RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 8.1] A call for help

A black haired Neko walked up behind Ari. "Hey, fly boy. You Okada-Hei. Best get you butt in 0203 unless you want to miss the mission. The Shosa won't take very kindly to a pilot missing their launch time. Your bird is right over there. " She said pointing to the Kawarime.

Meanwhile Atsui replied on the comm channel.

"Sadly, this is an unusual occasion. We have a situation, and it gives me the chance to see you few pilots in action before you actually get to fly with the rest of the squadron. And you are right, most of the time as Shosa I fly the bridge and a desk. But since we are in the 2XF we get a little bit of latitude. Since our manning is always a bit short.

Okay, we'll have to wait a minute before we launch. We have another newbie joining us for this sortie."

"Roger that ma'am."

Alec replied as she informed him they would be waiting for another pilot. He thought about what she said and couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. Not that it wasn't impressive that she had such a successful military career but he had to wonder if she was actually achieving what she wanted. Was she having to sacrifice what she wanted for herself in order to fill the needs of the Empire? He couldn't help but think that was somewhat the case. That being something you don't just talk to someone about before you got to know them better Alec opted for the second option. Try and make this mission as good of an escape for his CO as possible. She had enough things to worry about, for a little while let her just be a fighter pilot again. He pondered to himself for a moment before he continued.

"So ma'am do you want to go by call signs for the mission and leave rank on the tarmac?"

The newbie visibly tensed at the mention of the Shosa, sketching a quick bow and an emphatic "Hai!" The word seemed strange coming from the tall, pale skinned, blonde man despite it's perfect pronunciation and accent.

He quickly hopped to regardless, sprinting for his waiting fighter. Pausing long enough next to it to gently set down his uniform, Ari rammed his helmet down onto his head and clambered up into the cockpit. The eager young man didn't even note the difference in his plane until after he'd casually toggled the controls to close the canopy.

Glancing back over his shoulder, and then to the nearby fighters, he realized that his own lacked the empty second seat of waiting 0193. He'd have to ask about that. Maybe they'd ran out of regular models...or didn't trust him with an EWO yet. Either way, it was a problem for later.

Ari's hands moved rapidly though out the cockpit, hurrying to catch up on his preflights whilst his HUD flickered to life and connected him with the extension of hos body that was the slumbering Kawarime. A stream of statuses scrolled across his vision, gradually changing as he coaxed the dormant craft to life.

In his ear, there was a slight click as his AFS finally linked to the comm suite of the V8.

"This is 0203," He tried. No one had even mentioned proper callsigns yet and he didn't even have a clue the Shosa was in one of the other two fighters. "Radio check. over."

Alec cocked his head slightly as he heard the other pilot radio in. He allowed a wry grin to cross his face. It was good to see that Atsui and he were going to get a little more support. Alec replied,

"0203 this 0193, Wyrick Alec Santo-Hei. Glad to have you with us. Did you just get aboard the ship?"

Atsui listened to the chatter between Alec and the other newbie. She keyed her mike. "This is Solitaire 0203, and 0193, I will be honcho for the mission. During the mission refer to me by that or ma'am. No use of ranks while deployed. As for the two of you; you can either just use your tail numbers or if you have a call sign you want to use, speak out. Though consider it temporary, we usually give a Call sign after a significant event."

Ari glanced over at the other V8 in the bay and the other newbie that sat in it's cockpit. "And roger, 0193. Read you loud and...clear..." He trailed off as Atsui's voice broke across the channel. Solitaire that was...that was the Shosa, wasn't it?

The rookie pilot gulped, taking a deep breath a few seconds to calm himself by focusing on the last of his preflights. When he trusted himself enough to reply he gave it a try.

"Uhm, Solitaire, 0203. Roger. Tail number is fine...uhhh. Break." He gave his instruments one final hasty review, his eyes focusing on the long list of statuses running across one corner of his HUD. "Green across the board here, preflight complete and ready for launch. Over."

Ari peered across flight deck to the third fighter that made up their tiny formation. This one seemed much older than his or Alec's and certainly more hard used. After a few moments, his voice crackled across the comm a third time:

"Solitaire, 0203. I think I missed the mission brief, ma'am. Over."

Atsui smiled at Ari's message, 'Well, at least he has enough smarts to inquire instead of just going blindly.' she thought.

"0203 we received a distress call from a civilian ship saying it was under attack by pirates. We are going to the coordinates of the transmission and investigating. Depending on what we find when we get there, I will decide what course of action we take. Backup will be fifteen minutes behind us.

Flight Control this is Solitaire with Diamond 193 and 0203. Requesting launch clearance."

"Solitaire this is Flight Control. Search Recon mission launch on your command." came the response.

"Okay, launch by the numbers 0193, and 0203." She said, as she brought up her engines, and it the launch command. Her Kawarime sprang from the pallet and through the force field into space gaining velocity.

Alec listened to Atsui's initial response to his question about call signs. Keying in his own mike he responded.

"Well ma'am I went by Wild Card back in the academy. I'm pretty used to it by now, so it will do if that's all right with you."

Alec listened to Ari's question and shook his head, a slight smile playing over his face. He and the other rookie were sure getting introduced to life in the 2nd expeditionary fleet pretty quickly.

'Oh well. Normal uneventful days and briefings are overrated anyways.'

Alec thought to himself.

He watched as Atsui's Kawarime launched from its pallet. Seeing that it was his turn Alec radioed Flight Control.

"Flight Control this 0193, Wild Card, launching."

Alec felt the now familiar feel of force slamming into his chest, sucking him into his seat as the V8 launched off the pallet like a crashing roller coaster. Very quickly the hangar bay disappeared and he saw a sea of stars. A few seconds passed as the V8's thrusters caught up to the speed of his launch and evened out the pressure on his chest. As if stretching the tightness of his muscles he gave the V8 a few practiced barrel rolls and turns to make sure everything seemed to be working properly. Feeling satisfied he turned the craft around to fall into formation on Atsui's V8. Alec radioed into Atsui.

"Honcho this is Wild Card, everything seems to be working fine. How about you? Feeling excited to be on a mission after all that desk time?"

Ari nodded.He wasn't exactly sure why. Not like anyone could see the gesture through the canopy.

"And roger, Solitare." Ari's thumb toggled a small stud on his controls, flipping frequencies. "Flight Control, 0203. Launching."

The man's gloved hands tightened on the throttle, the skintight material of his flight suit flexing as his triggered the launch command with his HUD. At once the clamps securing his fighter to the pallet fell away and he punched the nimble crraft up to max.

Ari's V8 roared out of the launch bay, the rapid acceleration threatening to crush him against the back of his seat. And then, in an instant, it was gone as he burned out into space and away from the Heitan's artificial gravity.

He turned his head, searching the emptiness of the vacuum for- There. The blue icons on his HUD that marked Solitaire and, apparently, Wild Card. With quick deft turns of his controls, Ari nudged his fighter closer to the Shosa and his fellow newbie.

Quick on the heels of Alec's questions, Ari's voice broke over the comm as well: "Solitaire, 0203. Falling in on your 8 o'clock. Uh, break," he trailed off, rapidly scrolling through his HUD until a blue vector guide superimposed it's self on his vision, ensuring he could follow the Shosa without crashing into her wing. "And matching your vector...How far out are we from this distress signal, ma'am? Over."

Atsui plotted the course with her system based on the last projected coordinates. "ETA to the site is 7 minutes at max speed. Both of you are in new fighters. Before we charge into combat. Fire up your cannons and squeeze off a few rounds. I want to make sure your main weapons are operation before get into a fracus."

"Roger that Honcho."

Alec moved his fighter a good thirty feet out of formation in order to maintain the minimum safe distance for weapon testing. Making sure to align with Atsui so she could visibly see the test as well as see herself if there were any visible malfunctions that the computer might not pick up. Giving it a couple of seconds to prime his weapon systems, Alec chimed in.

"Honcho this is Wild Card. Preparing for primary weapons' test in 3, 2, 1..."

Alec squeezed the trigger and held it for a full three seconds. The flash of teal beams fired in rapid succession, lighting up the front of Alec's Kawarime in a beautiful strobe like light. Upon finishing his weapons' test Alec reported to Atsui.

"Honcho, Wild Card. I have finished my primary weapons' test and have detected no problems. Am I clear to return to formation, over?"

Atsui shook her head at Alec's constantly referring to her as Honcho. "Wild Card, my call sign is Solitaire. Honcho is just means that we use to identify who is in charge of a group. There are times that we split the squadron and who ever is charge of one of the groups is referred to as Honcho.

You are cleared to return to formation."

Ari blinked at the command, which was just as well because a few seconds later the corner of his vision flashed with the strobe of Alec's pulses. Shaking his head at his own hesitation, he opened up his comm:

"Solitaire, 0203," he began, pushing the nose of his fighter out towards the formation's 10 o'clock; the maneuvering thrusters on the front of the V8 sparking to life. He nudged the throttle, edging his fighter out far enough for the Shosa to see. "Test fire, test fire, test fire."

His voice droned out the warning as his popped the trigger cover off with a well-practiced flick. A simple command on his HUD cycled the weapons up. Ari squeezed back on the trigger, the nearby space lighting with the triple flash of his fighter's four cannons.

Ari gave a sort of satisfied nod to himself, slowly pushing the trigger cover back down and into place. His voice once again crackled across the channel.

"0203, uh test fire complete?" He hazarded, relaxing the throttle so he could fall back onto Solitaire's wing. "Rejoining formation. Over."

Atsui was satisfied with the condition of the other two fighters. "Okay, ready to go to max speed. Keep chatter to a minimum. You load includes 1 Ke-Z1 on your port wing, and a Ke-T8-W3103 Countermeasure Module on the outer mount on both wings. They are programmed for control from your seat."

She pushed her throttle full forward and felt the comforting pressure as her fighter surged forward into the darkness.

Ari noted the information with a simple "Roger." Chatter to a minimum. He could do that.

He tucked his fighter in on Atsui's wing and punched his own throttle up to 100% percent. Despite the artificial gravity in the V8's tiny cockpit trying to keep things level at 1G, 0203 could still feel the sudden acceleration override the dampers and push him back in his seat.

For a moment he considered toggling off the gravity all together and going free floating. His finger hovered near the switch but he decided against it. Best not too for now. Instead Ari focused on the blue trail that was his vector on the HUD and did his best to keep his craft in formation.

The squadron continued to fly silent until they approached the go-no point. Atsui killed her engines and let the fighter continue on impetus. She sent tight beam to the others. "Solitaire to Diamonds, scanning to see what is going on. Standby."

The tactical system showed that there were four vessels one light second away. One was identified as a Poku Degonjo Saeruo fighting vessel. The other was a Sessou-Class Freighter, Independent registration. There were also two Vampire-Class no registration. It appeared that the two Vampires were engaged with the Clan ship. The distress beacon came from the freighter.

"Heads up, we have a civilian ship in distress. Weapon's hot and we are going in. There is a Poku Degonjo Saeruo that is engaging two vampires. So we go in assess the situation. No telling how damaged the freighter is, if they are launching escape pods, we need to make sure the Vampires don't take them out." She broadcasted.

"Roger that Solitaire."

Alec looked at the four vessels as they approached. A few thoughts swam through his head as he kept his fighter in formation, following Atsui's Kawarime. He remembered a few of the cliff notes about the vampire class patrol craft. If they have a full load out it would mean they would have to try and hit the ships fast all while not trying to get too close. The other thought was how much the Sessou-class freighter looked awful lot like his father's merchant ship the Funky Fortune, except a bit sleeker and a whole lot bigger.

Alec thought about requesting that they split up and try and attack one of the vampires from multiple angles but thought better of it. Atsui did say they were going to 'check it out' so he figured as much as he may want to just jump in now, better to let her make the call. Feeling his heart rate start to rise, Alec thumbed the firing controls and forced himself to take a deep breath and focus. He wanted to stamp out the anxiety before it had the chance the start. Outside of his cockpit canopy he could see the four vessels steadily getting larger as the squadron drew closer. In order to calm himself he turned his mike to Ari. Actually doing well at masking his own nervousness Alec conferred with Ari,

"Hey 0203 you ready for this?"

Alec allowed a half smile to cross his face as he said it.

Solitaire continued on her trajectory. From what her sensors where showing the Sessou-Class was not moving under its own power. There were no emissions coming from the stricken craft. At present there were no escape pods deployed.

Two new signals appeared as two small craft launched from the Clan ship. They showed up as blue on the HUD, and immediately started taking shots one of the Vampires.

Heard his callsign crackle over the radio, his focus too intent on the crafts ahead to comm back. He flexed his gloved hands, feeling the sweat breaking out underneath the skin-tight fabric. Across his HUD, the twin blue streaks of Solitaire's and Wild Card streaked out towards the Vampires.

Ari's thumb found the safety toggle for his guns and flipped it off, his other hand -curled around the throttle with a vice-like grip- punched his speed up to max to keep pace with Solitaire. He nudged his craft off to the Shosa's 3 o'clock to form a loose line. He left plenty of room in between for maneuvers.

Despite himself, the rookie looked to his port side and to the blue dot that was Solitaire. "Solitaire, 0203-" His head swiveled to regard the fast approaching battle. "-uh, what's the plan here?"

"Our plan is simple, we move in close enough to assess the Freighter's condition. We also provide cover fire for them. Since the clan has their attention that means if we come if burning aether, we can probably get our first volley off before they can divert their systems to our presence." Atsui transmitted.