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

"Thats enough." Ira snapped putting a bit of a growl into his voice. Ira shifted a glare at Silic. "I know it is funny and amusing, but shit is about to go down, so can we not scare the rooks?" Ira said as he paused from messing with his helmet.

Ira was not finished. He did not yell, but it was becoming quite clear that he was indeed coming into his own. He then looked Emiyu, then to Ricky. "Rookies, you would do well to keep your mouths shut and listen to the veteran squad members."

Ira then winked at Yaeko, and went right back to work on his helmet. He grumbled something about needing a better tool kit and with out speaking up he spoke. "Vas-hei, come give me a hand."

Lynn woke with a start.

She had fallen asleep in the Hangar, a rare though not un-familiar event. A panel on Atsui's fighter lay open, a hint at what had kept her up all night. She wasn't as skilled as a real technician, but what she had gleaned from watching and listening to them allowed her to perform basic maintenance.

She read the message sent through Hiromi, sighed and hurried to where she was required. And, as was her custom, quietly slipped herself into the back of the room where she could watch and listen -- and shoot a nervous glance at the XO and Silic.

Silic looked down at his left hand, shrugged and began fiddling with it, with a twist and a pop limb was quickly removed. He offered it towards Ira, elbow end first. Definitely not a morning person.

At 5:28 a shudder went through the Heitan which was indicative that the ship had disconnected from the star fortress. Almost immediately after that was the subtle sensation caused by the engines. The carrier was getting underway.

Atsui did not mind playful banter but personal attacks was not acceptable. "All of you stow that noise. What ever is coming our way, save that energy for it. We..." She paused briefly as Silic handed his cybernetic hand to the XO, "...will probably need it."

Silic turned to look at Atsui, almost as if realising she was still in the room. His shuffled nervously. The detached hand made a small, shy wave at her before going limp again. Still waiting to see what Ira wanted to do with it.

Elisto couldn't help but mentally facepalm when he saw what Silic had done, in one way it was actually quite comical, but in the other it was also rather disturbing. In both cases, he choose not to say anything since he was busy thinking of other things right now.

Deaths hand is at everyone's doorstep, whether we want it or not, we just have to dodge it and live for the next day. Overconfidence will get someone killed one of these days, and I can't help but wonder if Emiyu's overconfidnce will get herself killed and maybe even, one of her squad mates. Think I'll keep an eye on her as well.

Anne waked up early. Her inner hours were set from the years back when she was responsible to wake her mistress. But this was more early then usually. Her clock stated it was 4:40 and she could not fall asleep again. Anne sst up on her bad an yawned as her hair fell on her shoulders. Although shortly, she still slept well and that was good. She was afraid of sleep-troubles on the spaceship but it was fine. She took a quick morning shower and enjoyed hot water. She still did not get accustomed to onsen-style bathrooms on Heitan. So she just took shower and quickly returned to her room and got dressed.

It was just in time to hear Hiromi's message. Anne got startled at first and panicked a little. A mission! But she just arrived yesterday, this is so soon. She shaked her head and quickly put used rubber band on her hair. It was better to not let her Hair hang free when on mission. She then put on her aerospace suit and even helmet to test if everything was fine. She then took helmet off again and left her room only to turn back after few steps and run back. She quickly too out her pistol belt with emergency equipment and NSP on it and put it on. She might need it on the mission after all.

Finding her squadron room took her some time too. Anne walked into it only to see it was almost full. She was probably last one. Not very good image on her first mission. Mistress Atsui will probably scold me. She though. I mean Atsui-Taii. She corrected herself. She bowed generally to everyone, politeness will never make anything back and room was full of higher ranked pilots. Someone as lowly as her must pay respect to them.

"I hope I am not late," she said with a little panicked and startled voice. It would probably made her die of shame if that happened. But the ship was so big and it took her time to find Squadron room.

Ira looked at Silics hand for a moment. He then took it from Silic, and began pushing all the fingers so hat they balled into a fist. All except the middle finger, which was left out stretched so that it was sending a rather vulgar gesture right back at Silic.

Emiyu watched Silic march back to his seat, a smirk spreading on her face. Her eyes flicked to another pilot who tried chewing her out, but it didn't seem to bother her that much. Sure, she would listen to a veteran when he has something worthwhile to offer. But apparently this engineer was more interested in trying to scare them then actually help them.

He was being worse then useless in her opinion.

She felt the shudder run through the ship as it detached, then again as the engines fired up. Her ears shivered slightly as the tremor of the engines ran up through the floor to her feet and up her spine. It was something that she never got used to, the feel of powerful engines pushing them through space. A large ship like this was especially exciting to her and she was very grateful that her first assignment was on such a vessel.

Yaeko blushed a little bit when she got the wink from the XO. After seeing then seeing the interaction between Ira and Silic she shook her head at them. "Children, please, not in front of the Santo's. We don't want to corrupt them yet." Yaeko yawned a little bit, since she was starting to get tired. Just then she turned to see Hoshi walking in. People are still wandering their way in? This things starting in a minute, they're cutting it pretty close.

::Breifing room ::

Errowyn sat there, idly drawing on her note-PaDD as she listened to the general banter going on around her. Seeing the Hand of Silic after what Ira did, gave a soft felinish chuffing sound, and soon, returned to that spaced out dreamy look, she had perfected to keep others from intruding, unless it was very important.

When the Heitan harmonics and vibrations changed, She opened her flightbag, began pulling every thing out in order and began filling pockets of her flight suit with all of the survival gear that she had been issued. She checked her issue weapon out carefully, making sure it was in excellent shape and clean. Then inserted a fresh power cell into the weapon and secured it in the holster, returning it to the flightbag along with her helmet.

Once her personal checks were done, settled back in her seat and resumed once more the spaced out dreamy look, cat ears flickering about to pick the various sounds around her. Whether is was general conversations, mechanical sounds from the ship, and air softly hissing through the ventalation system.

At 05:29 hrs and 51 seconds, Errowyn yawned behind her hand and eyes slowly looked around, with that dreamy look.

Atsui looked at the clock as it hit 0530 hours. She opened the folder, read the first line. Went to the back of the room closed the door and secured it. Returning to the podium she looked around the room, and then back at the document.

"Okay, listen up people...

The following information is classified Top Secret, you are not to speak about any information in this briefing outside of this room. Anyone caught doing so will get themselves a long stay in the Heitan's brig.

We are about to participate in the part of Operation Dam Breaker. This operation is the Secondary Expeditionary Fleet launching an attack against the NMX blockade at the North Gate to the Ketsurui Military Zone.

Right now the Heitan is heading to its staging point where it will be met by its escort ships.

Once our escorts are in place the Heitan will jump to point Alpha. Once we arrive, the 21st will launch and move into position along with a squadron of Hayai-Class Gunboats. The 2X-F22, 2X-F23, 2X-F24 will likewise be paired with a group of Gunboats.

Once we are in position the Heitan will execute a shorter hyperfold carrying the ships with it. Once we emerge from fold we move towards our objective.

Our objective is to disable the NMX Command and Control Station at point Bravo. Our mission is simple; Clear the path for the Gunboats to that station.

The other squadrons will clear paths to their targets for their Gunboats as well.

While the strike force goes after the station, the Heitan and its escorts will do their best to sow confusion and chaos.

The second wave of the Attack will arrive ten minutes after we do. It will consist of a variety of craft and some unique weapon systems.

Part of that is:
500 - OI-M1-1b “Asura”
500 - OI-M1-2A “Kirin”

Those Mecha will be dealing with the Battlepod menace and keep the Heitan and its escorts safe from them. Once the second wave comes in they will move out and engage the enemy."

Silic used the hush of the briefing to quietly snatch his arm back from Ira, shake out the obscene gesture and reattach his arm. Quickly slotting it back into his stump with a small disgruntled click.

Yaeko brought up the space map on her comm as the Taii began to talk. Once the briefing was done Yaeko chimmed in. "Question. You said North Gate, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the East Gate that has the larger number of NMX troops, since there are even NMX planets in that direction? I apologize if I'm wrong, but it just seems a little odd to me."

Elisto nodded his head, tapping his lower chin in thought while he listned to Atsui. So, time to breach a blockade. This'll be an interesting operation. He glanced over at the three other newbies to the squad before looking back at the Taii, giving her his full attention.

That's... Very daring. Lynn thought.

The squadron would be fighting hard; the NMX wouldn't give up any stretch of space without a pitched battle. Escorting gunboats likely wasn't going to be easy itself either, big lumbering glass cannons always made a good target. The squadrons of the Heitan would pay dearly for their passage through the battlefield.

"Shouldn't we get into our fighters... Now-ish?" Lynn suggested lightly.

Atsui was looking at the faces of her squadron.

"North Gate was chosen because it has fewer NMX vessels. Once we strike from our side forces from the 6SF will attack from the other side. The intention is to break the blockade and let our forces that have been trapped in the KMS to be able to get out and get involved in the war.

I repeat our mission is not to engage the Station. Our priority is to protect the gunboats, and to identify targets for them to target. Which is why we have two Teisatsu to scan for high EM signatures.

As was rightly said, our fighters are not a match for a major weapon. We are to take down any Battlepod, Fighter or Missile that even thinks about coming after the Gunboats. Once we get them to the green zone we fall back and they proceed on their own.

Yeah, this is risky. But so was coming out here and forming the 2XF. If we are going to win this war, we have to take risks, and do things the enemy wouldn't expect. Apparently the top brass seem to feel that this is one such risk.

The tactical data will be downloaded to our fighters by the time we get to them.

Time to go saddle up Diamonds. You got ten minutes to get to the flight deck. Loverboy, make sure everyone gets there on time. I have to check the status of the other squadrons before I get there." she walked to the door, carrying the folder, unlocked it and stepped out.

Emiyu tapped a finger against the top of her flight helmet, thinking hard about the situation. She had been in this squadron less the twenty-four hours and had zero time in the V8. She didn't even have a call sign yet and she was being thrown into a battle that would be difficult for even veteran pilots.

Emiyu chuckled dryly as she stood. You couldn't ask for a better chance to prove yourself. She had studied the NMX battlepods and their tactics for a while in a effort to formulate better anti-fighter fire screens..for situations like this, except she would've been manning the guns on the Heitan, rather then amongst the fighters. She would not allow fear to enter her mind. She could pilot the vessel through the SPINE inteface, but if she were nervous or frightened, then it would affect her flying and could cost her her life.

She made her way out of the room towards the flight deck to see if she could find her fighter and spend at least a few minutes getting to know the craft .

::Briefing Room ::

Once the brief was over with by the way Atsui left the podium she quickly stood and then grabbed her flight bag. She lazily moved from the Breifing room and made her way to her assigned fighter. With a sence of purpose to show up with planty of time to do a preflight checks on her Kawarime.

::Flight Deck ::

The Kawarime " V8X2 32-0053" sat in it assigned spot at it's assigned launch point. She smiled as she began her walk around to do a visual checks, looking at the missile launchracks with it's payload, making sure there was no foriegn objects or misplaces tools that would cause a hang up on the missiles when they were needed to engage the enemy. Passing around the front of her fighter, she reached up and patted the hull of the fighter, whispering, "Its you and me baby."

She then climbed up and into her ship's cockpit, continuing on withher pre-flight checks and coms checks with ship's launch control station. She smiled to herself wondering what her assigned teammates were going to be. She finished up with her checks and settled her helmet on and connected that up to life supports system, leaving her viser up for now.

Elisto rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment; then quickly jumped out of his chair and headed out of the briefing room. He headed onto the flight deck where he observed the two modules needed for this mission being put onto his fighter.

"Hello there girl," Elisto smiled at himself as he walked up and then alongside his assigned fighter, it's matte black coating was reminescent of a SAINT inspired fighter. He then began to check every facet of it, looking into maintenance panels to make sure no one left anything and then checking for any possible dents or dings. He was being very meticulous, falling back on his past experience, back when he used to inspect his ship when it was drydock.

After he was done with the exterior check he then moved toward the back of the fighter and inspected the exhaust outtake and, seing no obstructions, gave an approving nod of the head.

He then ran back toward the front of the fighter and jumped into the cockpit where he started a preflight check to make certain all systems were go and ready.