RP: YSS Ryūjō YSS Ryūjō - Mission 1 - Fury

:: Recon Flight ::

Errowyn sighed softly as the boredom set in. Eyes darting about for the long run to the planet that held life. Not even a blip on the passive scanner. She felt that itch something was out of kilter. It was too quiet over the radio. They should by now be picking up coms chatter from the planet they was heading to.

She had stopped the side to side rocking as she flew. Her Teisatu visibly took on the demeanor of a fighter on the prowl. A predator hunting for prey as they closed on the polar region of the habitual planet.

She brought up the HUD of the planet and checked a likely route for recon. "Dragon 2, Hellcat. you have lead," She simply and quick broadcasted to Kakeru.

She slowed her Teisatu to let him over take her.

"Roger that Hellcat, Dragon 2 breaking trail."

Kakeru goosed the throttle slightly and slid past the dark shape of Errowyn's fighter. With the plasma engines off and working only on CF drive, the fighter gave the visual illusion of being stationary in space. Only the instruments told the true tale, that they were both pushing a fair fraction of light-speed. Leaving the sensors to auto-record, he switched his concentration from monitoring the whole lot of nothing they have been getting and started to pay attention to their flight path. "Breaking trail" as they called it.

After a period of time as they continued to close in on the "target", he set the auto-pilot as he half turned and reached for the survival rations stowed in the back of the seat. At least if nothing continues to happen, he can entertain himself by "enjoying" a snack. It wasn't much, but when you are really bored, you find things to distract yourself and keep busy. It was either that or nod off to sleep.

Bridge

Takeyu leaned back in his chair and listened as Yaeko and Nao talked amongst themselves. The man placed a hand on his chain as he thought for a moments, his brain woring on what he'd heard them say. "If this was a coordinated attack, then who?" he said, he wasn't really expecting an answer of course. "What's the status of our recon flight?" he asked.

Yaeko paused to consider Nao's ideas. "I mean, it's definitely possible. Although if that were the case I feel like we would have more information about it. If they were attacking someone, either it wasn't us or they were very good about preventing us from sending distress communications. Either way, it definitely seems conclusive that there's some sort of hostile element here, either currently or recently."

Meanwhile on Recon Patrol:

"Two thousand four hundred and thirty three bottles of beer on the wall, two thousand four hundred and thirty three! Take one down, pass it around, two thousand four hundred and thirty two bottles of beer on the wall!"

It does get boring on patrol.

Recon Patrol

Errowyn remained focused on her surrounding deeper they went into the system. Running long range passive scans. Systems Checks, eves dropped on her partner and smiled at his choice of songs.

~~He has a nice voice~~ One of her Ghost Sisters spoke.

Errowyn snickered softly, wondering how her two wing-mates were doing back on the Ryujo. She hoped they was getting some sleep time. "At least he's getting enough practice."

~~A chorus of giggles erupted~~

Not knowing that his wingman had hacked into his comms system, Kakeru flashed a burst message to Errowyn.

"Hellcat, Dragon 2. Target up ahead. You want to do a high/low polar orbit? If there is anything waiting for us on the other side, having 2 different targets appear at 2 different places might make them pause to figure out who to chase first. Worst case, we pincer them. Once we checked that there isn't anyone hiding behind the planet, we can do a flyby recon while the Ryujo makes its way in-system. Go/No-go?"

"Dragon2, Hellcat. I take low, you take high." Errowyn replied "Alert Ryujo if hostile contact is made. After run, make contact with all clear."

~~He's catching on quick~~ Errowyn thought as she dove her teisatu down lower. Due to the tighter curved flight, she was able to catch up as she checked her weapon systems. They was ready for action. She purred softly as she flew her craft.

She hoped that he was as good as Scrapyard if it came to a dogfight. Or just get the hell back to Ryujo to bring re-enforcement and get their recon data back to the ship.

Bridge

Anjin listened to the chatter from the deployed craft while watching her sensor data collate. "Deployed craft are approaching the target area. From their chatter, so far everything appears to be quiet." she replied to the CO.

Kakeru applied some positive y-axis thrust in acknowledgement of Errowyn's dive, splitting up the flight as they approached the planet. It has been a dull flight so far, and he expected it to continue remaining that way. The biggest danger to the flight currently as they closed were ground based surface to space defences, so SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) was for sensors to scan for ground signatures as they closed, followed by a change to space based scanning to check for enemies hidden in the shadow of the planet as they crossed the apogee/perigee of the planet. SOP was to be followed, but the expectation of finding nothing had left Kakeru's actions with a mechanical air.

Noa folded her arms and then replayed a volumetric image to Yaeko repeated from Takeyu's earlier briefing of the probe that was reduced to charred bits with a scarred and punctured blackbox recorder. "Oh I'd say they are reeeaal good at stopping our communications, alright. If they did this to a lowly probe to try to stop info getting back to us, I bet they purposely took out the colony's systems with extreme prejudice in a surprise attack."

From the sounds of the background communication on the bridge it seemed Shinozaki-kun was still in one piece in his Teisatsu following behind the famed Hellcat, but how long would that last was anyone's guess. Maybe it would just be a quiet and uneventful run, but then this task force wasn't assembled just for fun and games either...

Errowyn smiled softly as her wingman took the higher altitude. scanned the surface of the planet for threats and what ever intelligence she could pick up by scanners, radio, and video. What lay beyond the next ridge of mountain was the unkown. She fidgeted and settled again and became 'one' with the Teisatsu she was flying through the SPINE interface.

It wasn't as intimate with her Kawaime '5' but it was close enough. Just slower in speed and she knew she would have to rely on maneuverability and fire power to keep Kakeru alive so he can return to the Ryujo with the intel reports they both gathered.

Closer she got to the ridge of the mountains that rose towering into the sky, more alert she became. She slowly gained altitude to clear them, hoping that Kakeru was paying attention, for he had the better view on what was coming up. The Colony and what ever was there on the other side of this final range of mountains.

Megami – Bridge

Megami found herself standing near the captain’s chair, watching the going on’s of the bridge. She was eager to find out what part she’d play in the captains plan involving this touch down, as she was never told before they left what her job should be. Her ears lightly twitch as she bit her lip, the lime green, red haired Neko shifting to the left, and the right, before leaning against the chair and smiling at Takeyu. “…I’m excited…It’s so amazing being on a ship and actually being part of the crew instead of just running simulations, Nayacesen-Chusa.” She eagerly shifted her hips left, then right, almost shaking her butt to anyone whom was paying attention, the bubble of joy was still as bubbly as ever.

Meiko – Medical Bay

Meiko had finished all the reading and preparations to the medical bay on their way to where they were going. She was now just lying in one of the beds located in the medical ward reading a book on famous actors of the 19th century. It was a rarity to find, but one her sister went through a ton of trouble to locate for her during her schooling between positions. The book itself had tons of information from the 19th century actors, from biographies to different movies they played in, and even scripts! It was quite a treat for her to begin reading. So for the moment that’s what she focused on, until she was needed.

Bridge

Takeyu's eyes shifted as he looked at Megami, not missing that her rear end was shaking a bit; not exactly appropriate on the bridge but not something he was going to chastize her about. "Simulations can only tell us so much, and having been stuck in several after leaving my last duty station and then coming here, I know the feeling and am glad to be out of them. But, enough of just sitting here; I plan on taking the ship into orbit and having us find a nice perch to land upon, to that end, Megami; think you can find us a suitable location? Some place defensiable but still accessible to our troops and fighters please?"

Planet

What lay beyond the ridge would be a sight to see, a very large colony - uncommon really for a new world - lay beyond the mountains. Although Errowyn's fighter would only see the sides of this colony, along with its towering structures, mixed in amongst destroyed buildings and smoking craters and vehicles. Kakeru's vehicle had a much wider view of the city, including the remains of a destroyed Yamatai ship that was strewn about the city center, for several miles; but that wasn't the only thing he'd see - there was another ship, one that wasn't of obvious Yamataian design but also much smaller - that was crash landed near the Yamataian one. A series of bio-signatures, however, were being picked up in and around the city.

:: Planet ::

Errowyn spoke softly into her radio to Kakeru, "Heads up, Dragon 2. Send to Ryujo to get both fighters on alert stand-by. Info dump from me. Once it's complete, send all info to Ryujo, including yours. Send priority." While she spoke, she began transmitting her data to Kakeru's fighter craft. She tighten her safety belts down for violent maneuvers.

Her mind going into combat mode as she 'looked' at the city before her with it towering buildings and ruined ones intermixed. Picking up various bio-organic signatures through out the city. Being several thousand meters altitude, and not getting the whole picture. Hoping Kakeru was alert and doing what he was trained for.

"Well I'm afraid our work is done here." Yaeko leaned back in her seat staring with frustration at the screen in front of her. "There's nothing else we can get from this data." She turned around in her seat to face Takeyu. "Sir, I'm afraid that there wasn't much we could do. It's almost certain that there were hostile elements in this area, and they seem rather skilled at preventing distress communications from escaping the area. Other than that, I'm afraid we can't tell you much."

"Ryujo Actual, Dragon 2, SPOTREP. Attaching video feed and rebro data trans from "Hellcat". RTBing once "Hellcat" extricates from gravity well. "Hellcat" also requests that the CAP stand to." Still maintaining stealth, Kakeru aligned a laser transmitter along the predicted bearings of Ryujo and transmitted the data on a narrow beam to avoid interception.

Errowyn obviously misunderstood when he recommended a "high-low" polar orbit and dived into the atmosphere, leaving Kakeru with a few anxious moments. Right now, one of them was at the bottom of a gravity well while the other was in orbit, unable to offer mutual support if contacted by the enemy. Sighing at overly gung-ho pilots, he switched his sensors from space-to-ground to space-to-space mode. Despite the immensity of the find of both the city and the crashed ships, the shadow of the planet still has to be checked and cleared of anything that could pose a threat before a high value unit like the Ryujo could be brought into the area. Hopefully by then the Joto would remember that she was in a poorly armed and slow recon fighter doing recon and got the hell out of the gravity well instead of thinking that she was in an assault bomber and try to kill everything still alive down below. The biggest weakness of the V-5 recon was that once engaged, the chances of extricating becomes almost non-existent. Add this to the fact that half the inbuilt weapons were removed for sensors, what was left is definitely not an aerospace superiority fighter.

"Hellcat, Dragon 2, unknown ship detected in the center of the city, recommend you extract back the way you came in. Do not cut across the city itself, you'll overfly his LZ and possible field of fire.

Errowyn whipped her teisatu around in a sharp U-turn, "Affirmative." She responded, as she began to backtrack and climb for space. The unknown ship worried her as her curiosity built wanting to take a peek. She smiled that Kakeru was sounding alert after the most boring flight so far. She circled as she gained altitude, getting a better view of the city.

Noa frowned a bit as she ran a few more cycles of encryption breaking algorithms on the data in the background, before her attention was drawn to an incoming alert on the console in front of the communication officer. "Ooh, it's Shinozaki-kun in Dragon 2 with a secret message for you, Munkata-shoi!" she voiced with the renewed enthusiasm of a helpful secretary, trying to break the Neko's frustrated mood by acting like some kind of love letter was being passed on, even if they both knew it was something else a lot more serious. "He's using a very narrow band laser carrier signal for the data packet transmission from low orbit. Not bad with his aim, actually," Noa mused aloud, as she managed to establish the link for the video feed to be downloaded in real time to the bridge. She of course was just as eager to see what it was, as SAINT operatives only used this stealthy means of non-subspace communication when they were being paranoid or in an implied moderately high risk situation.

Bridge

Takeyu frowned, he hated it when they were virtually blind; he'd really wanted something more solid to work with. The captain rubbed the bridge of his nose while in thought, then looked toward Yaeko. "Very well, let's keep the data on hand - who knows you might get another shot at decyphering it in the future. Until then, I want you to perform a comprehensive scan of any and all communications in the area, while what was found earlier didn't turn up much for us to use - there could be a chance that someone is broadcasting, I doubt that whomever this is could keep a distress signal silent for too long," that was Takeyu's hope anyway.

Planet Surface

As Errowyn's fighter began to gain altitude, her flightboard suddenly light up with a warning - as two plums of smoke appeared from one of the taller structures in the ruined city.