outside, and in the thick of the mist, she regretted not taking along some sort of flashlight. But she could -- and would -- make do. She had been an infantryneko long before she had been a pilot... Or as the case may be, an EWO. Lynn had been run into the ground, smacked around, and abused on enough worlds, space stations, and asteroids to give her the capability of dealing with a little water vapor.

Or so she thought.

Her little journey would take her across the compound, and to save time she would need to cross through the runway. Outside of the Squadron's billet, she passed in between newly fabricated buildings, slipped through a storage yard and hopped a fence before her feet met tarmac. The farther she got, the more unconfident she became: nothing looked familiar. There was a building that shouldn't have been there, and directly in front of her was a Kawarime that definitely should not have been there.

She approached the Kawarime, trying to squint through the gray mist to see if anyone was around.

As Lynn walked under the aircraft towards the building she felt the underside of the wing with her fingers. As she crossed to the other side of the wing the heel of a boot suddenly sprung from above and copped her on the side of the head lightly. There was a small groan from above, and the boot wobbled slightly as the owner above shifted slightly. There was a deep growling sound that quickly subsided into heavy breathing.

Lynn had winced when the boot hit her, but made no noise. Whoever was up there was obviously asleep, and something told her it would be better not to disturb whoever it was.

But she's on the wing of a very important piece of machinery! another little voice told her. She suspected it was a younger nekovalkyrja, at least. Who else would so carelessly fall asleep on the wing of a Kawarime? Someone who was either a fool or comforted by the thing. That was who.

"Hey. Wake up!" She called, giving the trouser above the boot a few small tugs. But only another snore assailed her.

Lynn sighed and frowned, wondering whether she should continue trying to wake whoever-it-was up or just leaving them be.

"Don't make me get up there!" She huffed.

The only reply was another snore.

Whoever-it-was was starting to annoy Lynn. Her mind was made up -- they needed to get off that Kawarime.

"HEY!" She gave a tug on the boot. "WAKE UH--" forgetting her own enhanced strength, the dozing figure on the wing was jerked out of their perch and only had time to let out a startled snort before the return flight to earth departed. Lynn had time to pull a very surprised face as the dark shape fell on top of her, the two of them landing in a pile on the tarmac.

She ended up on her back with the recent snoozer laying across her waist, face down.

"Ow..." said the figure, red panels giving him away as the rather useless Vas-hei. "That's the second damn time..." he muttered to himself angrily. His faced turned towards Lynn as he gathered his surroundings. "Oh, hey Bright-Eyes."

The only thing Lynn could think of, right at that moment, was how calm Silic seemed to be while he layed across her like a GOOD acquaintance. Her eyes grew larger and more frightened as humiliation first set in, then fear, and finally panic. The combination of all three made the seed planted within all Nekovalkyrja flourish: Violence. Silic raised an eyebrow as her expression turned.

She kicked her legs up, trying to get Silic off of her, sending the man airborne for half asecond with a surpised gurgle of pain but all she succeeded in doing was rolling him further up over her chest and onto her face, smothering her. Her fist went up into Silic's gut as he passed, and she continued to squirm and move. She desperately kneed and punched the unlucky Vas-hei until she had finally gotten out from under him.

Silic had rolled a good meter down from Lynn by the time he came to rest. After a few seconds he slowly climbed shakily to his feet, clutching his gut. Lynn heard him say "...one hell of a left hook..." as he came upright. Despite his reputation he was unusually resilient for a Nepleslian, at least as far as being beaten up by ladies went.

Lynn had scurried and propped herself up against the landing gear of the Kawarime. She glared at the man, wondering whether she should apologize or hurt him somemore.

She watched as he staggered slightly back towards the fighter, he stooped down to retrieve his sunglasses as he looked around. When he came back up his other hand went from his stomach to the small of his back as he jerked to a halt "M-my back..." he grunted, before slowly straightening himself up, his other hand putting the glasses over his scarred eyes.

Finally he looked back up at the wing and turned to Lynn, scratching the back of his head in an embarassed gesture and bowing slightly.

"Sorry about that, I swear I slept near the centre so I wouldn't fall down." he turned back to the wing again "Must have rolled in my sleep or something." he mused.

"I'm sorry I hit you so hard." Lynn mumbled, looking away. "I was just trying to wake you up when you fell on me. I panicked. Sorry. I have no idea what came over me. Sorry!" The last 'Sorry!' spoken louder than the rest.

The man looked slightly taken aback, and the hand on the back of his head scratched a little harder. "Um, I guess we're both sorry then." he said, clumsily trying to repair the situation. He stepped a little closer and leaned down to offer her a hand up, just far enough away that he might have a chance of surviving if she went feral.

Lynn looked at the hand, not sure of its purpose. An ear flicked. Her own hand went out cautiously to his, wondering if it was some special thing the nepleslian did. She tensed as the bigger Nepleslian grasped her wrist and pulled gently. Suddenly, she was up on her feet. The two stood close together, and Lynn hadn't let go of her hold on Silic's wrist. She could hear him breathing. This close she could see the indents on his face from the tarmac gained during impact.

"This is sort of the part where you let go." he said, smiling good-naturedly, eyebrows jumping above his sunglasses for a second.

Lynn blushed, and blurted out an apology before letting go. She took one step back, made a small, frightened noise with her throat and bolted away from Silic to disappear into the mist. She heard him call out in surprise, and then he disappeared too.

END

 

[Nashoba]

Atsui and Ira had completed their check of the fighters. One of their Kawarime was unaccounted for. When I find that fighter and who did not put it where it belongs I'm going to flay their skin off them. she thought.

She started crossing the dirt runway when she heard a commotion. It was muffled by the fog. But after a moment she was able to hazard a guess where it was coming from.

She could hear what sound like two people moving, or perhaps thrashing about was a better term. She then heard a male grunt, more tussling. Then she heard a familiar female voice say "Sorry." Atsui recognized the voice immediately despite the fog, she had heard it often enough in her cockpit. Lynn? I told her to go check with the SSS security personnel. It sounds like....

At that moment Atsui saw the dark haired neko walk across her path, her cheeks blushing clearly despite the chill in the air.

Looks like my EWO decided to get a little relaxation, and things apparently did not go well. But with whom... she thought.

 

[Jimmy]

The answer to her question came a few steps later, as a series of snapping twigs brought Silic running into view shouting after Lynn “Hey, that's the wrong way! There's nothing out there!” After that he ran out of steam, he cursed just loud enough for her to hear and tried to peer through the mist for any sign of the last passer-by.

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko walked over to one of the lockers and grabbed a flashlight before she moved to the exit of the CRDM. "Come on Juni, the faster we get this done the faster we can get to sleep." She exited and approached the edge of the tree line that surrounded the area. She pulled out her NSP for protection's sake, raised it along with the flashlight in a very police-like fashion, and flipped the light on. She paced the edge of the tree line, slowly moving the light of her flashlight and flicking it to suspicious locations. At one point her paranoia got the better of her and she flicked her NSP to stun, figuring she'd want to interrogate anybody that tried to jump her.

 

[Kai]

As Yaeko became paranoid, Kail placed a hand on her shoulder. "Munkata. The flashlight only refracts from the water droplets. It will not help you see any better in this light. Our own innate eyesight is best in this case."

Kail seemed to be speaking in a chiding tone, as an adult speaking to a child. Yaeko should have known this, in any case, and if she did not, it was Kail's job and duty to inform her. "Besides, if someone is out there, the cone of light makes a nice arrow pointing to exactly where you are. In any case, being stressed and paranoid will not help you if we are attacked. Being calm and ready to act is what we need, not jumpy and ready to injure ourselves."

In any case, Kail did keep a watchful eye on the edge of the forest, though she was not overly concerned. If there was trouble, she would deal with it, if there was not, then she would just keep this as a relaxing patrol. If Yaeko could relax, that was.

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko jumped away from Kail and was ready to attack her assailant when she realized who it was. "My apologies Sensei, I should have realized as such. I will try to to calm myself if that is required." Yaeko still kept her weapon raised as she paced the edge of the forest, but kept the flashlight off and tucked away. Come on Yaeko, pull it together. You're not daddy's little girl anymore, get past that! You're a soldier, scared of nothing. You won't impress any superiors acting like this. Just think about how you rescued that crew. Bravery! Courage!

 

[Nashoba]

Above the two nekos a high shrill shriek shattered the silence, a moment later the fwap fwap sound of the wings of night bird could be heard. Its outline barely discernible in the fog.

A moment later a crunch crunch was heard from the forest and seemed to be getting closer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Atsui was about to call out after Lynn when she saw Silic going after the Neko. Silic? Really? What was that girl thinking? I'll talk to her later. she thought.

She headed over to the fighter, and as she approached she made out the tail number V8X2 32-0079. "Wait, Hibiyashi-San told me about this one. Its a spare, so that if we need parts or if one of the Kawarime becomes inoperable. Well best to head back to the CRDM everything is quiet and secured." she said to herself, and turned and started making her way back

 

[Gabriel]

When she heard the shriek the already-ready-to-act Yaeko jumped into action, pointing her weapon to the sky. Being a neko, she used her advanced eyesight to her advantage as she searched for the creature. Seeing a faint outline, she fired four to five stun pulses before pointing her NSP into the forest. Figuring the growls sounded a little more dangerous, she flipped her weapon to the normal pulse mode and fired several shots in the direction of the sound.

 

[Nashoba]

After Yaeko's first volley into the air the sound of something hitting ground nearby was heard. With her volley towards the woods, there was a bleeting sound followed by the sound of something larger hitting the ground.

--------------------------------------------------------

Atsui turned in the direction of weapon fire. She started moving as quickly as the fog would safely allow, as she did she pulled her communicator. "Weapons Fire, All Diamonds sound off and converge on the location."

 

[Kai]

A palm quickly made its way up to Kail's face, and then the older Neko moved forward and snatched the pistol from Yaeko's hand, Hissing "Did you not hear what I just told you?" While it was obvious that Yaeko had simply shot some of the local fauna, the shots themselves were a very loud and obvious sign to anything around that they were there. Upon Atsui's orders, Kail chimed in quickly

"This is Tarrim-Juni. Munkata is easily spooked, and seems to have shot some of the local fauna."

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko looked down, her cheeks flushing red. "Again, my apologies, I just figured it was better to be safe than sorry. At any moment those beast could have turned against us. Sorry..." She glanced around to see if anyone else was nearby to see her humiliation before saying, "If you would like, you can conduct the rest of the perimeter sweep and I will merely assist."

 

[Jimmy]

Silic also reported in over the radio “Tin-man sounding off. Try not to blow me away on approach, over.” A few seconds later he was also on the scene. He looked around curiously for a few seconds, before wandering into the gloom to check out Yaeko's kill. “Looks like it might be meaty pies for dinner...”

 

[Nashoba]

Silic's exploration found the body of a large brown furred animal. The creature had to weigh 300 kg easily and sported an impressive set of antlers.

Three members of the Security members of the expedition appeared out of the fog with their weapons drawn. "Is everyone okay?" Erik Saunders said switching on his flashlight.

With the gunfire subsiding, Atsui slowed to a more cautious speed to approach the scene. Seeing no battle underway she approached Yaeko with menace in her eyes.

"Munkata-Hei, what the hell were you thinking, shooting into fog without a clear target. You could have killed one of us or worse, one of the expedition members." she growled.

 

[SSharp]

Lynn only just arrived from out of the mist.

"What's happening?" Her bright-lit yellow eyes flitted around, looking for an enemy.

In her hands she carried her NSP. Thankfully for Silic, it was pointed at the ground when her eyes landed on him and flashed briefly with fear. She looked out to the mist and away from Silic, Her cheeks turning a light hue of red.