RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 4.0] - Breaking the Dam

[Nashoba]

05:00 hrs
High above the planet Daichi hung the Zodiac Star Fortress Libra. Headquarters for the 2XF, it was always a busy area. This morning the level of activity was significantly higher. Those personnel on the night shift had a sense that something was going to happen soon.

Aboard the carrier YSS Heitan, the men and women of the 21st Fighter Squadron were in their bunks sleeping after their shore leave. Reveille started sounding in their squadron quarters, followed by the voice Hiromi the ships AI.

Attention All Pilots, Attention All Pilots... Report to your Squadron briefing rooms no later than 05:30 hours. We are getting underway and will be departing Daichi space at 06:00 hours. Any pilot failing to show up for briefing will face charges. That is all.

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

Atsui was lying in her bed when Reveille started sounding. When she heard Hiromi's pronouncement, she scrambled out of her bed, stripped off her underwear and got into the shower attached to her quarters. Rank has its privileges, and not having to fight a mass of people to get a decent shower is one I do not mind. she thought turning on the shower to her standard setting.

She stepped into the shower before the water had reached her preference and started to shower quickly. Atsui allowed herself to reflect briefly on her time on Daichi while she lathered and then rinsed her body. She grabbed a towel and walked back into her cabin, gave her skin and hair a vigorous rubbing with the towel, draped it over the chair and got dressed for duty.

With her flight suit on, and her standard equipment attached she stepped out of the cabin and made her way to the Squadron briefing room. She jogged down through the hallway to get to the room, slowing to a walk she entered the room. She spotted Kayo, the squadron's admin who stood just inside the door with a cup of coffee in one hand and a sealed folder in the other.

The brown haired neko smiled, "Good morning ma'am, for you." she said extending the two items.

Atsui took them and walked to the front of the room, placing the folder on the podium while she took a sip of the coffee and then placed it in the podium. She looked at the folder, on the seal it had clearly written. Do Not Open until 05:30 Hrs. Whatever is going on? Someone is taking no chances of word getting out. she thought.

With nothing else to do at the moment, she just stood leaning against the podium and waited for the squadron to arrive.

 

[Kyle]

The announcement arosed Elisto out of a pleasant nights rest. His eyes opened, he stared up at the ceiling and let out a long drawn out yawn before getting up out of the bed and grabbing some things.

He headed out of the cabin and to the showers; he preferred cold showers in the mornings as it always woke him up and he did just that, setting it to the coldest possible setting and then stood there.

That hits the spot... he thought with a smile before turning the water off and grabbing the towel that he had brought. He tried himself off and then headed back to the cabin where he pulled his flight suit out the closest and slid effortlessly into it. He made certain it was on properly, double checking everything, before grabbing the items that a SAINT would typically bring along including his ICP and his glasses which he put on.

Glancing up at the ceiling, his mind had already surmissed that something was up. No later huh? he took the glasses off and clipped them against his shirt then stepped out of the cabin, he looked from side to side before taking off in a fast walk and arriving at the door to the briefing room not a short time later.

He stepped inside and saw both the squadrom admin and his commanding officer. "Good morning ma'am," he bowed respectfully toward Atsui and then when his head was raised he looked over at Kayo. "Morning Kayo-hei."

 

[Ira]

Ira stepped into the room wearing his flight suit, and had his helmet tucked under his left arm. He had a rather intense expression on his face making. He fully intended to get some flight hours added to his record today, but he made an effort to attend every scheduled meeting of the squadron. Fresh off of shore leave, Ira felt rejuvenated. He no longer seemed to have the look of a fresh faced rookie like he did a year ago. “Good morning Solitaire.” Ira said with a bow to Atsui, he then looked at Kayo as he sat down. “Are you feeling better Kayo-Hei? Ira then began to start fiddling with his flight helmet. “Good morning Elisto.” He said calmly.

 

[Gabriel]

With a small yawn Yaeko climbed her way out of bed. She quickly made her bed and got out her flight uniform, which she ironed and laid out on the bed. Once that was done she waited a couple minutes for a shower to open an hopped in. After finishing her semi-warm shower she dried off and wrapped the towel around herself. She then walked back to her quarters where she changed into her uniform and deposited the towel in a laundry hamper. After making sure all of her pins and awards were in order she head to the 21st Squadron's briefing room and sat down inside.

"Good morning everyone, great to see everyone's bright and smiling faces so early in the morning!"

 

[Cedric]

Richard had already been up when the call came out.

Why had he been up?

He didn't really know, to be honest. His sleep that night had been unpleasently dreamless and he had found himself waking up well before his fellow low-ranked pilots. As a result, he had found no trouble getting a decent shower. In fact he had been just about to get fully dressed for the day. He had just about to grab his standard uniform as the ship's AI broadcast the message: causing him to instantly go from his normal uniform to his flightsuit. Once that was done he had proceeded to move post-haste to the briefing room: moving at a steady jog through the halls to get there in time.

Once there, he came walking in, and didn't even both taking stock of who was in the room before performing a proper bow.

They all out-rank me anyways. He thought glumly. Ah well. I knew that was coming when I enlisted.

"Good morning, everybody." He said, rising from his bow with a smile.

 

[Kyle]

"Good morning Shoi," said Elisto with a curt bow of the head before he headed over to the table and took a seat. He relaxed a bit with both of his arms over his chest, it was obvious he was thinking about 'something'

In his mind, digital information flowed through the internals and he was cataloguing everything he had so far learned from the book and the device. He had been able to translate only some of it, not enough to warrent a report to his superiors just yet but enough that he knew it was - at least - tiny progress.

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully and staring straight at the wall ahead of him; he pondered several other things that came to his mind but he was also paying attention to anything that would happen here. Cloak and Dagger, was the first and only thing that came to his mind.

 

[NeonPhoenix]

Emiyu looked up from her book as the announcement was made over the speakers. She had managed to land herself a nest all to herself, though she certainly did not expect it to stay that way for long. She had spent most of the night reading up on the V8 fighter that she was expected to pilot.

She had slept a little, but she found that she was not particularly tired. While it may not appear on the outside, the fact was that she was very excited with her new station. She was a bit nervous at the prospect of facing a dangerous situation in a craft she had no experience in, but she was not going to get anywhere playing it safe..who knows, this could be exactly what she was meant to do.

Emiyu closed the operational manual and leapt out of the nest. Her healthy pale skin suddenly turned a bright robin's egg blue and her eyes shifted from green to a golden orange as she stepped into the shower and from there into her flight suit. She looked at her watch as she strode down the hall quickly. She had only had a very brief introduction to some of her fellow pilots last night before she had turned in, not exactly in the mood for a party at that moment.

She paused in the doorway to the briefing room to bow at the waist " Good morning ." she said before taking a seat towards the back of the room, her helmet in her lap.

 

[Samanthia]

Errowyn put on the burst of speed to get to her quarters as the morning revelly came abit earlier than expected. She grabbed her stuff and scooted to the enlisted showers and stripping quickly and pairing up with another for the shower. Quickl wetting down and then stepping away to allow another to use it the shower as she soaped up, then stepped back under the spray as the other stepped out to make room for her. She rinsed off and scampered drying off with the towel and dumping it in the hamper for the towels. She put on fresh panties and flight uniform, gathering up her sweats and underclothes as she glanced at the time.

She moved with purpose, avoiding the influx of personel using the facilities, back to her barracks. She secured her used clothing in the laundry bag and then scampered off to the brefing room.

At precisely 0525 hrs, Errowyn stepped into the breifing room and gave those present a quick formal bow of respect and moved to the nearest empty seat and settled comfortably in it. She placed the flightbag, with the name "Dreamchaser" stenciled on it, next to her seat which contained her helmet and her flight survival kit.

She looked towards the front of the room at Atsui, ready to take notes on her note-padd, waiting for the brief to begin.

 

[Nashoba]

Hallway
Yoshi was making her way to the squadron briefing room. It took her a bit longer than she expected to download the latest data for the SX-04 system. Since she was expecting another training mission it made sense to get the data. There was a seriously heavy amount to data transfer going on. She ducked into the briefing room just after Errowyn, and took a seat next to Ira.

"Morning Shoi." she said softly to Ira and looked at Atsui, "So what's up Solitaire?"

Briefing Room
Atsui was keeping track of who all had arrived, and the fact that all of them looked the better for their overdue shore leave was not lost on her.

"Good Morning, Diamonds. I see we are still shy a few people, and until 05:30 hrs, you know as much as I. Our mission briefing is sealed."

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko looked up when she heard this news. "Wait, so you don't even know what our next mission is?" She whistled softly. "Looks like we've got a big one, since usually you're privy to mission details before us, isn't that correct? And since the information is restricted to even you that means that the secrecy of the mission must be high priority." She leaned back a bit as she waited for the briefing to start. "Or I'm just being paranoid again."

 

[Nashoba]

Atsui shook her head, "No, you aren't being paranoid. Normally I would be briefed. Especially given that I was recently given the position of CAG. So whatever is about to go on, they want it on a need to know basis apparently."

She picked up the folder, and looked at it while waiting for the clock to reach the required time. All the while wondering, what the hell is going on that the higher ups won't tell the squadron commanders what is going on.

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko leaned forward, elbows on the table, as she started going through her own history lesson. "Well, oftentimes throughout the past, information wasn't disclosed to higher ranking officer prior to large offensives in order to avoid information leaking to the enemies. Covert missions also had the same affect for the same reason, as did undercover missions. We could be doing some sort of deep-space recon, or a surprise attack..." Yaeko trailed off as she continued to ponder what sort of mission they could be doing.

 

[Kyle]

Although he tried to ignore the conversation between Atsui and Yaeko, since he felt it was rude to easedrop on a superior officer unless directly ordered to,Elisto couldn't help but listen anyway, was it due to him being SAINT or just because he was curious? He didn't honestly know himself, just that this briefing and the fact that the orders were sealed, coupled with Atsui not knowing both worried yet also interested him.

Why would the orders be sealed? Cloak and dagger is right. Could this be an operation to assault an NMX base? Could we be going after a flagship? Are we going to undertake some form of a covert operations mission... wait.. if that would be the case wouldn't they throw my butt out there since I have the skills for that? he pondered at the last bit for a few moments while rubbing his chin. He was noticably in thought, and his mind was actively considering almost every possible mission that could be thrown their way.

 

[Jimmy]

Silic woke to a tap on his head. He'd curled up into a small corner of one of the machine rooms to catch what few hours of sleep he could. His current project sitting on the table under a small cover. The tapping came again.

“Anno, Vas-hei?” came an unfamiliar voice.

Silic looked up blearily, it was one of the technicians. “What time is it?” he asked slowly.

“Oh-five-one-oh hours.” said the neko, not even having to look at a watch.

Silic attempted to snuggle back down “It's very early, I may have to hurt you.”

The neko gently grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him slightly, Silic opened his eyes with annoyance this time and saw the message that MEGAMI was helpfully printing in small volumetric letters for him to read. He read it quickly and pulled a face. He grunted and cursed quietly as he stood up and walked towards a bench. The neko technician helpfully turned him towards the door and let him go as if he were a child's wind-up toy.

Pulling into the locker rooms Silic skipped the morning routine and lethargically pulled on his flight suit. He finally wandered into the briefing room yawning, customary pink volumetric arrows pointing the way. He still hardly looked awake. Silic was obviously not a morning person. Not even Elisto's prescence appeared on his radar.

“Hey Chief, what's the job?” he asked tiredly. He looked over nonchalantly at the strangely coloured newcomer to the squadron. “Since when did cat-ears come in baby blue?” This last to no one in particular.

 

[Cedric]

Sealed orders?

That was never good.

When Ricky had been a civilan pilot, such secrecy was unknown. Sure, they had their rules, but nothing too severe. Usually it was a case of when you were and weren't allowed to "shoot the breeze" with your flight crew, how to report in your position, and things like that. Then again, in the civilian world the heaviest armaments that Ricky had ever had mounted on craft he flew was a high-pressure spray cannon . . . not rockets and guns. Besides that, he was the lowest rank possible in the Yamatain military, and so if they wanted to keep him on a "need-to-know" basis then he wasn't going to fight it. He'd most assuredly complain, but he wouldn't fight them on it.

Yet keeping the orders from his squadron leader?

That made him nervous.

Ricky sat near the front, leaning back casually in his seat with one arm slung over the back of his seat, and the other resting on top of the helmet he had laid on his lap. He scanned the occupants of the room casually, trying to connect what few names he had learned already to what few faces he knew. As he looked, he could take comfort in the fact that he wasn't the only Nepleslian in his unit (even if he was in a Yamatain body).

"So, I guess sealed orders must mean that whatever's coming is pretty serious." He chimed in, his voice somewhat low.

He was the new guy and as much as he liked to joke, he didn't want to accidentally tread on any toes by saying something that might offend the more senior members of his unit.

"So is this a rare thing, or can I expect this a lot from this unit?" He asked, smiling, "If so, please just give me some fair warning for next time."

 

[NeonPhoenix]

Emiyu leaned her head back, looking at the young man behind her that had just spoken " This is your warning ." she said with a smirk, her white hair falling down almost to the floor. She straightened back up again, her white furry ears flicking slightly.

Why the orders were sealed was rather obvious, the mission was to be kept as low key as possible. The fewer people that had their fingerprints on this the better. It could be a recon or a precision strike, otherwise they would be part of a battle group. Of course, she had never seen combat of any kind outside of simulators and training and she knew that she shouldn't be excited, but she was regardless. But seeing as she had zero time flying the V8 she wondered how she could possibly contribute to this mission. She would be lucky if she wasn't a liability, much less a asset.

Give her a Plumeria gunship and she could level the playing field...but not in a V8.

 

[Jimmy]

Silic turned back to the oddly coloured neko, face still set in its nonchalant look. “Great, another one with fist control problems. We seem to be collecting them.” He said flatly. He still had some pains from the beating Lynn had given him two days earlier, although it might have just mixed in with the other hurts of that particular day.

Silic walked down the aisle of seats, idly looking over at Ricky. “Don't worry, new blood, if our current streak continues you won't live long enough to worry about it. Hell, if you survive I might even learn ya name.”

 

[Gabriel]

Yaeko shot Silic an obviously fake look of disapproval from across the table. "No Tin Man, be nice. They're no good to us if they know that they're going to die before they even get into the fight." She chuckled a little to herself. "Who knows? You might just end up scaring them away. In the future, maybe we shouldn't tell the new people that they're going to die, they'll try harder that way."

 

[NeonPhoenix]

Emiyu glanced up into the Engineer's face, her golden eyes unblinking, trying to figure out if his first statement had been fired at her and, if so, what exactly he was referring to. She gave a slight shrug to herself before reaching into a pouch of her flight suit and pulling out a copy of the V8 manual.

" I'm not going to die."

Her statement was calm as if she were describing the weather " Doubt and a Fatalistic outlook is as dangerous as a bullet, it can kill you just as quickly." she said, looking up at Silic with hooded eyes "If you concede defeat before the battle has begun, you've already lost and robbed yourself the chance of saving yourself ."" she added " I'm sure you'll learn our names soon enough, sir and I doubt you'll be forgetting them anytime soon." she said, a sweet, slightly ominous smile crossing her face before turning back to her manual.

 

[Jimmy]

Silic paused where he stood. “Sir?” he slowly turned to face Emiyu, lifting up his sunglasses to regard her blearily with scarred and bloodshot eyes. “I work for a living, Space Cadet. Remember what three bars means next time.” His glasses settled back down and he turned to the front. Silic wore the three bars of his rank, Joto-hei, he was an enlisted man. And a grumpy one at that.

He smiled in tired cheeriness, “It's so cute when they're optimistic.” He saw Kayo standing by the commander and his face tightened slightly, his simile recovering a second later.