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RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 5.0] Special Delivery

"I don't honestly care about your precious music, I care more about the ability of my fighter and its improvements, regardless of how abnormal." After a moment of contemplation she shook her head at herself. I'm going to regret this.

"Sekai," Yaeko called out to the crew chief. She then motioned the engineer over to her, indicating that she had something that she needed to state privately. "Just out of curiosity, do you still have those parts you removed from the back of my fighter. I understand the modifications were unauthorized and slightly... unorthodox, however they were useful upgrades that increased the performance of the fighter. And, with all do respect, I trust the judgement of my EWO better than anyone. He and I attended basic together and I have seen from experience that he is a genius when it comes to tinkering and modifications. Besides, if we're going to be taking the battle to Yamatai, we're going to be needing all of the help that we can get."
 
Now that she was in a cockpit, and the fighter's systems were nominally green, Kayoko felt a little unnerved. She always was, before she took to flight and integrated to the craft with SPINE. So many things could go wrong: the enemy appeared, a system failed, she was shot down or -- worse -- doomed to spin alone in space forever. She was built for it though -- the combat -- and it was her purpose for living. All the risks came with being what she was.

She gave a little tug on her ear, and then bonded to the craft with SPINE.

She felt electrified; power surged through her fingertips -- except they weren't fingers anymore. They were systems and information and controls. Her feet became engines, and if she pushed hard they would activate and surge with force... If she eased, and 'curled' them in toward her belly, they would weaken and even die. She could see everywhere at once around her craft, and at the same time out of her own eyes. If she focused just a little on herself, she could move without accidentally tripping a control or toggle. Kayoko's nerves disappeared, and were replaced with a feeling of warm, comfortable control, as if she were holding a stretch just after waking.

She reached out with her mind, questing for the right signal to her wingmate. Tereane Elisto. "Allow me to introduce myself, Tereane Elisto Joto Hei," Kayoko sent telepathically (they were close enough) "I am Kayoko Shii Santo Hei, and I have been assigned as your wingmate. I will happily follow you as the more experienced and higher-ranked personage in our new partnership, and I will do my best to have your back. Please take care of me, as well." Long winded, but instantaneous. He would understand, and hopefully (she had had to think about the rosy language) approve of her for the care she took in her greeting.
 
Hangar

The crew chief thought for a moment, "They are over there in that box of parts. You want him to install them, that's your choice. But tell him to use the proper tools damn it. There was more collateral damage from the installation with I don't know what for tools. But I tell you this, he screw up any of the primary systems. I'll skin his hide when you get back."

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

Akemi climbed into her cockpit and initiated the power up, she linked into the craft with her SPINE so she could better multi-task. "Extra torpedoes, that will change the flight characteristics while they are on. Need to compensate for that. Yamatai under attack, the Mishhu bastards picked the wrong place to attack. My family is there, and I'll see the Mishhu dead before I let them get to my family." she said softly to herself.

Turning on her comm. "0097, all systems green Hunter."

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

Kayo sat in the cockpit of her new Kawarime. It was almost surreal to her. "I am really here, I'm really going to fly. So much for hoping my first time out would be a simple patrol or escort. Nope, but then we're the Fighting Diamonds. Diamonds are made by pressure and heat. Looks like this is my time to be tested." She switfly went through the preflight checklist and power up. She'd done it dozens of times in the simulator, and her couple of times taking a fighter out to practice landing and taking off.

Once she was satisfied, she switched on the communicator, "Hunter, 0129 all systems green. Ready to launch ma'am."

---------------------------------------
Bridge
Atsui watched as the Heitan emerged back into normal space. There were the new warships sitting in small groups with their secondary weapons ready.

"Captain, the crews of the Urufu's are refusing to leave the ships. They are wanting to stay aboard and help our people. They say that Yamatai is their home and they want to help." The XO Martia called out.

"We don't have time for this. They want to volunteer so be it. They obey the folks we're sending over. Launch the shuttles." Atsui answered.

Martia entered a few keystrokes on her console. "Shuttles away, commencing hyperspace fold recharge. Clock is set for 15 minutes..."

Atsui picked up the handset and selected shipwide
"Attention All Hands.
We have arrived in Mevar and our crews are en route to the Cruisers. We are charging up our fold. We move for Yamatai in fifteen minutes. It will be a short fold given our proximity. Upon our arrival we will launch all fighters and engage the enemy. We should be coming in on the starboard flank of the NMX invasion. Numa-Taii Out"
 
Yaeko turned back around towards Silic. "You heard the woman, if you want your stuff back then go grab it AND a toolbox. Make it look nice and then they won't have to take it away next time okay?" Suddenly the announcement came over the loudspeaker. "You've got 15 minutes Tin Man, get tinkering!"

With that Yaeko turned her attention back forward. Putting her helmet on and sealing it, she started flipping switched to begin the start up procedure.
 
Silic didn't really react to Yaeko's biting comment about his music "It's good for the soul." He said simply, remaining where he was lazing in the cockpit while she signalled over the ground chief.

When she gave him the order to reinstall his bits and pieces he sat up "You want me to reinstall over a years worth of tinkering in fifteen minutes?" he asked, standing up before muttering to himself "Geez, I swear command drives people crazy or something, must be contagious." He leapt from the side of cockpit onto the floor.

"Santo-hei, get me that tools locker!" he ordered loudly, striding over to his bits box. "Hiromi, there are several sketches on my bedside wall, I need to you recreate them for me volumetrically. Rough copies will do." he asked the computer off hand.

"Hibiyashi, if their are any spare ground crew I need them to start removing the panels covering the engines and electrical systems immediately. Things may get messy."

Silic grabbed the box and wheeled it back on a trolley, fiddling through it. Almost all the things he'd put in had been specially fitted to not give itself away on diagnostics for anything short of a full refit. It had been a difficult, tiresome operation, but now he needed to get them in as soon as possible, no time for fancy wiring tricks or system spoofing.
 
Yaeko watched Silic as he moved and after a few seconds she face-palmed. What the hell did I just get myself into? When she heard him call for the panel removal her head shot up and she glared at him a little. "Engines? God damn it Silic, how much work have you done on this thing behind my back?" Let's hope the Taii doesn't find out about any of this or she'll have my head on a platter, right after Sekai skins us both alive.
 
Sekai's face turned bright red, "You were responsible for that mess in the engines. I thought you only were responsible for that mess in the cockpit.

A Turbo Aether Plasma engine isn't something you can tweak in a few moments. You'll have to do without that. And when you get back if you want to make any modifications, you better provide me with a set of schematics otherwise my techs will take it back to spec.

Make whatever other changes you can, but you touch those engines and your grounded. I am not willing to have to explain to Solitaire that you two got blown up because someone tried to tweak the engines."
 
Anne continued playing with her sensors. All seemed fine, her Wavefront module was working well. When she was done she commed Murasaki-hei. "Murasaki-san I am pleased to be your wingmate. We did not have chance to properly talk or get to know each other but rest assured that I will do my best to watch your back." She said to him.
 
Location: YSS Heitan enroute to Battle of Yamatai
Alpha Deck:
ON

Sekai could not believe her ears. This ham-handed fighter jock wanted to mess with the engines of one of her fighters. She had told him the consequences, and turned to yell at a few of the other technicians who seemed to need a nudge to get them moving on reloading the other craft. She assigned one of them to assist the Nepleslian with his wiring changes he wanted, to ensure that they had a clear understanding of what he had done when complete.

Silic turned to Sekai and paused for a few seconds, then he approached calmly. Rather than argue or threaten he simply put a hand on her shoulder. One engineer to another. "Hibiyashi-san," he said softly "Do I seem like I know how to tweak an aetheric-plasma engine?"

Sekai gave Silic a look like she might if a cockroach hopped up on her shoulder and wanted to talk. "To be honest, no. Which is why you asking for the engine cowlings to be opened scares the hell out of me."

Silic simply smiled "I have you here for the engines, I've never once had to directly modify them with your scrupulous attention. However, there is one little thing I want to adjust before take off, if you'll let me?" he begged. Not quite on his knees pleading begging, but of one professional to another simply wishing to do his trade.

"And what would that be?" Something was nagging Sekai, something about this soldier that she had heard about, but could not place at the moment.

Silic patted her shoulder gently "Trust an engineer." he said simply, before walking off to get to work.

"You haven't answered my question fly-boy. What is it you want?"

"Just to remove something the manufacturers left in by accident." he said as he heaved himself back onto the top of the fighter. "If we get back I'll treat you to something." he promised as he got to work. Hiromi put up several volumetric sheets in the air in front of him, he picked one and dismissed the others for now. Quickly uncapping a small cover and putting it aside before plugging in a small datajockey into an access port inside.

Seeing Silic on top of the fighter triggered the memory she was trying to recall. "It was you,.. you're the one who accosted poor Yagami-Heisho on Aqueous." Sekai said as the memory came forward.

Then with a defensive tone, "There is nothing in the engines that was left by accident by the manufacturers or my techs. So what is it that you do not like about the engines?"

Silic blushed at that particular memory, turned out he couldn't act completely cool even in a situation like this. He coughed slightly before answering as he stared down into his datajockey "Someone tried to leash the beast." He said, watching a progress bar wind itself up.

"About Yagami, she, uh..." he paused, face grimancing for a second "She made her objections felt." he said, coughing again in embaressment. Finished with that panel he moved on, leaving it for a tech to close up again as he detached his jockey and moved on to the panels on top of the engines. "Santo-hei, pass me that hammer! No, the bigger one!" he ordered the tool trolley neko quickly before turning back to Hibiyashi, hands splayed in a help-a-guy fashion. "Do I have to do this my self?" he asked her.

"I am not opening those panels until you explain what you want. I told you. You open those panels, and I'll ground the bird and you will miss the mission. So what is it you want to do to my engines?" Sekai said putting emphasis on the last words.

"Surely you know what a proportional control device is?" he said, waving his hands dismissively of the idea "Useless piece of garbage. You never wondered how forty-nine was pushing harder than the rest?" he said, face stony in the manner of someone trying very hard not to look chuffed at their own accomplishment.

"I disabled it and spoofed the system into thinking it was still functional whenever a routine diagnostic was performed. One of my best works, took me weeks to work out. Of course," he motioned to the fighter beneath him "I thought I had another three years before refit, when the entire thing would be discovered and I'd happily be a civilian again." his tongue clicked in annoyance.

"That explains the heat damage to the thruster directional controls, they have been scoring like they were getting too hot. We had to replace them twice already but the diags said everything was operating normally." Sekai slugged Silic in the shoulder, causing the man to grunt.

"You idiot. Sure you increased the thrust ratio, but you could have slagged the last stage of the engine. So you want more thrust. Fine, I'll take care of it, keep your hands off my engines. Got it." she said poking Silic in the check.

Silic put up with this treatment happily, answering with a perfectly serious "Yes, ma'am." inwardly though, he was smiling. Things were finally starting to turn around.

Sekai walked to the tail section and opened the engine cowlings, she took several tools out of her belt and began making the necessary adjustments. She was increasing the thrust output, and at the same time, reinforcing the internal shielding that protected the delicate later stages. Five minutes later the process was complete and she secured the cowlings and walked back to the front.

"Fly-boy, I boosted the output of your engines, and took care of what you forgot to increase the protective shielding for the engine components. She'll give you an extra 25% thrust when you ask for it. But watch the thermal readouts of the compressor. Because at that level, its going to spike and if it goes too high, you'll slag the engines. We survive this, battle. I will see what I can do to add some additional cooling to the compressor but there isn't time right now. Munkata-Heisho, your engines are going to give you more thrust. I suggest you use it sparingly or you and Flyboy will wind up with your backsides roasted." Sekai called out, she then turned to a couple of techs. "No... No... you idiots, you can't hook the missiles like that." she yelled crossing over to the offending techs.

"Excellent." Replied Silic, closing the last panel he'd been working on. His voice turned dead serious, he sniffed loudly and wiped his nose with a hand to signal a job well done. "This aircraft is now rated faster than her Highness's government deemed safe."
OFF
 
Elisto, while working on his pre-flight, eyed Silic and some of the other members of his squad. He was carefully watching and analyzing everything he was seeing, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. The arrival of the newbie, and her lateness to the briefing gave him serious cause for concern.

Hearing Kayoko's message, he moved his hand across his console before responding to it. "Thank you Shii-Hei, thanks for watching my back. This is going to be a tough battle, lots of ordinance flying around, some unexploded and derelict but most will be on trejectories to whatever ships they were fired at. Make sure to keep an eye on your surroundings and be vigil in what is going on. I'll make sure to bring you home safely!" he said in a calm and caring manner before sending an encrypted transmission to Konpeki, requesting if she had checked into Kayoko Shiis background and explaining that her being late to a squad briefing had worried him.

In the mean time, he kept an eye on her, all the while still running his preflight and looking as if not a single thing was wrong.
 
Throughout the entire ordeal Yaeko sat in her fighter, head lying in her hands as it shook back and forth. At Silic's last comment her head came back up. Her eyes were wide and her face had a very stressful look, as if she were ready to pull out her NSP and blast Silic right there and then. As she got her breathing back under control her head slowly turned towards Silic. After glaring at him for a few seconds she spoke slowly, making sure to emphasize every word.

"Tin Man, if you ever modify my fighter like that again without telling me I'm going to put my boot so far up your ass that my toes will replace your teeth. Now, when you're done with everything you're going to tell me exactly what you've changed."
 
Fighter Bay

Errowyn moved slowly around her new fighther, peeking into anything she could access and even kicking the tires if they are accessable. She took notice of the extra weapon mounts on the fighters wing and smiled abit aggressively. She finished up her exterior pre-flight checks and then climbing into the Fighter itself. Liking the new smells of the new ship.

She took her time in connecting up the SPINE interface. She reached out and activated the interface. Her vision was overlaid with ghostly stats of the ship. The newest fighter in the fleet of Kawarimes. It wasn't even three days old by what she quickly read. With a thought, dismissed the history data on the Kawarime and focused on the weapon system. transfering weapons control and targeting to her eyes. What she saw was would be quickly targeted with the range finders and radar to assist in finalizing the selected missile or torpedo chosen to be used.

She smiled as she looked at the ground chief as he told her what the latest weapontry armament would be. "Lower the defencive measures and increase the offensive payload," she looked over the side of the craft at the ground chief and armament chief for her ship.

She watched the the loading of the weapons, seeing the standard weapon's load being uploaded. She frowned at that as she settled back in her fighter's seat, securing the last of the straps and lifesupport systems. She was ready.
 
“Right, because I just sit in the back seat.” Silic retorted, angrily, snatching up one of the volumetric 'papers' that were hanging in the air from his recent tech binge on the fighter. He blew some imaginary dust of the page and started reading

“The Number Forty-Seven Special is modified for speed and utility. It features a camera under the starboard weapon mount designed to deter any thoughts of re-enlisting in the unlikely case the engineer suffers a case of nostalgia-” It seemed like this was going to go on forever when Silic was interrupted by what happened next.
 
At that moment the hangar lights started flashing, "All Fighter to Launch position. Arrival in Yamatai Space in 90 seconds." The 21st craft began moving forward on their pallets to the launch bays. The outer doors of the bays began opening. Thru the atmospheric shielding the starfield of hyperspace could be seen. With one in particular loom ahead.

The blast shields rose up behind the fighters.

The view in front of the pilots shifted color spectrums, and stabilized as the Carrier dropped back into normal space. The Heitan and its escorts accelerated to maximum speed to close the distance to the enemy fleet.

Atsui's voice came over the speakers and the comm channels, "Attention people, Now is the time for us to show the NMX what a mistake they made in attacking the homeworld. You are Yamatai's finest, and we are the sword of the empire. Let's make the NMX blood run on our edge.

All Fighter's Launch. Good Hunting and may fortune favor the bold."


Across the fighters, the launch command flashed.
"Mission, Attack and engage enemy capital ships." highlighted below.
 
Silic looked up at the alarms, reaching into his pocket for a sobriety pill and swallowing it without water. It took a few seconds to become effective, but when it did Silic realised what had happened throughout this morning.

He clutched his head in disbelief "How am I still alive?" wondered aloud, it was obvious that Sober Silic wasn't quite as capable as Drunk Silic. He shook his head and climbed up into the cockpit.

"Alright, you see the red button on your throttle?" he said, pointing helpfully over Yaeko's seat at the tapped on detonator wired into the fighters electrical system. "Don't push the red button!"
 
Yaeko had begun finalizing startup of the fighter before Silic had even gotten into the cockpit. Closing the canopy the moment Silic was in the fighter, she put her helmet on, double checked that her harnesses were secure. "Why is it always a red button," she muttered to herself. "Why never a green button, or a blue button?" Shaking her head at Silic's antics she took control of the fighter and launched. "0048, launching," she called into her comm as she increased her speed to engage, simply expecting the rest of the squadron to fall in behind her.
 
Elisto grabbed his helmet and put it in, then checked the seal to make sure it was in place, before moving his fighter over to the launch ramp.

"0103 launching!" he announced as he hit the throttle to max and blasted himself out of the Haiten and formed up behind Yaeko.
 
Anne sighed, she got no response. Her wing was probably busy with his pre-flight schedule. She meanwhile pointed her attention to her medical screen. Everyone seemed fine, Tin Man had slightly higher pulse, but it was not fear, more like excitement. Anne saw her own go up though. She was nervous.

From seemingly regular escort mission they moved to the battle. Big battle too. NMX attacked Yamatai and they were called in to help. Anne was glad she could be help but she was also scared. Hel piloting was nothing much and there was only so much she could with her jammer. She sighed and readied herself. "This is zero-zero-seven-nine. Launching!" She commed to flight control, when number came up for launch.
 
Silic quickly strapped himself in as Yaeko took off. Pulling down his shoulder straps extra tight and fitting his helmet over his heads hurriedly. "Please don't do that without telling me!" He said angrily, his breathing a little uneven as he got over the shock. Space was still a scarey place for him.

"Don't push the throttle too hard, remember you're faster than the other fighters, but not any tougher." Silic double checked his screens again "Oh, and if the engine melts it's your fault, not mine."
 
While waiting for new orders, Elisto went about reprograming the sensor information, redoing some of the code in his own way and then uploading the changes to the computer. His computer system began to alter the sensor display, changing allied ships into green markers, enemy ships into red.

Damaged enemy ships showed up as teal while damaged allied ships showed up as a orange/greenish color. He also began to calculate the different flight paths of the enemy capital ships, determining where each was, while also keeping track of friendly forces in the area.

"Honcho, I'm sending you some updated sensor information that'll make it easier to identify enemy ships while we are in the fracas of battle. I've also pegged damaged ships with their own seperate color, the Heitan is the only ship flagged as an alternate color so we can easily find her in case we get disoriented in battle." As he sent the new details, he changed his task to monitoring comm. frequencies. Right now he was attempting to locate the ship that may be an enemy flagship, cut off the head and the rest of the body is useless.

"Shii-hei? Once you're out, form up off my wing please."
 
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