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RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 3.1] Menace in the dark

"So much Leave.." As she let the glass fall to the table with a good solid clunk.

Errowyn was out of her seat and scrambling for the exit, hurriedly over her shoulders to Elisto, "Follow!" nearly colliding with another officer entering. With a quick bow and muttered "sorry" and was at full speed again to Launch bay Beta.

She smiled as she was definitely getting a new Kawarime.

Launch Bay Beta:: Yamato

Errowyn looked at the Deck Officer as he looked at her and pointed to the Kawarime she was going to fly. She bowed quickly and scrambled to the Kawarime and did a quick exterior pre-flight checks. She then scrambled up the access ladder into the cockpit.

As she hooked up her helmet and other systems to the fighter, ran a pre-flight checks, saving time in the process. She glanced around to see if Elisto was riding with her as ECW or flying his own Kawarime.
 
Elisto's head shot up at the ceiling when he heard the announcement and quickly followed behind Errowyn as he left the cantina and made his way down the corridors that lead to the hanger bay.

When he arrived, he watched as Errowyn boarded a nearby Kawarime fighter. He wasn't a member of this ships crew, just a soldier on board being transported to another duty station so he honestly didn't know whether he was flying or serving as an ECW and the last thing he wanted to do was make a wrong asusmption she he quickly approuched the deck officer.

"Sir? I know it's an escort mission, but do you want me in a fighter or flying ECW for Yumeoibito-Santo Hei?" he asked and positioned himself just in case the officer wanted him in a fighter. Though, due to the kind of mission, he was also half expecting to be told to get into a recon-fighter.
 
"Escort 1 and 2 are both 1A fighters, single seat craft. So I guess that answers your question. Your fighter is in the berth to the left of the one that Yumeoibito-Hei just got into. As senior member you are Escort 1. Get preflighted, and await further orders." the Chief replied.
 
Errowyn, in her excitement at returning to duty, didn't realized these fighters were abit different than the bigger Kawarimes she was used to.

Seeing Elisto move to the one next to her, looked puzzled for second as it dawned on her she was in a single seater fighter. She signaled the Flight Deck Officer she was all green for flight, finishing up her pre-flight with a coms check.

She turned on the running lights, switching to internal power as she signaled the deck crew for her ship to disconnect external power couplings from her ship.
 
"Thank you sir," said Elisto as he bowed and then ran over to the fighter and bounded up the steps. He hoped into the cockpit and sealedi it and ran a preflight check.

His computer came online as he ran a diagnostics on the fighters main systems, showing all green across the board he grabbed the helmet to his side and slide it over his head and watched as the HUD come line with different vital statistics including weapons, shields, generator and fuel numbers.

Elisto then gave the flight crew a thumbs up as he switched his fighter to the internal power generator and turned the flight ramp. As he watched Errowyns fighter, he clicked his mic for a moment and then said. "Yumeoibito-Santo Hei, Comm.'s check," he requested, all business now.
 
Over the headsets of their fighters came a male voice,
"Escort fighters, we will be moving you to launch position momentarily. Once the Yamato enters orbit you will be given launch clearance. You will escort two Yusou Grav-APC to the surface. We have reports of hostiles on the ground that the 21st has already engaged. We are considering the area to be hostile until we secure it. Once you reach the surface contact Numa-Chui for further orders."
Click to expand...
 
Hearing Elisto, She responded back, "Afirmtivie, read ya five by five, Dreamchaser out." Then another voice came over the coms giving them their mission

Scince it was obvious that Elisto was mission commander, she let him respond. She moved her ship into launch position following orders from the flight crew guiding her.

Errowyn was abit surprised as this time out, she was a lot more calmer and more focused on the job at hand. Waiting was the hard part. But she was patience for now.
 
Elisto glanced off to his left then down at his control panel and typed in a series of commands to his fighters main computer, then he keyed his headset and responded to the message. "This is Escort 1, copy that on the roders control. Shall escort APC's and request oders for Numi-Chui," he then glanced out over the take off ramp.

After a moment he lined his aircraft up then clicked his mic again. "This is Escort 1 to Grav-APC's, communications check please," he then waited for the reply even though their craft were always serviced, he was just that kind of person - thorough and always making certain that things worked like they should've.

While waiting, his mind was already working and spewing out possible outcomes and situations. There could be any number of things when we get down there, lets just hope the natives don't decide to lob a few rocks our way, he snickered lightly and then looked over at Errowyn and gave a slight nod of the head as he tightened his hand around the stick. Now, Elisto, just remember that your flying a fighter this time and not a gunship. Fighters turn on a dime, gunships don't.
 
"Transport 1 to Escort 1, ready you five by five, Transport 2 same here."

"Flight Control to Escort 1 and 2. We are loading you into the launch bay." came across the come, as the elevators activated lifting the Kawarime out of the maintenance area and into the launch bay. Once the lifts were secured in position, the blast shield lowered into position behind the fighters. The doors to the exterior slid silently out of the way, showing a panoramic view of a field of stars with the Planet Aqueous in eclipsing the view.

"Transport 1 exiting bay.... all systems green, moving to descent vector." Came across the shared channel. "Transport 2 exiting bay... all systems nominal... we have the beacon from the SSS vessel below... moving to descent trajectory....."

"Flight Control to Escort fighters, you are cleared for launch." came across the speakers as the locks holding the fighters in place released with an audible thump that reverberated through the fighter.
 
Elisto didn't respond to the transports right away; his mind focused on several things at once as he watched the lift raise his fighter into position. It was subtle, but he felt the thump as the locks disengaged, he then looked over and gave Errowyn a thumbs up and said. "Escort 1 launching!" as he hit the boosters.

Fire belched from the rear of his fighter as he rocketed out of the launch bay, the sides of the walls flying past him before being replaced by the blackness of space. His fighter instinctively banked to the left a bit, then straightened out as Elisto tagged the two transports and started flying toward them.

He thought for a moment before looking out through his cockpit at everything that was laid out before him, he then flew over to transport one and took up a position just off its starboard side. "Dreamchaser, once you’re out. Take up escort positions around the transports, keep your eyes peeled for any hostiles," he scanned the area around him using his sensors. “Transport one, Transport two, we’ve got you covered, escort 1 out.”

His fighter banked to the right as he took up a position near transport one, then he looked around for escort two.
 
The two APC's were moving into position to descend their gravity drives controlling their attitude. "The SSS Expedition leader says that the 21st has not returned yet. Escort 1, be advised that until we get into the lower atmosphere these APC's maneuver like a whale. Anything comes our way, its up to you to take them out. Once we get lower enough we can take evasive as needed."
 
"Roger that, we'll fly interference for you and intercept any rocks thrown at ya," Elisto replied as he shifted his position and banked his fighter a little to the left as he had been drifting a little close to transport one.

The approuch vector was displayed on his HUD and he was making some minor corrections to his course so that he would come in smoothly while alos keeping his eyes fixated on his sensor screen and also around him just in case someone took notice.
 
Errowyn's Kawarime hiccuped and she had to do a complete restart, She growled as she felt the locks releasing her fighter as she went through the restart-up proceedures. It wasn't fun to have this happened. Once she had the Kawarine going and at safely launched out the launch port. Seeing Elisto take the starboard side asshe listened on the coversation between the two.

She defly took up station on the portside of the two transport, more towards the rear of the formation. Relaxed and running scanners to cover her assigned sector.

"Escort two on station off the rear transport portside, doral. two hundred meters out." Errowyn reported over the fighter's channel to Elisto after the conversation between him and the Transports. She was paying attention to her six and her sector. "Locked and running hot."

She took a brief seconds to enjoy the view of creation and the stars. She loved the time between duty shifts just to spend time in solitude looking out at the stars and some tech manuel on the latest upgraded systems.
 
Elisto glanced over his shoulder; he had assumed that Errowyn had taken up position and just never told him, he wasn't aware that she had been, at least in his opinion, a little late.

He didn't address it though, whatever happened he saw she was able to overcome it and thus it didn't need to be discussed. "Escort two, once we clear the upper atmosphere, have weapons ready and prepare yourself to fly interference. I doubt we'll run into enemy fighters, but you can never be to sure," he sent and then switched over to his computer.

His scanners were running full tilt, giving him all sorts of useful data for him to parse through. He was analysing it, looking for anything that may look out of ordinary, such as a ship running under stealth conditions or possible even a fighter that was sitting in ambush with the majority of it's systems offline just waiting for something juicy to get close.

"Nothing yet...." he muttered suspiciously as he changed his sensor range as they got close to the planet.
 
"Hai," Errowyn responded back simply, mind focused back on the job at hand, running scans of her sector and her little fleets backtrail. Her weapons already armed and powered once she reached the regulation safe distance from the Yamato's launch tubes. With a flick of a switch, taking them off safe mode into firemode if / when needed.

She smiled slightly as she ocassionaly shifted her position to get a different view past the rear transport to see if any histiles had snuck up behind the transport on Elisto's side.

"Milkruns are the worse nightmares for a fighter cause they create a false sence of security and bring complacenacy to make a pilot to react, instead of being pro-active..." A small voice of the Test Instructor spoke up from the recesses of her mind

Errowyn scowled as that first long run which seamed to be a simple easy run that she and the other testees had taken a dozen times without incident and complacenacy had settled in. The entire flight "died" cause they was reactive, not proactive like they should've been.

Eyes darting over the console and everything else, mind running quick caculations on the changing route, making sure her Kawarine was performing properly after the hiccup at the start.
 
As the Yusou descended their shields began interacting with the upper atmosphere, just as the Kawarime shielding did the same. The molecules of the atmosphere heated and covered the four descending craft in an orange nimbus that trailed behind them. The fighter sensors showed the temperature around the shield was in excess of 1,000 degrees Celsius.

As the four craft continued their plunge into the skies above Aqueuous they entered the Mesosphere and the fiery trails faded out. They were now descending into clear sky with the sky above them a dark blue and slowly lightening as they continued downward.

The Kawarime Threat Con systems suddenly started flashing red, and showed four small high speed objects streaking upwards. The system identified them as ship missiles closing at high speed. They were in search mode looking for a target for their RADAR to achieve lock.
 
Elisto's eyes watched the sensor display as the four missiles headed in their general direction, he tightened his grip on his stick then feed more power to his engines as he moved on ahead of the transport.

"Escort two, break off from the transport. We need to intecept those missiles," he sent and then ran a quick check on what the missiles were doing and gave a satisfying nod to himself. He reduced power to his weapons down to seventy five percent, then sent that available power to his sensor systems in hopes of boosting his radar cross section.

Then he banked his craft downward at an angle which would allow him to get a beat on the missiles, he was already in the process of tracking them. "Transports one and two, we have four hostile missiles inbound. Maintain your present course, once you are able, begin evasive actions," he then chagned frequency back to his fellow escort.

He watched the reticle on his HUD and took in several deep breaths, then squeezed the trigger as fire belched from his four cannons toward two of the incoming missiles
 
Errowyn watched the incoming objects on her threat screen, as she broke away from the transport to get on Elisto's wing and position herself properly when he lit himself up as a major target for the missiles to home in on. She cut throttle, letting him take the lead as she adjusted her course, letting him take on the first two missile.

Once she had established lock on the trailing two missiles, she let loose aburst of fire from her cannons at the first one and then let loose another for the second one, aiming at a point where the missiles will intercept her cannon fire.

Then looking for the sourse of where those missiles came from by backtracking the exhaust contrails.
 
The two missiles exploded in a satisfactory manner long before they could endanger any of the craft. However, from this altitude, the only thing they could accurately determine was that the missiles came from a point not too far from the landing zone. Perhaps 10-20 miles east of it.
 
Elisto cursed when he realized there was an error in his targetting computer, he realigned his reticle and aimed at the last two missiles. "Escort two, two missiles down two to go," he said to Errowyn as he kept up a stream of fire, alternating between the two in hopes of taking both out.
 
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