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[PROLOGUE] Manning The Illustrious

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"So, what did the rest of you do before being transferred to the Illustrious?" Tarrim-Juni asked, seeming curious, as she began to eat her food. she hadn't eaten all day, in all honesty, because she had been busy either preparing fro newcomers or practicing in the simulators. she knew she needed some more time in a real cockpit, but that would come later, after the Illustrious had completed her mission of escorting the new ships to Yamatai.
 
"I was a hobbyist, more or less." Kouta said. "I wrote -- stories, poems, songs... You name it, I've probably tried it out. -- but I was studying to get a degree as a Teacher. It was a sort of tradition in our family to join the Star Army if a war came around so... Here I am."

Kouta stopped messing with the silverware and set it down so he could get at his food. Before digging in, however, he decided to finish his thought.

"I was a bit too tall for a Mindy, and I wanted to go into space. So I became a fighter pilot."
 
After finishing her meal by herself, Faye decided to mingle with some of the newly arrived crew. She was a little nervous, but the Neko was able to summon the courage to approve a small group eating around one of the tables. The Intelligence Specialist addressed the highest ranking of the group: a blue-haired Santo Juni. "I apologize for interrupting, but my name is Nitô Juni Kikoru Faye. Is it alright if I join you for a while?" Her smile was gentle and kind as she said this.
 
Shin kept quiet, quickly finishing off his meal as he listened in to the rest of his squad.

"Am I the only person here who has any extensive combat experience AND fighter pilot training?"
 
"It is perfectly acceptable for you to sit here, Kikoru-Juni." Kail answered, smiling at the intelligence specialist. "Would you like anything to eat, or have you already finished your meal?" she asked, politely, ignoring Shin for the moment.

******

The lead ship in the Illustrious' group noticed some odd sensor returns on her stations, the crew trying to figure out what it was. It appeared to be a shuttle, but what it was doing there and why it wouldn't answer their hails was a bit of an enigma. Still. What could a shuttle do to such a large group of battleships?
 
Faye smile brightened as she took an open seat hear Kail. "Thank you," she said honestly, "I have already eaten, and now I think that I should get to know some of this crew. I am the ship's Intelligence Specialist, by the way." She moved her hand through her hair, still unused to the length and style of it.
 
"Power Armor Pilot on Senbu," Sakaki replied and then quietly attended to her Sushi. She watched the new person take a seat while introducing herself as an Intel personnel. The wannabe samurai had no first impressions other than the newcomer was a little nervous. Regardless, the black haired Neko continued her meal without showing much concern.
 
Yaeko smiled to the waiter as the rest of her meal was brought. She quickly scarfed down the main course and finished her glass of wine just as the dessert came. She quickly ate up the cheesecake, but decided to take her time and savor the strawberries. Strawberries were her absolute favorite thing to eat. After she was finished she laid down some money on the table and stood up, deciding to go introduce herself to the rest of the crew. After seeing a small group of her fellow squad mates she made her way over. When she approached the table she bowed, knowing that there would be people of higher rank at the table, and looked around as she said, "Hello, my name's Santo Hei Yaeko Munkata, communications, just transferred from Fort Ready. Do you mind if I sit down?"
 
"Go ahead, I suppose." Kail answered, though there wasn't really much room left. She scooted her chair over to make more room and wondered why this table had suddenly become so popular. Oh well. It was good to be mingling with the crew, they had not only pilots here, but also an intelligence specialist, and now a communications specialist as well. Kail would see how they all got shuffled around once command figured out what to do with them, but for now she simply enjoyed her meal.

******

The Illustrious shook, a little. Not much, and over the din of the party, most people didn't seem to notice. However, the dull, throbbing hum that came with a working ship got louder, and it seemed something was going on outside. after a few moments, a group of Orange-paneled Neko entered the Cafe, each splitting off and looking for a specific group of people.
 
"Welcome." He said to Yaeko.

After the newcomer got situated, (Kouta didn't know what to make of the Intelligence Specialist,) he gestured with his head toward the Nekovalkyrja searching the room. "What do you think that's about?"
 
"Those are orange paneled uniforms, therefore the most logical assumption is that these are the sprites assigned to the ship's squadrons. Extrapolation from that dictates that one of two things must've happened: We are under attack, or they are meeting with the squadron leaders." Shin casually sipped his soda, waiting for his squadron's sprite to come speak to Kail.
 
Yaeko pulled up and empty chair that was at a nearby table and sat down. She looked over at the Nekos running around before turning to the table. "Well lets hope we're not under attack, that wouldn't make for a very good first day at all." She sat straight up in her chair, trying to impress the people she noticed with Juni ranks. She looked around the table before deciding to start a conversation. "So what are all of you professions?"
 
Yaeko's question would have to wait.

"All hands. All hands. To your stations. To your stations. All hands. To your stations." The voice of the ship's KAMI system spoke with all the emotion of an onboard train announcer, light and easy Yamataian. "Enemy warships are in the area. Be advised. All hands, to your stations. Prepare for battle."

As the message repeated, Onyx found the pilots all around a table. Her expression was rather stony, but the message wasn't.

"What are you still doing sitting here? Aren't you hearing the message? Don't wait for me! Scramble! We're under attack!"
 
"Yes, Ma'am." Tarrim-Juni answered Onyx, scraping her seat back and getting up. the Illustrious sent her a roster of her wing over encrypted telepathy, and she called out the names of those in her group. "Ushimo-Hei, Sakiyurai-Hei, Nekki-Hei, Fukui-Hei, please follow me; you are indeed Onyx squadron. Your call signs are Onyx Two through Onyx Five, in the order I called you. Now Let's go!" the blue-haired neko said, quickly bowing in apology to those whom she was seemingly abandoning to the table, Munkata Yaeko and Faye Kikoru.

******

A short number of minutes later, the squadron arrived in the hangar, where a ground crew was getting their Hayabusa fighters ready for launch. without so much as a word, Kail nodded to her pilots, and began to change into her flight suit, to get ready to launch. "I'm sorry we couldn't get you all properly set in, but duty calls." the Juni apologized.
 
"To Hell with being set in properly, we have a job to do now." Shin said, starting to get changed into his suit.

"With all due respect, of course Tarrim-Juni." Shin allowed himself a small smile as he zipped up the front of the suit, and donned his interface helmet.(due to inability to use the Spine system, Yamataians such as Shin and Kouta had to use a interface helmet to control the Hayabusa fighters.) Looking for the fighter marked Onyx 4, the vermillion-banged Yamataian climbed up the boarding ladder and lept into the cockpit, closing the canopy behind him. Going over a brief systems check, Shin felt confident that he was ready to launch. Keying in the comm to his squadron's channel, he sent a brief confirmation of readiness to the squadron's controller, whoever that would be.

"Onyx 4, systems check complete, ready for launch."
 
Sakaki felt like she was in the center of chaos at the moment the alarm for action came. She took one sip and was out of her chair the moment it touched the plate, with the rattle of her sword as she ran. Just like the Senbu, my first duty is combat. the black haired Neko contemplated as she followed her commander to the hanger.

Upon reaching the hanger, Ushimo-hai began to change her gear as well, leaving her sword behind for now, With little experience, I would not chance bringing it with me for now. Then her yellow eyes shifted to someone close by for directions to her fighter, and was on her way while going though information she downloaded before arriving on the Illustrious.

She climbed up the ladder with helmet under her arm and jumped in the pilot seat to start up her craft. As the canopy lowered she put her helmet on and began going though procedure, making sure her Hayabusa was working properly.

"Onyx 2 prepared," Sakaki said over the com while doing a last check, waiting for the go order.
 
Once Kouta Fukui had figured out where his fighter was, he changed into his flight suit and boarded his vehicle.

He made the pre-flight checks: Seals seemed in place, electronics working fine... Green across the board.

"Onyx Five, ready." He called as soon as his helmet was on and sealed.

Onyx Five... Onyx Five... He repeated his call sign in his head several times while waiting for the order to launch.
 
When the alert came over the loudspeakers Yaeko jumped from her seat. She bowed to her superiors and headed off while saying. "Introductions will have to wait. Onyx Squadron I'll be on contact with you soon." Yaeko sprinted through the ship, her comm and map in front of her.

When Yaeko arrived at the bridge she grabbed a nearby headset which she put on her head and the connected to the mission ops station in the center of the bridge. "Onyx One, Bridge here. When you are ready you are clear for launch." She pressed a few buttons and a holographic 3-D radar appeared in the center of the table.
 
"Isn't that a bitch..." Masako complained at the fact she didn't get to have anything to eat yet and her stomach began to complain loudly. Oh shut up you. she mentally said to herself as she hurried out with the others and down to the hangar. She'd never really piloted one of these things before but no time like the present to learn right? Just like Sakaki, Masako was downloading the instructions for flying the bloody Hayabusa before she even down to getting on the flight suit and boarding her specific unit.

Making the appropriate checks to make sure everything was in working order, the blonde neko settled in and got as comfortable as she could. "Onyx Three, good to go." she reported.
 
Kail made her way into her fighter, quickly starting the thing up. She knew how to fly it, with a decent amount of skill, but still dreaded the thing. its responses were not what she wanted (though considerably better than the older fighters) and with all the turrets, there was too much going on. However, this was the tool she was given to defend the empire with.

"Onyx one, Ready. Onyx Squadron reads all green. Launching now." She called over the communications to control, giving the go-ahead to her squadron. She began moving her fighter out toward the launch deck, and, upon arriving, boosted to full as quickly as possible, jettisoning her rear wheels and retracting the nose wheel. She did a snap-roll, bringing herself towards the direction sensors showed Enemies.


They were rather far away, still fighting the lead elements, but stray shots made their way down. Current count showed two minutes until contact, if the enemy stayed where they were. The sensors showed hundreds of craft, marking most as unknown blips, only identifying whichever were closest, split about 25/75 between other Hayabusa and battlepods.
 
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