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

Ira walked the deck and watched as the squadron hopped into their fighters. Ira then chimed in over the squadron communications channel. ‘This is lover boy. Elisto you are my Wingman. Anne, you are riding EWO for Yumeoibito-hei. Munkata-Hei you wing man is Thurston-hei, and Arinori is wingman for Yumeoibito. Munkata-Hei, you keep an eye out on the new guys.”

Ira then climbed up into his fighter, slapped his helmet on and began powering the fighter up. “Alright Diamonds, I don’t give flashy speeches, and I hate heroics, protect your wingman, and do the job. Rookies. I know you are new here, so let me say this, I am a huge fan of everybody coming back alive, stay on your wingman, and do not be afraid to ask for help.”

Yaeko waited for the information to be said before nodding at the Taii. "Hai Taii!" She called out before standing and grabbing her helmet from underneath her seat. Slamming it on to her head she made a quick jog to the flight deck.

Once at the flight she scanned the fighters before seeing hers. "The Great 48! There you are." She jogged over to the fighter and hopped in, immediately switching her comm on. As she went through her normal start up procedure she heard the announcement from Ira. "I'll do my best to watch out for the newbies sir."

As Yaeko heard Ira going through the flight assignments she pulled up a digital copy of it. "Hey Loverboy, I'm seeing a discrepancy with the flight assignments. You said Anne is EWO for Yumeoibito, but they're assigned to different fighters, and if they go on Yumeoibito's Kawarime then we would be down one Teisatsu. Also, the current setup leaves Elisto and Thurston without EWOs. And where's Emiyu in this picture? I just figured it would be a good idea to bring this up before we're in the air."

"Elisto can Ewo for Thurston, Anne can stay in her Teisatsu, Emiyu can right EWO for Anne." Ira said calmly as he looked over the data. "Good catch."

"Don't mention it." Yaeko quickly updated the data in front of her to account for the newly added information. "Alright, squadron listen up. Based on the updates from the XO I'm assuming the following: Elisto-Thurston is with me and Tin Man, Anne-Emiyu is with Loverboy-Cutter, Yumeoibito has no EWO and is with Solitaire-Hoshi. Sorry Yumeoibito, we have an odd number, most of us have had our EWOs for several missions and I'm guessing Ira needed to make sure that Teisatsus have two pilots. But to compensate, the Taii needed a wingman so I guess you're going to have the best pilot we have covering you. Loverboy, just to be sure everything's as it needs to be I'm sending this info to the Taii for official approval."

Yaeko pulled out her personal comm and drafted a quick message before sending it off.


Yaeko then quickly drafted a copy of the EWO and Wing assignments that her and Ira had agreed, sending those off to the Taii to look over.

As the Fighting Diamonds worked to try and figure out their pairings for the mission, over the hanger speakers came the following

"Shuttle Crash in Gamma Hanger, Emergency Services teams respond to Gamma Hanger, Emergency Services teams respond to Gamma Hanger, Medical center stand by to receive casualties...."

All activity in the hanger stopped for a moment, then resumed their normal routine in Alpha Hanger.

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A minute later Atsui's voice came over the speakers.

"Attention All Personnel... Attention All Personnel...
Oell-Taii has been seriously injured and is being taken to Medical. As Senior ranking officer aboard the Heitan, per Odell-Taii's orders I am assuming command . Numa-Taii out."

Then a moment later over the Sqadron's frequency Atsui contacted the squadron.

"Diamonds, as much as I hate to say this; you're going to have to fly this sortie without me.

Loverboy, you are Honcho for this mission. Take good care of them.
Cutter I'm going to need you up here on the bridge, haul ass up here.
Hoshi you'll be EWO for Loverboy transfer to his fighter.

I've updated the Wingman Assignments, pairing those with more experience with the lesser.

Make sure you check your store and keep track of what you have.

EWO's depending on you to keep track of the hostiles and keep the other members apprised of their locations.

Good Luck, and watch your sixes. I expect to see everyone of you back on the flight deck. Solitaire out"
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Around the fighters, the technicians were completing the weapon loading and checks for the 21st, then the pallets with the fighters were unlocked and queued up for moving to the launch bay.

Silic groaned as he stood up. “Great. Baby-sitting.” Last time anything like this had happened he'd had to haul a body himself. The EWO had a look of deep thought as he walked in Yaeko's trail to the flight deck.

As he climbed up to his fighter he stood on its back over his console, listening to Yaeko and Ira scheming.“Um, I hate to break the up you two love birds, but if you're talking about the Spooky he's in one of the Teises.” Silic gestured to Elisto standing by his black fighter. “You know, the single seat ones. That other name, Anne or something with that other name, also single seat.”

Silic went back to checking his own console for a second “I guess Sleepyhead over there gets an EWO after all.” he jerked his head towards fighter 53 with its stenciled sides. He went to look over the craft, quickly checking that everything was clear before returning and slipping into his seat and putting his helmet on.

As the announcement came about Atsui taking command he looked over at Cutter, “Good luck, friend.”

Yaeko looked over the new information. "That's okay Silic, it seems that the only people who are arranged to have an EWO are Ira and I." Yaeko then switched back into the comm channel. "Sorry for the confusion everyone, it seems only Loverboy and I are going to have EWO's, the rest of you are solo. Good luck on the bridge Cutter. And Shoi, looks like the pressure's on for you!" Once she had waited for Silic to climb in she closed up the cockpit and sealed it. "Alright Tin Man, let's see if we can come out of this one in one piece. And yes, your stomach contents do count as a separate piece." Yaeko paused as she checked the equipment list. "It appears that we have a countermeasure pod loaded, as well as a single aether torpedo. Make sure to watch ammo on that Knockdown, and save it for missiles coming at us and the gunboats. Use Starfire for any other missiles."

Once the ships we unlocked Yaeko finalized her startup and began moving her Kawarime into the launch bay. Once she was in launch position she prepped her engines for takeoff and chimed into the comm. "0048, ready for take off."

"Shoi, I'm your EWO!" Lynn said while suiting up. She then rushed into his fighter, getting situated with the vehicle and hew new seat.

The first thing Lynn did was interface with SPINE and re-orient herself to the things she had to do. Weapons, power, engines, defenses, communications... Check, and with a little 'shortcut' in her mind's eye to switch between all the dizzying views of the fighter. "Diagnostic complete, everything is green!"

Elisto gave a nod of the head at the instructions sent; he then completed his preflight and sent off a message to the Shoi.

"Shoi? You still want me as your wingman correct?" Confirmation, that's what he wanted to make certain of. Due to the orders Atsui had given out.

While he waited for a response, he continued to double check, even, triple check all of his systems.

“Hey, who's the EWO here? You just concentrate on the flying.” Silic replied to Yaeko as the machine finished giving itself the work over. He looked down at his console, eyes still somewhat bleary “You're all set.”

Yaeko glanced into the backseat. "Sorry Silic, you know how I get when we fly, I basically forget that you're back there sometimes. If during the fight you find me doing your job then just yell at me and tell me to keep my eyes on the road. Hopefully it will help keep us both alive, not to mention our squad mates." She patiently waited for the rest of the crew to get into their launch positions, and as she waited she continually flipped through all of the mission details.

Silic was mute for a second, not used to this kind of fare. Maybe his luck was turning after all? “Um, thanks.” he said, not quite sure what to say. It took him a few more seconds to get back to working on his own console. “Lets see what these torpedo's can do.”

Yaeko pulled up the torpedo data and looked through it along with Silic. "Well the aether torpedo has as much firepower as it gets, looks like you could blow up a small cruiser with a few of those. But we only have one, so while I'm flying you should probably be the one to identify potential aether targets. Other than that, all we have is countermeasures and the standard aether blasts."

Nitô Hei, Ken Levine was in the launch bay just finished the last pass of the underside of his Kawarime fighter. A volumetric display hovered at his side, each item on the list turning green as he assured it. "Front landing gear hydraulics, check. Hose check, tire pressure, check, integrity---" he pushed down on the wheel, "check." He continued through the rest of the routine list as efficiently as possible, and with some comfortable ease. With everything green on his list Ken closed the volumetric screen and climbed up into the cock-pit. "Feels good to be back here," he said to no one in particular as he eased himself into his seat and secured himself.

A hand passed over his digital instruments panel and keyed in the last of his sequence and the fighter came to life, the dimly lit panel flared up in a brighter hue as the information began to scroll across it. He listened in to the prep talk from the lead and nodded in turn, encase of video feed. He waited for the go ahead to begin his taxi onto the launch line. At this point he called up a small communication link to his assigned wing-mate Anne. "Sorry we didn't get a chance to properly introduce ourselves, but I'm Ken. Let's rock this up, alright? If you need anything out there, you don't hesitate to yell out at me, we're partners now. Gotta work together," he said smiling reassuringly on the small digital screen.

He then changed over to their assigned ops. "Flight control, this is Nitô Hei Levine, all systems are green and I'm go to go. Waiting on flight clearance now," he said with a practiced tone.

Elisto pulled the canopy half shut and placed his helmet in his lap. He then brough the instrumentation panel fully online then grabbed the volumetric window and resized it so that it would fit within his cockpit, he was still analyzing and diagnosing the system.

He made one final check on his included equipment; and had the diagnostics system run an integrity check through his sensor suite to make sure everyone was functioning like it should. When the window came back with an 'all green' sign, he smiled and closed out the volunmetric display.

He carefully menuvered his fighter to the launch bay, then closed the canopy and put his helmet on. His HUD came online and pegged his fellow squadmates Kawarime fighters with a green overlay to indicate friendlies.

With a satisfied smile he chimed into the communications line and said. "0049, prepped and ready for launch." He brought his engines online, and waited for the go order.

::Fighter Bay::

After her pre-flight checks were all done and everything was green across the board and on internal power. She sat listening to the coms chatter on deciding who was flying with whom. Scince it she had one of the single seater "1A's", she gave a soft giggle and resumed her patient wait for finallization from Numi -Taii. She was flying with wingman for the Squadron XO.

She frowned on the weapons payload. It was designed for more defensive posture than the more agressive posture. Errowyn settled in her seat and saw the others moving their crafts into position.

Still she waited at the ready, till the others were settled at their respective launch points before she began to move her craft up to the launch line.

Errowyn frowned abit and then reached behind her to reseat the SPINE interface. She smiled as she felt the familiar rush of becoming one with her craft.

Emiyu slipped out from underneath her fighter as she completed the pre-flight checks, making sure there were no odd bits or ends or loose looking panels. With that, she hopped up the ladder and vaulted into the seat of her single seat V8. She immedeatly began synchronozation via the SPINE interface.

Her pupils expanded and contracted rapidly as her body linked up with the figher. The dim instrument panel lit up as the figher came to life " Initiating pre-flight check." she said , reporting the information via her psionic link

Booting primary OS.
Syching neural synapses.
Initating system wide diagnostic.
Communications online.
Sensor suites online.
Weapons systems online.

Combined field system energized.
Aether Plasma drives online.
Counter-measure module online
Initial pre-flight check complete.
All systems green.
0059 awaiting clearance for takeoff.."

Emiyu switched on her comm and dialed in the person she had been assigned to protect " Santo-Hei Arinori Emiyu reporting in. I have been assigned to be your wingman she said " Let's work well together and deal some damage." she said as she tagged her fellow Diamonds into the ships systems, watching as green indicators popped up onscreen. Her eyes flicked to and fro rapidly as she sorted through all the incoming information, awaiitng the go order from her superiors.

Ira said nothing to Hoshi, but held his hand up to usher her in. He responded to Elisto sharply "Elisto, I want you on my wing for this mission." Ira began running systems checks on the other fighters of the squadron as Hoshi completed her task. The squadron channel then lit up as Ira spoke "Okay Diamonds, this is acting CO Lover boy, Munkata-hei, you are acting XO."

"I want everybody to go by the mission guidelines. No heroics, if things get hot you call for help or you make a break for it. I hope everybody did a backup load just in case."

As others were leaving briefing room Anne stood up, tightly holding her helmet. First mission and one so important. This will be very hard, she could even die. Anne got really scared for a while slowly walking behind everyone else towards the hangar.

First she was very surprised and felt some relief hearing that she should be EWO on this mission. But Atsui-taii revoked that order from Ramirez-shoi. Anne sighed and found her fighter. V8 "Teisatsu" number 73 was in front of her. It was beautiful but it was also dangerous. Anne put her hand on it wishing for the fighter jet to keep her alive and help her keep alive everyone else. Anne shook her head, put her helmet on and climbed inside the cockpit.

She was called by her wingman while she was doing pre-flight control. He was man she did never even see before and he trusted his life into her hands. She was determined to not betray that thrust. "I will do my best to cover you back." She replied to her wingman. Although her voice was little sheepish she believed what she just say. She plans to do everything she can.

She then continued to get into launch position waiting for her turn. In her mind she was repeating all those training session. If enemy should get lock on her she should not show him her roof or belly, but she should stay back or side to him to keep the lowest profile. Then she was going through the other things to keep herself busy and prepared.

As the 21st's fighters were being loaded into the launch bay, the internal lights aboard the carrier dimmed briefly.

"Strike Team Able Preparing for fold to Point Alpha." came across the intercom speakers and the fighter comm channels.

In space around the Heitan and the other ships of Task Force 2X-TF-O01, teal spheres of energy began to form around each of the warships.

Behind them two other groups of ships were forming up to follow.

Atsui was on the bridge of the Heitan, not happy to be there, given what she new her Squadron was about to face. However, since she couldn't go with them she was determined to make sure that they had every chance she could give them.

Once all of the Task Force vessels were ready, Atsui picked up the handset, dialed ship and task force wide channels, in a voice that had more confidence than she was feeling at the moment said, "Task Force 2X-TF-O01 this is Heitan, fold to Point Alpha."

The task force vanished in a series of brilliant teal flashes that soon faded away to leaving nothing but stars.