RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 1.1] Defense of Ryou

Diverting to Ryou.

While Tarim-Juni banked into a position behind Solitaire's fighter, Minoru spared a glance at the city below them. How many stray battlepod shots had hit apartments, offices, and homes? How much wreckage and debris had fallen from the battle raging in the skies over the city? How many people had been injured or trampled trying to get to shelter?

They would be well within their rights as soldiers of the Star Army to commandeer the proper facilities, equipment, and space to set down their fighters. But how many civilians, more grievously injured, and in much greater danger of dying from their injuries, would suffer for that? This situation made him feel profoundly uncomfortable, and it showed in his voice when he switched on his external mic again.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I advise against diverting to Ryou. The hospitals will have their hands full treating civilian casualties. I would suggest flying up to the fleet instead. I will have better facilities to treat Cutter there, and if the Heitan has not sustained damage then space should..."

Two warning lights went off as Yaeko and Silac's heartrates went berserk and then cut off. Their fighter disappeared soon after from the sensors too.

"Damn it!"

He swore into the mic as he tried to find his two squadmates visually, struggling to see much of anything in this sea of kamikaze battlepods.

"Ma'am, I am not getting any vital sign feedback from Yaeko and Silac. Their fighter has dropped off the scopes. I'm trying to get a visual confirmation."

For a precious few minuets’ Ira had actually gone off of the scanners him self as several Battle pods had actually managed to isolate him from the wing. In desperation he maneuvered low to the ground and bitterly destroyed the battle pods. His fighter was in utter shambles and his consol was showing him that his fighter suffering from light damage but was still functioning.

Ira’s voice chimed in, “I am still on the clock. Yaeko and Silac have ejected…” He called to his squad. “Damn pods are trying to ram us.” Ira grunted.

When Yaeko activated the ejection system it started a series of automatic steps. Within a fraction of a second, all of the connections between the cockpit and the fuselage were severed. The cockpit systems switched to internal systems and the location beacon switched on. From under the cockpit a rumble could be heard as the ejection rockets engaged and began shooting the cockpit away from the stricken craft. G-forces from the thrusters slamming the occupants into their seats.

A second battlepod sensing the vulnerability of the fighter slammed into it from the port side just as the cockpit module cleared. The resulting explosion and debris slamming into the bottom of the module. The cockpit module was rocked back and forth and anything not secured was tossed side to side as the internal controls attempted to correct the cockpit attitude.

Silic with his loosed straps was slammed first into the starboard side his helmet slamming into the transparent durandium canopy. Then before the stars he was seeing could clear he was slammed into the port he felt a brief wave of pain and then darkness took him.

The ejected cockpit thruster systems switched off, and the module plummeted towards the ground. The status indicator showed a failure in the attitude control system. With the module out of position for main chute deployment, the ejection system activated the backup. The cockpit canopy flew away as explosive bolts released it. Then the seats in the cockpit were ejected out.

Three seconds after the seats were ejected, each deployed a chute. The not empty cockpit module streaked past them and impacted on the side of the mountain. Yaeko and Silic were now floating downward towards the forest.

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"Doc, you said I'm to avoid high g maneuvers. Going trans-orbital would be a high g maneuver.... Shit.. I'm showing Munkata and Silic's fighter activated their ejection. Look for a chute, see if you can confirm chutes. I'm going to Ryou, its the closest facility. Kail, Ramirez try to locate our pilots and make sure the damned squid don't shoot them out of the sky if they ejected successfully. Callout if you spot chutes. Once you get a fix Ramirez return to base and contact Raikou for search and rescue. Kail bring Doc to Ryou. If there are civilian casualties his skills will be needed there."

Solitaire broke off from the group, most of the battlepods were going ballistic vertically. Only 2 showed on her tactical which the others should be able to handle.

Silic's body floated down under his chute, it was far from a gentle ride, he'd been jerked and pushed around unforgivingly throughout the whole thing. In actual fact, the chute didn't seem to help at all! He was still falling faster than most people would consider comfortable, or indeed liveable.

Silic was limp in his seat slumped forwards, unable to react as he fell slowly towards the trees below. Within seconds he disappeared within the green leaves with a series of cracks and bangs, the chute folding up with the sudden slow down and plopping down after him like a sucked in noodle, leaving no trace of where he fell from above.

Yaeko clung to whatever she could grab to help steady herself. Once the seats deployed she shook her head to try and refocus herself. Everything was spinning from being thrown around so much. Her seat landed in the forest with a large thud as she pulled her legs up to avoid them getting caught underneath the chair.

Yaeko immediately unbuckled herself and dusted herself off. "Well that was slightly painful, Silic are you alright?" She started bending in different directions, trying stretch out her back and work out the kinks. After a couple second she called out again, "Silic?" She started walking in the direction that she had seen him land. After walking several yards she saw him slumped in his seat, still buckled in, hanging many feet above the forest floor. "Oh my god!" Yaeko sprinted over to where he was. "What do I do? What do I do!? Think Yaeko, think! Remember your training. Oh shoot!"

Silic was still strapped into his seat, feet dangling about thirty to forty feet above the forest floor swinging gently to and fro with the movement of the branches. Outwardly, he appeared to be fairly intact, a few leaves in awkward places, bruises and grazes in some places. The real damage had been from snapping his head against the canopy, the rough treatment on the way down certainly hadn't helped. He hung limply from his harness, unmoving and unresponsive, deeply unconscious.

“Shit.” Ira said more to him self then anything. “I will get the coordinates, but I’m not going to leave them.” Ira would probably get told not to be a hero and to follow orders, and truth be told he knew neither Yaeko nor Silic on a personal level, but as of this mission they were his comrades, and members of his squadron and by proclamation of rank his people. Ira settled into a descending circle, and immediately caught sight of their deploying chutes and the pair’s descent into the forest. Ira immediately logged their landing coordinates into his computer.

Ira circled over head making enough noise and being visible enough to them while he debated. He was not Star Army Of Yamatai, he was UOC, and his CO probably knew what she was doing. “This is Ramirez, I am returning to base.” Ira said softly as he completed another circle around the landing zone and punched it out of the combat zone.

Yaeko's mind raced as she thought of how to get him down. Suddenly she though of something. "I hope this works." She pulled out her NSP and took careful aim. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she fired several shots in the air, aimed at the branches that were caught in Silic's parachute. Her hope was that it would get him down but leave the chute in-tact enough to get him down safely.

Unfortunately Silic was pretty much right between Yaeko and the parachute, after the first few shots an a sizzle could be heard as a shot lightly scored an arm near the shoulder, the NSP destroyed surrounding branches with a burning smell and exploding sap, loose bark rained down with a few tiny droplets of blood. There was a creak as branches began to bend, then a loud snap sent Silic spinning and tumbling down.

He fell another ten feet before another he caught a large branch with his stomach, the creaking sound could have been from either bending wood or cracked ribs, Silic only uttering a small “Omph.” as air was pushed out out of his lungs. Slowly he slid around until he was falling again, only to be jerked to a sudden stop again, the parachute again arresting his fall among the branches above, still a 25 feet above Yaeko, his arms and legs dangling and rocking limply.

Of course going orbital would be a high-G maneuver. Minoru silently chastised himself for his error, he was a doctor after all and should have known better. As a result the tone crept slightly into his voice.

"Forgive my error Ma'am. Contacting command for medical clearance now. I will relay hospital location and landing co-ordinates to you."

Quickly he switched to the fleet's dedicated medical emergency channel. His voice now calmer and more professional as he detached himself from his prior error.

"This is Santo-Hei Akechi Minoru, attached to 21st Squadron. Atsui-Chui's EWO has suffered a head wound of uncertain severity and fighter 32 dash 0039 has crashed with pilots ejected. Requesting clearance to land at Ryou to perform medical treatment and search for pilots."

Now all he had to do was wait for a response, which would hopefully carry the clearance as well as the location of the small city's hospital. Hopefully things would not be too chaotic and civilian casualties were minimum. He looked up at the contrails of the fleeing battlepods as they went to orbit, muttering under his breath.

'Gods damned squids...'

Atsui continued towards Ryou as she got closer to the settlement she could see smoke rising from a number of locations. However in general it appeared that no major damage had occurred and what smoke she saw was relatively minor. Ahead of her she spotted one of the SSS Tansaku-class ships hovering over the settlement with a swarm of weapon pods orbiting prepared to strike at any threat.

Atsui switched over to the civilian frequency, "This is Numa-Chui Commander of the 21st Fighter Squadron to Tansaku-class ship. What is your status?" she sent.

"Numa-Chui, this is Kouseki Captain of the Nebula. Our status is good. We were just about to launch when we got word of the attack. I brought the Nebula here to try to take care of any of the Mishhu that got past you folks. Only three of the battlepods made it over here, and we destroyed two of them and then third one decided to ram us amidships." the Neko commander of the ship replied.

"Glad to hear that, I've got a medical emergency, my EWO was injured in the conflict and your city had the closest medical center. I would like permission to land and have him treated." Atsui sent. "Do you have any of the Kuma T8 shuttles at your landing field? I have two pilots down, if possible I would like some of my crew to borrow one for search and rescue."

Kouseki consulted Mei the Nebula's AI, and sent a message to the staging area for the requested shuttle. She also saw a request for medical access routed via Star Army channels.

"Numa-Chui, I've instructed the Staging Area to have a shuttle prepped for your people. You are authorized to land near the medical center for your EWO." Kouseki sent.

"Thank you Captain." she replied, switching back to the Squadron frequency, "Ramirez, and Kail, divert to the SSS Staging area. Its a hell of a lot closer, and they have prepared a shuttle for your use for S&R. Doc go with them to provide medical attention on site. The Ryou medical center is standing by for Cutter and will be expecting you folks. Solitaire out."

Yaeko shrieked as she heard things snap and break as Silic hit branch after branch. "God I hate doing this." Yaeko closed her eyes and slowly started hovering up to Silic. Once she had reached his height she unfastened him and caught his body as he fell out of the seat. With much difficulty she lowered him to the ground. Once her feet touched the ground she immediately checked his pulse to make sure he was still alive. Once she was sure she started ripping off pieces of clothing to bandage any wounds he had. Yaeko laid him on his back and elevated his feet to try and get blood flow to his brain and heart. Suddenly she realized she should have her personal comm. She grabbed it off of her belt and dialed in to transmit to any device within four miles. "SOS, SOS. We have a Yamataian fighter down, please respond. We need help!"

Ira was actually already in route to to the staging area when he heard Yaeko's desperate SOS. "This is Shoi Kohosei Ramirez." He said in a relaxed voice. "We are are coming for you, just stay put." as he raced through the sky towards the staging area. Seconds later he received an update on his orders for the S&R. Solitaire would get a sharp "Aye aye" in response.

When Ira's fighter flew above the staging area and came to a sudden halt, the tiny ship then very quickly went straight down, halted came to a land on the grounds of the. Ira for all his calm popped the canopy, and wasted no time getting out of his craft. He leapt out of the cockpit and landed on his feet damn near toppling over as he broke into a run. He paused only to ask the approaching mechanic crew where the shuttles were. They simply pointed in the direction and Ira hoofed it.

The young man introduced him self and was diverted towards the prepped shuttle to be used for the S&R. By the time Kail and Doc would arrive at the shuttle it would already be powered up and ready to begin the mission.

Kail murmured an affirmative, and then banked to head in for a landing pattern on the SSS Staging Area.

"Ready with your tools, Doc. We might need them. Going in for a landing now." She said, revving back her engines and letting the speedometer drop to acceptable levels. Then, satisfied, she double-checked for a clear landing, and landed.

The Kawarime bounced as the landing gear smacked into the ground. The Fighter went airborne for a nauseating moment, and then came back down to taxi and stop.

"Thank you for flying Air Tarrim. I hope you enjoyed your flight."

Silic was a dead weight in Yaeko's arms as she lowered them down, the engineer was not particularly large, but was a good two feet taller than the smaller Nekovalkrja. His heart was still beating, but his body was covered in bruises, and scrapes on exposed skin during the fall, but that wasn't the worst of it.

On the side of his ribcage was a large bulge that seemed to grow bigger and smaller as he breathed, the laser wound on his arm was mostly cauterised, but Yaeko's bandage stopped the dribbles blood still oozing out, and a rather large bump was forming on his forehead, it seemed likely that there were a few more broken bones too.

Once she made sure he would be fine for a couple moments Yaeko ran back over to Silic's ejected seat. She grabbed the survival kit underneath the seat and ran back over to where Silic's body was lying. She looked around and then got two branches that were lying nearby and brought them over. Then she used the bandages in the kit to bandage the branches to Silic's back as a splint so he wouldn't injure his broken ribs even more.

Then she went to work cleaning the area around the bulging spots on his ribs and head with sanitary wipes. Once that was done she two of the wash clothes, poured some cold water from one of the 2-liters on them, and taped them on the bulges to work as temporary ice packs to try and reduce the swelling.

Once she was done with that she went digging through the kit and found a radio with the rescue beacon. She flipped the beacon on and then grabbed the mic on the radio, "This is Munkata-Hei, 21st Fighter Squadron. Ramirez, please respond. 21st squadron, please respond. Rescue beacon has been turned on. Vas-Hei is seriously injured and in possibly critical condition. Have emergency medical staff ready at the nearest facility, I don't know how long he'll last."

"A pleasure flying with you Juni. Thank you for taking care of me."

Minoru took out one of his dataslates, transferring Yaeko and Silics medical data onto it. After a thought he also grabbed the medical kit from under his seat. Every little bit helped after all. Especially since he was in the dark about the extent of the injuries on the downed pilots.

Speaking of which...

Minoru took off his helmet and clambered out of his seat, dropping down the side of the fighter to land in a crouch on the tarmac. Scanning the area he quickly found the shuttle and started his way towards it in a brisk stride, his towering form giving him great speed. He couldn't afford to be anything but calm now. He needed to think clearly. No distractions. He was worried about Munkata-Hei as well, truth be told. He didn't know if she was in shock. Either way he didn't think she had the training for this. He brought his own radio up.

"Munkata-Hei this is Doc, we have your signal and are heading over in a shuttle to pick you up. Now there are a few things I need you to do while we are enroute. First I will need you to describe Vas-Hei's injuries to me in as much detail as possible, as well as anything you may have done to treat them. Is he conscious or responsive in any way? Is his airway clear? After that I will need you to monitor his vital signs for me. Heart-rate and breathing are all you have the equipment for I think. So read me his bpm every minute and tell me if his breathing changes. Understood?"

Poor Doc barely had a chance to finish his statement when Ira cut the channel, severing communications. “No offense, but have you stepped out side of your mind?” Ira said softly with out looking at him. “That girl just had her fighter yanked from under her ass and tossed off into a hill, and her co-pilot is lying prostrate and dying on the ground, and you want her to administer medical attention while we keep in route?” Ira said in a pleading tone.. “Look, she is probably terrified and scared shitless, she may end up doing more damage by handling him in her current state then any thing.” Ira was not condescending to Doc, nor was he attempting to be little the man, it was a bad situation, but a situation where the cool head would prevail.

Ira had waited for anybody who was behind Doc to get into the shuttle. But he was not waiting any longer. With that the shuttle lifted off, and Ira punched the thrusters to the max, heading in the direction of the homing beacon. Ira then spoke up on the channel. In a calm almost chatty voice he spoke up. “This is Shoi-Kohosi Ramirez, I have Doc with me, and we are closing in on your homing beacon, ETA five minuets.” “Munkata-Hei, where are you from, what do you like to do?” He asked in an attempt to keep her talking. Ira silenced him self. “Don’t talk about her co-pilot, just keep her calm.” Ira said to Doc.

Fifty percent of the distance had been covered, but it still may not be enough. Ira then snarled very audibly “God-damned squids.”

Tarrim had kept up with Doc and the Kohosei, boarding the shuttle only a half-step behind.

She was slightly offended on behalf of Minoru, no matter what the tone Ramirez took it was both condescending and made the situation more confusing for the Hei on the ground. But she held her tongue -- she couldn't quite step in at that moment.

-------

The shuttle's engines flared into life, and the craft took off. The trees, scrub and grass blurred below them as the shuttle closed the distance to the Beacon.

And as with the image of the greenery below, time stretched in the minutes it would take to arrive. Once he was only sixty seconds away, Ramirez would need to slow and find a clearing if he was to land.

Minoru tuned his mic breifly to address only Ramirez. His voice was hard as bedrock, and brooked no argument

"The best way to stave off shock is to focus her mind on something, keep her talking and keep her doing something. She is not treating him, she is monitoring his condition and describing his injuries to me. As it is Ramirez-Kohosei, I am flying in there blind. There are dozens of life threatening injuries Vas-Hei could have. Each of which needs different sorts of treatment. I need the information she is telling me, just as much as she needs something to focus on. I know what I am doing."

He wasn't happy right now. And he did not enjoy being lectured on how to do his job. He knew how to treat shock, and he knew first aid procedures. And now Munkata-Hei was likely to just become more confused by contradictory requests.

He barely managed to climb into the shuttle, Tarim-Juni right behind him when it took off. He went to check on what medical supplies it might have before tuning his mic to Munkata-Hei again.

"Munkata-Hei, this is Doc. Talk to me."