The rally point had been established, multiple Terran ships were already at the ready and had jumped in to a system Commander Howard Johnson sat back in his chair, his eyes gazed at a spherical holographic representation of local space, it zoomed in at the hex they were in just out of “star empire” claimed “space” They had entered a system in orbit around a gas giant, each ship was plastered against the multi colored bands of the super giant, the magnetic field masked along with their metric fields their gravatic and em signatures adequately . Johnson was in command of the Missile cruiser York town. The seven hundred and fifty meter ship was silhouetted against the gas giant. Each ship was in a defensive formation. Johnson crossed his arms upon his lap, his eyes gazed at the representation of the ship mind, who chose a male form. He spoke to it, his tone rather plain, he shifted in his chair. ~Send a message to allied forces that we're here and ready to move when they get on, lets make sure we keep this stealthy..~
The ship dryly nodded, its face was plain, it turned away from the commander facing the map, around that map various personnel were tied in to their consoles. The ship minds voice was diplomatic , both text and audio was sent across secure communications` frequencies.
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Attention all task force “Peekaboo“ Ships; Terran ships have arrived at the rendezvous area, designated position alpha, your ships are to enter this system and form up around the gas giant, from there we will dispense a mission briefing. Ship mind Yorktown out.
Several SF-13C fighter craft outfitted with ultra long range wormhole telescopic sensor array pods that looked like black ovoid casings were clustered around the missile cruiser, each fighter was sleek, completely black other than a few light shaded markings upon them. ”VF-120” was plastered upon the back wing in white lettering around a black panther symbol that blended in to a white background with two white stars on either side on the black paint.
Lieutenant Bruce Taylor a brand new officer assigned to the squadron , was twenty two, extremely young in Terran years, as most were pushing five hundred, he was a man fresh out of the academy, and after some persuasion had accepted the mission even though it required physical piloting and interfacing; In fact most officers in the other fighters wanted to do this for the thrill, they were much older and had gotten somewhat dull with normal service . Signals from long range remote piloting could be detected. He gave an exasperated sigh , he sat back in his seat, the cockpit fading from opaque metal to clear glass, the utter brilliance of the night sky shown in to the cockpit, it was, peaceful in an odd sort of way. He was uneasy for the most part about this mission, he was required to go so deep in to foreign held territory. Any number of things could happen, it ran through his streaming fast mind, millions upon millions of thoughts per second centered around various things over and over again.
The communications array in his fighter crackled to life, it was inputted directly in to his neural link, his holographic HUD activated the center of it had a spherical map of the sector on it with several hexes, it zoomed in on the “sector map” a blue dot at the current system represented the rally point and allied forces, a yellow spherical cursor was across a system deep across a “bubble” of orange signifying foreign spheres of influence.
Newbie! -came out a message from the squadron leader Colonel Richard McLeod, hot shot remote and physical pilot was on the line.- Come on ya bugger I know you can hear me!.
The young officer quickly went to attention with his voice. Yes sir colonel?..
McLeod in his cockpit just sat back, he was older, much older but looked young, he was over three hundred, he simply rested his hands upon his HUD, his lips curled in to a grin as he spoke out once more through the secure comn link, his voice was some what teasing but still professional if it were possible. ”Right, my boy, what your getting on your map obviously is our destination, objectives will be marked and all that good stuff, so don't worry yer pretty little head off. And don't worry this mission wont be to hard, even if we do get a mass fleet on our arse's we'll be able to out run them. So I here this is your first physical piloting mission eh?”
Taylor responded, his voice was some what stiffened but not exactly showing the best of confidence, his tone was somewhat plain. Well sir, yes it is my first physical mission, and I understand the map, it looks like a simple jump from here to another planet.
Colonel McLeod responded his tone utterly dismissive.
“ pfft, kid it ain't as simple as it looks, not to worry though, you got ole McLeod here to drag your fucking bum out of the roaster, if your stupid enough to miss a turn.. -he laughed, it was obviously a joke- But honestly, don't have a worry in the universe, if those bloody minge's want a punch-up well give em' . It will be one hell of response, that about right for us....”
A female officer, Major “Hawk” As she was just known, non human a tengu cam through audio only, specific avian traits were obvious in her voice. “Hes right, do not worry, I've wanted to sharpen and bloody my claws for a while, any one who gets in between me and my objective will be torn to in to tiny bits of meat. Any way newbie, we got your back if anything happens, lets just hope our objective is filled with Op-for from these imperialist. Some of them need to meet the end of their existence.”
Laughter broke out from the Colonel, he sunk back in to his chair his eyes gazing at the map before he responded in an informal one. That's my girl show em what your claws can do, rough em up... I knew letting you out of the bird cage was a right call.. – he was cut off by hawk again, she had a slightly angrier tone in her voice. When I'm done with them I'll go after you McLeod, then I'll throw you in “the brid cage”...
Shes a spicy one , lieutenant , watch er. McLeod was responding and about to add something on when the ship mind of the missile cruiser came on with a harsh tone and a commanding voice. This sort of radio chatter is hardly conductive to the mission, do -shut up- with this useless banter.
everyone seemed to chuckle in their cockpits, the fighters just hung in formation awaiting allied ships.
