RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 7.2] Operation Payback - Fighter Launch

Elisto kept it up, constantly jamming and causing enemy missiles to arid. When he heard the call about Errowyns fighter, he glanced down at his sensor display and pulled up details on her stricken craft. He rubbed chin most curiously, bobbing the craft from side to side in an evasive way just in case any battlepods got close. "Multiple damaged craft," he glanced at the Emeralds and then forward.

He looked upward and then at Yaeko to see what she would be doing next.

As the 21st and 22nd were heading back to the Heitan, a larger wave of fighters and bombers passed them heading towards the planet. They would pass through the hole in the NMX defenses made by the fleet and the attack run of the Diamonds.

"Flight Command to Diamonds, heavily damaged fighters should approach Gamma Recovery Bay. All other fighters should approach Alpha.

You are scheduled for quick turn around. You will have fifteen minutes to stretch your legs, get a drink, whatever and return to your craft. Craft too badly damaged to go back out will be replaced with spare craft.

Please Acknowledge."

"Diamonds to Command, will comply."

Yaeko readjusted her fighter trajectory towards the Alpha landing bay. as she did, she relayed Commands orders.

"Alright Diamonds, adjust trajectories towards Alpha Bay. Hellcat, you're to land your fighter in Gamma Bay. We'll have 15 minutes to break, hydrate, and let the techs do some quick repairs before we pull our second shift. Hellcat, your Kawarime will be replaced for the second launch. Let's earn ourselves some leave Diamonds."

Errowyn made course correction to the proper bay to make her landing, "Aye Aye! Hellcat acknowledges" Abit subdued in responce to the instruction. She owed a big dept to her wingman for doing something she would do to help a stricten squadmate.

She watched the fleet of attack crafts heading through the "hole" they had made. At least her sacrifice in a Kawarime paid off, now all she had to do was safely land this craft that was finished for this round.

A stretch and refreshments would be nice, but she knew she wouldn't have time as she had to traverse the ship back to Alpha Bay to get her replacement Kawarime. At least she would get to stretch in her mad dash. But for now she needed to get her stricken craft safely aboard the Heitan.

"Acknowledged, Hunter." Kenshin said briskly in response, as most of his concentration was now focused on making the preparations for landing. Briefly, out of the corner of his eye, Kenshin saw Errowyn's fighter veer away from his own so that it could make it's approach to the Gamma hanger.

Kenshin carefully aimed the nose of his Kawarime towards the open aperture of the Alpha hanger bay. At he came closer, he decelerated his fighter until it was moving at the merest fraction of its potential speed. Contra-grav kicked in a few seconds after he passed the threshold, keeping his aircraft aloft even though the main drives had shut down. Gently, he lowing his fighter to the deck. He could feel the reverberation's through the small craft as he finally touched down.

With a sigh, his hand's flickered over the controls -- putting the fighter into stand-by mode, then he popped the canopy. The young minkan cast his gaze about, checking on the progress of the rest of the 21st Squadron.

Hael didn't waste anytime after his interview with the Commander. He grabbed his bag from the wall in the hallway and almost sprinted to the cabin that had been designated as his. Without taking time to figure out which bunk was his he stowed his duffel in the empty locker, hastily donned his flight suit, and checked his appearance in the mirror before heading back out and towards the YSS Heitan's flight deck.

Though Hael was familiar with the lay out of the ship, his nerves was messing up his recollection of his mental map. After doubling back a few times, he finally managed to find the flight deck.

Making his way out into the hangar, Hael stopped a technician who looked far too busy, "Hey. I'm looking for Hibiyashi-Heisho, do you know where I can find them?"

Errowyn brought her stricken craft into the feild of Gamma bay and gratefully shut off all thrusters and let them set her down, She popped the canopy and began undoing the flight harnesses and SPINE connections for her hasty climb out and mad dash through corridors.

"I need a new Kawarime!" Errowyn climbed out of her cockpit of the fighter to the nearest ground crew, once her Kawarime was safetly settled on the deck in it's cradle to be worked on.

"That would be Bay C, Hellcat!" The ground crew helping her out of her craft, informed her.

Errowyn nodded, using her mental link, ~~ Hunter (Yaeko), Hellcat, next mission?" ~~ Climbing down the off the scaffolding and grabbing some poor tech's water and drinking it down to leave behind an empty glass, as she dashed out of the Gamma bay. ~~ "Be picking up a fresh Kawarime from Bay C." ~~

She was thankful that she kept up a daily exercise routine that included cardial exercises as she dashed through the corridors in full flight suit, with her visor up.

Elisto calmedly piloted his fighter toward the bay that Hunter had informed them to land in. "Hunter, if possible, I'd like it if everyone in the squadron could send me their sensor data. I wanna cross-reference it with the data I have on my own fighter and see if there are any hidden 'gems' out there that might be of interest, or anything that could be hiding," said the SAINT operative with a sense of concern. He looked off to the side, to watch the others in the squadron, then forward toward the bay.

He brought the fighter in smoothly, the landing gear lightly touching the runway and causing very little smoke to appear as he rolled a bit and then came to a gradual stop and began to move his fighter toward his assigned spot.

Once there, he started the shutdown procedure and dumped all of the scouts sensor data into his ICP so that he could review it while the techs were doing their little checks.

"Roger that Scrapyard. I should be able to..." Her voice trailed off as she began accessing the rest of the squadrons' sensor data. Compiling it, she sent it off to Elisto in one large packet.

"There you go, being Squadron Leader sure has its perks."

Pulling into the Alpha Landing Bay she touched the fighter down and began shutdown procedures while she disconnected from SPINE.

"Tin Man, finish shutdown for me while I got make sure we're okay for the second run."

Popping open the canopy she jumped down and kicked in her anti-gravity so she glided away from the fighter as she slowly fell.

"Hibayashi, the squadron is beginning to land. Meet me in Alpha Bay so we can quickly examine the Kawarime that are being redeployed and see what we can patch up." Yaeko sent telepathically.

Alpha Bay

Hael would be pointed in the direction of a black haired, green eyed in an Engineering Protective Jumpsuit. She was supervising a group of technicians working on a Kawarime. He could hear her voice from across the bay. "Move faster or you'll feel my boot. We need to get this bird ready and receive the Diamonds. We need to do battle damage assessment and determine which birds are flyable, which need repairs. I am already in a bad mood because on of my Kawarime is in Gamma bay because its too badly damaged."

"My team is standing by Hunter. I know 0053 is out of commission. We are preparing a replacement for Hellcat. Don't think she's going to not hear about that either.

Also you have a new fledgling. He'll be flying in 0172. Should be here shortly." Sekai replied.

Hael hesitates just slightly as the deck chief shouts angrily. Note to self, he thinks, don't piss her off. Glancing around he noticed that the deck crew were busy preparing to receive incoming fighters and his renewed eagerness to be in the fight propelled him forward.

"Hibiyashi-Heisho!" Hael called out as he approached. "Santo Hei Halcyon reporting as ordered." Hael made sure he included a respectful bow as he reported. Her deck, her rules, Hael, he told himself, disrespect her and you'll find yourself grounded.

Hael stood back up straight and surveyed the hangar, "Numa-Taii said you'd have a bird for me?"

Alpha Bay

Sekai turned and looked at Hael, "Save that reporting as ordered for an Officer. So your the fledgling, you will be flying 0172. She is sitting right here." She pointed to the Kawarime in the next berth.

"Take note of her condition. There are no holes in her. All of her systems are fully functional. As far as I am concerned, your mission is to return 0172 in as close to that condition as possible. Do that and we will get along just fine. Go ahead and climb in and start your check out. I'm pretty sure that Hunter will want to speak to you shortly."

Hael sighed as he realized he miscalculated the deck chiefs personality. You have got to get better at reading people, Hael, he chided himself mentally.

Once Sekai pointed out the ship that would be his, Hael couldn't keep the grin off his face. This was the moment he had been waiting. He nodded to the deck chief, "I'll try to take it easy with her." He didn't want to give his word that nothing would ever happen to the Kawarime fighter; war was a dangerous place and a lone pilot was only as good as his entire squad was.

After Sekai informed him that Hunter would want to talk to him he made his way to his fighter. Briefly he gave it a walk around, checking the armor, weapons, and flaps from the outside before hopping in. Satisfied with the ships armaments, Hael ascended to the cockpit and hopped in eagerly. Bringing up the ships systems he connected himself to the SPINE and began running his diagnostics both through the connection and through the physical controls to make sure everything was in order.

~Hunter, this is Santo Hei Halcyon. I'm in my designated craft and was told I should check in with you, do you copy?~

Charlie Bay

Errowyn dashed into the bay C to see the last of them disappearing onto the lift that would move the replacements Kawarimes to the proper bays for the returning Fighters who had sustained seriuos damage to their personal crafts.

She sighed as now she would have to make that Mad Dash through the ship to Alpha Bay. "Which bay is that fighter going to?" Yelled at the nearest technician.

"Alpha Bay," He responded to the pilot still in full flight gear that yelled at him, eyes widening as the pilot made a mad dash for the lift as the lift doors began to close.

"I will get something to eat!" Errowyn growled as she pushed herself to her limits, sprinting across the big expance of the bay to catch the lift with her new Kawarime on it.

She could see other techs running to intercept her as her intent became known by the direction she took. No one rode the Lift when there was a Kawarime on it. Especially in hazardious conditions.

Alpha Bay

"At least she brought back a fighter to repair rather than having it floating around out there in pieces."

As Yaeko responded to Hibayashi the rest of the squadron finished landing and began hopping out of their craft.

"Allright Diamonds! We've got 15 Mikes before we re-up. Hydrate, grab a snack, let the ground crews do their thing. I want everyone back in here and headed to their fighter in 10."

Swinging her head around she looked for fighter 0172 that Sekai had indicated. Spotting it a little ways down the bay, she floated over to it and hovered next to the cockpit canopy.

"Don't get ahead of yourself flyboy, we've got a few minutes before the squadron launches again. You can prep your craft if you want, but i want you to meet me down on the ground so I can brief you on what's going on."

Satisfied with that, she floated down to the ground and landed near Sekai since she was standing a little ways away.

"Alright Heisho, the squadron's all here. Any initial assessments?"

Hael gave Yaeko a thumbs up acknowledgement of the orders she had given him. As quickly as he could he finished his systems diagnostics and began his pre-flight sequences before disconnecting from the Karawime's SPINE and slipped back out of the cockpit.

Jumping to the launch bay floor, he hit the ground, rolled, and came up smoothly to an easy jog as he raced to where Yaeko had parked her fighter.

Hael waited for Yaeko to acknowledge him so as not to interrupt her. When he saw an opening he bowed slightly and introduced himself again, "Santo-Hei Halcyon on deck as ordered."

Elisto didn't leave his fighter, he sat in the cockpit while the techs went to work, his legs were crossed and he had his ICP in his lap while he cross-referenced the sensor data. "Let's see," he brought a finger up to his lips while he scrolled through the data. "These are battlepods, don't really need to worry about those but given the data on them..." he muttered, his voice trailing off as he wrote up a quick program to make it easier to target these particular pods.

He then moved over to the logs and data that pertained to the NMX capital ships, to see if there was anything in there that might jump out at him.

Gamma Bay - Lift

Errowyn made it onto the platform with scant inches to spare. It was fortunate for her that no one decided to bring the platform back down. So she rode up with the Kawarime.

As it was, there were a number of flight deck personnel waiting for her when the platform rose up onto Alpha deck. None of them seemed happy to see her.

Crew Chief
Sekai looked at the datapad in her hand, "Other than Hellcats scrap job, most of the birds are okay. We're doing a complete replacement of all wing ordnance to ensure all systems are operational. We'll top of the life support system, patch any scorch marks on the fighter hulls. Oh, and since you are going into gravity, I will be sure to add a few motion sickness bags for your EWO."

The datapad emitted a beep. "Fish... ma'am we got a bit of an issue. Spinner's port engine took damage to the vector controls. It will take forty minutes to replace, and we are fresh out of spares.

Perhaps you could put the Flight Surgeon in with the greenie? She'd be able to monitor the squadron and help keep him alive.

Besides the heavy ordnance do you want to allow the squadron to change the loads?" Sekai's look carrying a hint that she hoped not as it would mean more scrambling.

Elisto
The sensor data that Elisto was looking at had a number of anomalies. There were signs of weapon damage on some of the ships, that did not conform to anything in the database. One of the capital ships showed several structural damage with no trace of surface damage.

But more troubling was a series of blips on the sensors just at the edge of resolution. Powered objects that were just sitting.

::Alpha Bay::

Errowyn stepped off the lift, getting out of the way of the busy deckcrews that were to move the new Kawarime into the vacant slot where her Kawarime should've been.

She braced herself for the onslaught of yelling as she moved to where the rest of the 21st was gathering, pausing long enough to get something to eat.

Elisto rubbed his chin, staring at the unknown blips in the data. "Mmmm...." he leaned over and looked at one of the technicians, although not addressing them at all, and then back at the data.

"Hunter? Can you come to my fighter please... there's something rather troubling about this data..." remarked Elisto somewhat curiously, although not worriedly like one might assume he'd be given what he said.

Sending a request to the ships computer, he began to check the unknown blips to see if they conformed to any known energy signature and also see if it was at all possible to improve the resolution. No results in the database for weapon damage? Meaning, not Nep, not Yamatai... not Lorath... then who? he was very curious right now, if this wasn't a battlefield he'd be tempted to take his fighter out after request and investigate, but that just wasn't possible here.