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Rules are pic related, more information at
http://padlet.com/BoredofDirector/Macross_2054

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>>35430005
>Hide for now

Be sneaky, gather intell.

>>35430005
>>>Hide for now

>>35430005
>>Hide for now

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Thinking fast, you pulled Claudia along as you hid behind some closed containers. There was no telling what, or who, was coming in and the only obvious escape path was likely going to be occupied. Besides, you would probably be able to gather more intel this way. Sadly the cave was adversely affecting long distance communication so it was doubly important that you could make it out to report your findings.

It took about ten minutes by your reckoning, before a ship drifted into the hidden port. From your vantage point you could make out the sleek and smooth design of the hull. It was primary grey. Clamps extended from the recesses, locking it in place. The size wasn’t that big, as far space ships went, no more than a frigate. You had a feeling this wasn’t the first time you’ve seen the ship but you weren’t sure.

Its belly opened up and left descended towards the floor, carrying with it pallets and crates of all kinds. You didn’t take your eyes off of it as the other, smaller, humans disembarked. One of them headed for the Destroid Work. No doubt whoever it was, they were responsible for the cargo. The Destroid forced open another cargo bay, revealing the unmanned drones that you were very familiar with stored within. While it didn’t confirm that this was the lair of that mysterious stealth frigate that you’ve encountered once or twice before, a convincing argument could be made.

The round shook, and if there was any actual atmosphere in here, you would have heard a rumble. Turning towards the entrance to the port, you saw two giant metallic doors closing slowly. If you wanted to get out then now was your chance.

>Get out now
>Keep observing

>>35430955
>Get out now

Broadcast the whole way out.

>>35430955
>Get out now

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That was more than enough for you. If this wasn’t the base of the one that attacked the Arthur weeks back then at least you found something. What they were doing wasn’t your problem. That was for the brass to decide. Still it wasn’t like you could be stealthy about the whole thing. They probably had cameras anyway. Blasting off in the direction of the doors, the two would slip through with plenty to spare. You didn’t look behind you but you could tell from the displays that Claudia bothered to take a parting shot. Your displays lit up. The tunnel itself hid turrets and drones and they were being activated. It was a slow process though, making it easy to pick them off before they became a real nuisance. You didn’t have the firepower to sustain a fight either. Who knew how many drones there were. You probably didn’t have enough ordnance to collapse the tunnel too. Besides, it was probably proofed against such a thing. It’d be the first order of the business if you were in charge.

Over Claudia’s complaints about your sniper rifle pod’s magazine capacity, and your own cursing, you made it back to the cold open space. Your communications blared back to life.

“Boomerang-4, come in,” the familiar voice of command filtered in, “Boomerang-4, come in.”

“Gunsight, this is Boomerang-4, moon was blocking our signals,” you explained, “Confirmed settlement and hostiles, over.”

“Copy, ETA ten minutes.”

Ten minutes. That was an agonisingly long time in a dogfight. Twisting, turning, and generally being unpredictable, was the key to staying alive. The drones kept hounding you though and while normally it was easy to fool their programming, it was harder now. Maybe because no one was running ECCM at the moment, but you couldn’t quite shake off your pursuers.

“So Pecker, what’s the plan?” Claudia asked between reloads.

>Stay in formation for mutual support
>Split up and hope at least one you survive

>>35432112
>Stay in formation for mutual support

We've done our job of recon, now let's get home alive.

>>35432112
>Stay in formation for mutual support

So...

Clearly we need to do something about ammo capacity for the sniper pod specifically, and weapon pods in general.

Should we bug Dad about this? Or dive in on our own?

>>35432568
How about we try to solve it ourselves and if we can't fall back and ask dad for help.

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“Stay in formation,” you ordered.

To be quite honest you weren’t too familiar with combat in a Queadluun-Rhea. Sure, you had the qualifications to fly and fight in one, but you couldn’t remember the last time you were trying to keep control of your sphincters in the midst of combat. While the concepts were the same as operating in Variable Fighter’s BATTROID mode, the execution was quite different. The controls were very different, as was the performance. There were no manned vehicles that could quite match the Queadluun-Rhea in agility. Top that off with the suit’s emphasis on protecting and keeping the user alive, you were managing to scrape by. Claudia watching your back also helped.

That wasn’t to say you were limited in offensive options either. Queadluun-Rheas came with lots of missiles and pivoting beam cannon, both of which you dumped with abandon as the drones closed in. The both of you flew with your backs to each other. You led the way, twisting and turning out of danger and Claudia kept pace as naturally as it was breathing. It was like a dance in that regard but clearly she was having better luck given that she also had an extra gun that you didn’t. What made it worse was that she was actually keeping track of her kills and was constantly broadcasting it to you. The snippets of classical that got through was rather annoying in a way.

Thankfully the Arthur folded in shortly before your ran out of ammunition. The relief was clear in your voice when they told you to land as the rest of Boomerang Squad took to the battle, their frames laden with missile packs. That wasn’t to say your part of the battle was done. That moon you just escaped from? It was no moon, it was a space station.

[1/2]

>>35433512
You were simply going to refuel and rearm before being set loose back in to via a pin-point barrier attack. Simply put, they were going to fist the moon after which you were to unload for a boarding action. The wait in the hangar leading up to it, amidst the sounds of various point defences discharging, was almost silent in comparison to the violence of the manoeuvre. It was a terrible screech of metal before subsiding in to a groan as the launch ramp opened up once again and you were able to re-enter the station proper.

There were no set objectives save destroying everything. Intel was a bonus at this point. It was weird that the corridors were big enough to accommodate your Queadluun-Rheas so you had to watch out for any nasty surprises. So far there hadn’t been any resistance. Presumably most of the defences consisted of drones and turrets but anything could be waiting.

The two of you once again came to a fork in the halls and you definitely weren’t splitting up this time.

>Engineering and Bio Labs
>Command and Control

>>35433554
>Engineering and Bio Labs

Intel may not be priority, by Biolabs scream "important-do not toast without examining"

>>35433554
>Engineering and Bio Labs

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You took a left in to the Engineering and Bio Labs. You were pretty sure that’s where they kept their power source and would blow up pretty nicely if you destabilised it. Besides, there was a good chance you’d stumble on to something interesting along the way.

And what and interesting sight you found. The labs had a window that opened up to a massive tank lit up in orange. Suspended inside wasn’t something you didn’t expect. Black, angular, yet writhing along the surface, you were pretty sure you’ve seen something like that before. It looked like,

“A jelly alien machine?” Claudia voiced the thought.

http://youtu.be/k1-TrAvp_xs

The two of you had been up close and personal with these things and it wasn’t hard to recognise the GAME. The further you crept along the more you saw evidence of experimentation, or research, on them.

“Gunsight, you getting this?” you reported back.

“Destroy the facility,” was the reply.

This was obviously not Avalon, nor Spacy sanctioned in any way. It wasn’t hard to tell. There were human captives held in stasis. Each had been exposed to the GAME in some form or another. It looked like they were studying the effects of infestation, or contamination, or whatever it was the GAME did to humans. The last part was some kind of manufactory and from the ceiling were synthetic body parts, prosthetics and other such items.

The generator that kept the whole station running was mostly using the power of the moon’s core to generate power. Destabilising it would result in the moon tearing itself apart. It’d be a shame if you couldn’t salvage something out of this as you started to crack security around the controls.

“Hey I think I saw something,” Claudia piped up again.

You swore you caught something white in the corner of your eye too but you were honestly too busy. Besides, Claudia was a big girl, she could handle it probably.

[1/2]

>>35434782
>Destabilise the core first
>Salvage any data you can find
>Confirm Claudia’s sighting

>>35434782
>Confirm Claudia’s sighting
No surprises.

>>35434782
>Confirm Claudia’s sighting
Partners. We watch her back, she watches ours. Especially when things get weird

We should confirm with Gunsight on the order to destroy everything.

Is it possible to pull id's on the victims? Might give us an idea of where they've come from or who's doing this.

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Whatever progress you made you’d just have to throw it aside for a bit. You didn’t want any nasty surprises after all. If anything the whole place was creepy enough. Claudia took point, if only because she had a big, unwieldy and long rifle. She didn’t want to part with it, even in close quarters. She stepped out first with you following and bringing up the rear. It was when you hit your first T-junction that all hell broke loose.

Claudia was ambushed from around the corner that separated the manufactory from the experiment area. Because you had your back to her, you couldn’t do much yourself as she was sent sprawling down the hall. You only managed half a turn, snapping off a burst of 30mm cannon fire before a white machine tackled you. Queadluun-Rheas weren’t exactly meant to have dexterity on par with martial artists and you yourself have never really gotten in to a melee in one. By the time you had gotten up and gotten a better look at your assailant, you found Claudia in a grapple with them. It was a white variable fighter, a VF-1, with the same stripes you had encountered once before. In its BATTROID mode the markings were still as clear as ever.

It had gripped Claudia’s suit from behind, point her most dangerous weapons away from it. From the looks of it, the VF-1 was unarmed and yet was still able to hold a modern Queadluun-Rhea in a bind, if only barely. You had to do something. The VF-1’s optics and sensors were mostly obscured by Claudia’s larger battle suit. At your feet lay the sniper rifle pod.

>Hop in to the melee
>The ranged option
>Other (write-in)

>>35436199
>Hop in to the melee

Commence technopummeling

>>35436301
A 1d100 roll from you please.

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>35436569

I hope this works.

>>35436609
And, I suck.
This is exactly why I chose melee.

>>35436641
It's best of three though. Cross your fingers.

>>35436675
Should I roll twice more, or wait for the other Anons?

Rolled 50 (1d100)

>>35436569

>>35436707
It's up to you since I'll never know.

>>35436733
well that's better than a 19.

Rolled 35 (1d100)

Ok, rolling once more, feel free to disregard if someone else rolls in time.

>>35436737
I try to be honest. Samefagging in a quest is the lowest.

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>35436733
That's the best of the three.

>>35436827
Oh this is gonna hurt.

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Well if it could take on a Quealuun-Rhea unarmed, you weren’t going to complain. After all, you had more options than the VF-1 did. You still decided to take the fight in to close quarters though. Your goal was to free Claudia after all. She was the expert and the two of them were evenly matched. In that regard, you were moderately successful in tipping the scales in her favour. It was a sloppy counter-tackle on your part since you could get a good hit in without risking Claudia.

The three machines collapsed in to an unwieldy heap, but not before you noticed the pilot of the VF-1 bailing. With your combined weight was more than enough to pin it down. Whoever the pilot was, they figured it was best to bail now and even your clumsy attempts to capture or splatter them were in vain.

“Pecker get off me,” Claudia said, “Quickly.”

You were taking your time according to her and when asked why she simply responded with,

“It’s going to explode.”

You wouldn’t know what it was like to get hit by a point-blank thermonuclear detonation, given the blinding light, heat and pressure all confined by the corridor. What you did know that everything in the suit was either blinking red or dead. Stunned, you lay there waiting, slowly and agonising trying to come to your senses. You couldn’t hear much but you were pretty sure there were sounds being emitted if not by your comms then from the suit itself. It felt strangely hot before cooling. Your last thought before you lost consciousness was, “Ah, that must be the cold sleep function going to work.”

[1/2]

>>35437728
You awoke later in the Arthur’s sickbay. Across your body were several electrodes but otherwise you felt fine, if slightly groggy. A glance to the sides revealed another bed, and Claudia, sleeping peacefully. That was a load off of your mind. There were still plenty of others. It seemed like an age had passed but eventually you were paid a visit. Irina, in her white uniform that sadly was not that of a nurse’s, and Sergei stepped in. You had questions for them but chief among them were,

>”Where’s my jacket?”
>”What of the mission?”
>”Is Claudia alright?”

>>35437803
>”What of the mission?”

Claudia seems to be fine, and jackets are replaceable.

>>35437803
>>”What of the mission?”

Drawing a blank here. Why is the jacket special?

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Claudia was alright, as far as you could tell, and jackets were replaceable. Thus you asked how the mission went.

“Well the moon doesn’t exist anymore if that’s what you’re asking,” Sergei spoke first, “After you got ambushed, we picked up a detonation and figured it was you two. When you didn’t check in we went to find you. Core was set to blow so we had to carry you out and barely made it.”

He turned Irina.

“No video, or audio, was recovered from your suit,” she continued, “Tell us what you found.”

“That bad huh?”

“Thankfully we still have two more spares,” Sergei grinned, “Still up for some Force Recon?”

“Tell what you found Pecker,” Irina repeated irritated.

You told them, of what you saw. The captive GAME held in the tank, the captive humans held in pods. You spoke of the manufactory of prosthetics and artificial limbs. What kind of experiments were being held down there, you had no idea but it wasn’t particularly pleasant.

“Yeah, we found the GAME and the limbs but not the people,” Sergei confirmed, “I guess they were buying time to move their data before purging the facility.”

“That will be all.”

Irina’s face was as neutral as ever as she turned to leave.

“And thank you Pecker.”

You looked to Sergei in confusion but if Irina was always neutral, then he was always smiling like the joke was on you. It probably was too but you didn’t sweat it.

“Oh by the way, your gun is totalled,” he said.

A grimace was all you had. Well you were planning on rebuilding a better version anyway so it gave you a good excuse.

“You’re cleared to get up and walk but not much else.”

“Thanks.”

You ripped the electrodes off, causing the machine to beep hysterically before the doc came and smashed it in to silence. Your next thought was to,

>Wait for Claudia to wake up
>Find out where your jacket went
>Rebuild your sniper rifle

>>35438844
>Wait for Claudia to wake up
>Find out where your jacket went

These two first since we can't really build a gun while in the medical area.

>>35438844
>Wait for Claudia to wake up
>Ask Sergei about our awesome jacket

Not that I know why our jacket is awesome, but I assume it is.

>>35438844
>Wait for Claudia to wake up
>Find out where your jacket went

>>35438844
Oh yeah, we did put our jacket on Irina as a blanket when we found her sleeping at her desk, didn't we.

>>35439851
Yep.

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Well you didn’t want to leave without knowing if Claudia was really alright or not. That was why you just sat down in a stool next to her bed. Really why bother getting up if you were just going to do that? You suppose you were curious as to why you were missing the customary SMS jacket that most of your co-workers were wearing.

“Hey doc?” you asked your attending physician, “Where’s my jacket?”

You think he tried to stifle something as all you got out of him was a snort. Then he started scanning you with his mobile.

“Uh doc?”

“It’s probably only temporary,” he dismissed it before walking out, “you sure have a lot of worries.”

He also snickered loud enough once he was out of sight. You didn’t know what was up with him. Thankfully Claudia woke up as soon as the Arthur was berthed with the Avalon once again. The first words out her mouth spelled out her need for booze. Her dragging you along was met with some hushed whispers but you have no idea what exactly they were talking about.

Jive’s Office wasn’t as lively but you were kind of surprised to find Irina there. She wasn’t drinking of course since that would obviously clash with her image of a straight-laced Spacy officer. In her lap was an SMS jacket. It was yours. Claudia ignored her and scared up a drink. Irina stiffly handed you your article of clothing and left promptly.

The hell was that about?

“Well I think it’s cute,” Sergei said loudly as he entered.

“Is it that Ozma thing?” Claudia asked.

Where had you heard that name before? Sergei nodded.

“What Ozma thing?” you dared ask.

“That you’re totally banging her over the counter,” Claudia answered with a straight face, “Whatever that means.”

>”You’re joking.”
>”Time to apologise I guess?”
>Write-in

>>35439931
>”Time to apologise I guess?”

>>35439931
>”Time to apologise I guess?”

>>35439931
>”Time to apologise I guess?”

No act of human kindness goes unpunished.

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Well explained a few things. They were having a laugh at not only your expense but Irina’s as well. You had been told not to do more than walking so you’ll just have to walk fast enough to catch her. It sucked but what could you do? For one you could apologise for it and assure her that your intentions were entirely chaste. There was a bit of a problem with that plan though. You weren’t exactly privy to Irina’s thoughts on the matter. Frankly, the woman was rather stoic, and it was hard to get a read on her. Well, at least you’ll make your intentions clear that you didn’t think much of it then and go from there.

“Irina,” you called out to her as she was leaving the building.

“Pecker,” she turned swiftly.

Her hair had hit you in the face from the violence of it.

“Sorry about that, I just thought you were cold up there on the bridge when I popped by.”

It took her a moment to digest the meaning of your words and to scrutinise your face.

“It’s fine,” she said.

Though she said that she didn’t look like it, and you weren’t sure why you were pressing the issue. Her face betrayed nothing yet again.

“Just,” a noticeable pause, “embarrassing.”

You noticed her shoulders sag a little at the admission. A sigh escaped her lips. Brushing it off with a wave her hand, she turned again and walked out. Like a scene that’s been played out a lot of time before, she turned and started to leave again.

>Leave it
>Something else? (write-in)

Episode 11 End. Sorry chaps I’ve been up for 24 so I have no idea where I’m going with this any more. Feel free to vote and we’ll pick up next week.
https://twitter.com/BoredofDirector
Next Episode: Magnum

>>35441135
>Leave it

thanks for the fun, boss. Go get some sleep or go enjoy the halucinations.