RP: 21st Fighter Sq [Mission 9.0] Flight into Darkness

Location: YSS Heitan
Ship Position: 20 LY into the eastern edge of Nocturne Gate

Alpha Flight Deck, next to Tamahagane Akemi's fighter V8X2 32-0097

Akemi was talking to Konpeki about the parameters of their upcoming mission. It was bold, audacious, and very high risk. Pretty much sound normal for a the Diamonds though. She looked at her Kawarime with the new color scheme. Now she just needed to wait for the squadron to arrive.

Location: YSS Heitan : Hanger Bay A

Errowyn walked onto the deck towards her fighter -0053 in full flight suit with her helmet hanging in her hand by the rim. Looking around to see who was around of the squadron. Not seeing anyone she recognized, began her preflight. Talking with her ground crew chief as she checks various exterior systems she could access.

She missed the gathering in the Safety Valve as she was busy in medical, going through a very comprehensive physical. She felt like a pincushion and drained from all the fluids they had to remove for testing.

Taking a sip of her orange juice from the bottle she carried, liking tangy taste of it, finishing it off and tossing it in the trash container nearby. Turning towards her craft, she patted the snarling tiger with "Hellcat" in an arch above the picture.

"I'm back... ready old cat for another foray into the fire?" She whispered to her heavily repaired ... rebuilt more like it...Kawarime.

Anne was another one to arrive. As usual she had her flight-suit and a med-pack. Her helmet hanging from her fingers and her hair tied back into a ponytail, stuck under the collar of the suit. She usually put putting on the helmet off for as long as possible as she hated how she had to bend her rabbit ears. Walking to Akemi and Konpeki, she gave them a slight bow. "Reporting to duty," she said. She also noticed the comeback of old pilot-mate. "Good to have you back Hellcat. Try not blowing up a fighter on our first day after return." She added with a smile.

Hangar Bay

Akemi watched as some of the squadron started to arrive in the hangar. She opted to do the mission briefing here by the fighters to set the tone.

She returned Anne's bow, "Good morning Spinner, should be an interesting run today. Congratulations on your promotion."

"Hellcat over here for the briefing." she called out.

Errowyn waved to Anna from her location next to her fighter, Glancing over at her crew chief. "New Honcho of the 21rst." replied the crew chief.

Errowyn ambled over to the group, giving Akemi a quick bow, "Gotta keep the techs occupied, Spinner," to Anna, noticing her promotion. "Gratz," Then turned to Akemi. "Nito Hei Yumeoibito "Hellcat" reporting, Itto Juni-san," with a proper bow to a senior in rank.

::Hanger Bay A::

Errowyn scowled as she stood around waiting for the rest of the squadron to show up. It seamed that everything came to a standstill, even though seconds slipped by. She began to look around the hanger at the busy techs working on the various Kawarimes. Munitions were being loaded onto the each of the crafts in view.

Eyes lost luster as she turned inward to her thoughts, thinking back to the time she had spent in Medical for her 3 month check-up from the Labs where she was conceived.

::Before Showing Up at the Hanger bay A::
...The lab techs as usual hooked her up the vast machines to get her vital readings which all was within normal readings, except for mind waves were a bit above the normal which puzzled them intensely. They stood around and analyzed the data, taking her off flight status while they ran more tests to figure out this anomaly, comparing them with previous readings.

They shrugged as the rest of the testings went smoothly and results were good. But it was the odd readings of her brainwaves that confused them. They disappeared after awhile. Soon after getting a clean bill of health from them, she was moved to update her vaccines. Getting a chance of being alone, She slipped out for a quick sprint to the Safety Valve.

Only to get back with the staff getting ready to report her to Security and to the 21rst commander of her wayward jaunt. She walked in sipping on her orange juice slushy. She stood there and took the tail chewing in stride with her usual calmness.


"Hai," Once the tail chewing was done, not to bother giving an explanation as she was in the wrong for leaving without being released.

"Get back in the Treatment Room!" The Doctor scolded her and took her jacket from her, watching her return to the room to wait for the next stage of testings.

She entered the room and got comfortable on the bed to wait the next round. She sighed softly as she covered up with the thin sheet and closed her eyes to rest....

A head peered around the door into the hangar nervously, a pair of eyes would have flicked from left to right and back before the head withdrew back around the corner shyly. Not quite ready to come out yet.

Silic forced himself to take a deep breath. It was going to be fine. It's not like the machine would try to kill him again, or Hibiyashi could try to strangle him once he got back from the damage done to her precious machines. She seemed to get even angrier whenever he tried to offer to help her fix it. Neko, half-feral the lot of them.

Gross generalizations aside at least he hadn't had to wind up on the medics slab too often recently. He looked at his cyborg arm and flexed it before taking a small sigh and finally stepping around the corner.

Play it cool, Silic. Play it cool.

"Uh, uh. H-hi fellow fighter jockeys. Ready to pull go chocks away and get these blighters?"

Nailed it.

Hangar A

"Good morning Tin-Man. Well, I may as well get started with the briefing." Akemi said stepping away from her fighter.

"As you know we are in the outer regions of the Saiki Nebula. This region of space is extremely hazardous. Dark matter clouds, gravimetric shears, detritus and debris. Not exactly the kind of place one would take a ship unless you really needed to." she said.

Konpeki spoke next, "And it is because we need to that we are sending the Diamonds in. Our scouts have found an intact NMX Light Shipyard. Inside the Gate not that far from here. However, the main pathway to it is too narrow to send a squadron in to engage the shipyard.

Fortunately, our friends in the SSS have been busy exploring this region of space. They have identified a network of tunnels that exist here. Ones too small for a starship, but large enough for a fighter to fly through. Our plan is to send the Diamonds down one of these tunnels and once you emerge in the area where the shipyard is you will lock onto either the shipyard or its escort. Each fighter will have two Ke-Z1 torpedoes. Once you do that you will head for a second tunnel to return.

There are few facts that you need to understand. The tunnels are the result of the interaction of dark matter and the gravity in this area. Sort of like nano-tubes in matter only in space. Each tube though can only be traversed in one direction. The space in the tubes is compressed. A trip of five minutes at .2c will take you to the objective which is 5 LY away.
The second tube that will be in your navigation systems will bring you back to this general area about ten light seconds from the Heitan." she said.

Akemi spoke up. "This is going to call for some precise flying. Your nav-system will provide you with the path to follow. Stay in the center of the tube and everything is shiny. Drift away from the center and touch the sides, and you will have one hell of a bumpy ride and you might be missing parts of your craft.

Any questions?"

Anne giggled a bit as Silic walked in and tried to play it all cool, as if he had a pilot position all along. It was a cute thing to see and it reminded her, why she liked him such as he was. Anne knew quite well by now, what lay under the layer of loud-mouth nepleslian. A man she quite fancied.

Then the briefing came, so she put her attention to that, listening carefully. "Ma'am," she raised a question. "Any chance the tunnel could have alter themselves since, SSS did the recon?"

Akemi smiled, "While the tunnels do slowly change due to gravitational activity. A probe was sent through an hour ago and arrived as expected."

Hanger A

As soon as Akemi spoke, Errowyn snapped out of her daydream and listened in on the briefing. She glanced around the area for more of the 21rst. But there wasn't much to see of them, unless the R&D was testing new equipment. Refocusing on Akemi and Konpeki, she listened in, not caring about were those that were missing.

She had enough to worry about. The wormholes, NMX, Kawarime and her performance. "Is there an alternate route, ingress and outgress from target zone?"

"So, you're saying that to get to the target we're going to have to squeeze into a tube in time and space thiiiiis big?" Silic asked, pinching his thumb and finger together to the most minute separation he could.

"Well, I'm going to go to the little boys room and try to get rid of some extra bulk to squeeze through, if you please." He said as he grabbed his belt and moved determinedly towards the restroom.

Akemi smiled briefly.

"Actually Tin-Man its much larger than that. If it was that tiny it would be a true worm hole and we'd pass through it in a second." She replied as he started walking away.

"Unfortunately there is an alternate route. The one that the NMX use to bring their ships in and out from the shipyard. Unfortunately it just so happens to be mined with NMX Phase Mines. A fact brought to our attention by the SSS who lost a team aboard a Tenba-Transporter that was exploring the area. It was after their loss that the SSS sent some small probes via the tubes and located the shipyard." She answered.

"Are we keep an eye out for that tenba?" Anne asked, worried. She was interested if any of the SSS personnel might survive in damaged vehicle. Anne had experience with phase mines, and one mine should not obliterate whole shuttle in one go, that said, maybe it was more then just one, or it phased itself inside the shuttle. Anne dreaded imaging what that would cause.

"I can transverse the route the SSS Tenba had took to effect a rescue and still complete the mission if I don't find any life forms," Errowyn spoke up with an eye of excitement and challenge. "This way it would distract the NMX to allow the rest of the 21rst slip in..." Which she would have to change her payload for more advance sensor pod and less missiles. "And attach an automated life pod that would be able to be deployed if there is any life aboard the Tenba. I then could tow it back to the Heiten." Errowyn would want to be rescued if there was any chance to be returned.


She had a sinking feeling that this would be an one-way mission if approved. But wasn't this was why she was made? She had no family nor sisters. But the rest of them, had a family, close friends and something to live for. All she had was the 21rst. But as she seen so far, those she knew was getting fewer and fewer. She looked at Anna and Silac, seeing that they were more than just friends.

Looking back at Akemi, "please, let me do this." Spoke softly, looking earnest.

"You are forgetting the mines Hellcat." Anne said softly, although she disliked having to do so. "The rescue mission would have to be much better planned. I think we can scan for the mines though, as we had experience with them some times ago. Still for such scanning we need to deal with enemy first, which this mission does not really allow as it is hit and run. Still I would like to reconsider a new plan that would allow us to look for and rescue the Tenba and its personell."

Looking at Anne, "Then I'll fly a twoseater, giving up my 0053 for this run. Just need an 'experienced' EWO to ride shotgun." Glancing at Silac, Then back to Anne. "Prefer a medic. As for the enemy....they'll be busy with the hit n run. Once the rest of the 21rst hit the shipyard."

Akemi while she appreciated the enthusiasm of her squadron needed to end the circular discussion.

"People, our primary mission objective is and shall be the destruction of the shipyard, and if possible the secondary target of whatever ship is there to protect it. The Tenba was damaged by the mine detonation and the SSS lost all communications. While it is possible that the crew may have survived; with the NMX presence they would most likely have been taken prisoner.

If we are successful with our objectives, we can then think about a search and rescue effort." she said.

With the reality check from Akemi, brief look of disappointment flashed across her face as Errowyn settled down, letting the rescue subject die for the sake of the mission to wreck havoc with the NMX shipyard. She was itching to get in her Kawarime.

"Any special munitions we'll need for this mission? Or standard payload?" Errowyn spoke softly.

Elisto had done what he always did - lay in wait somewhere nearby that was dark and devoid of light, but close enough to hear everything. His arms were folded over his chest, and he had one eye closed, he wasn't sleeping - not at all - it was just his thing. Hearing that one of their shipyards had been taken didn't phase him once, but hearing that some of their people had caused the hair on the back of his neck to bristle a bit - technology can be replaced, people - despite their backup technology - really couldn't.

He didn't speak, although he an idea for a possible rescue operation, it just wouldn't be easy with the current shuttles they had. A stealth shuttle would work... but we lack those, hmm... hmm... hmm..... he sent a quary to the ships computer and began to work on just that possibility.