Robotech: Army of the Southern Cross - IC Thread

[Psychie]

Checking the maps, Chris can see that sticking to the roads will be a longer trip but faster overall for you because you are hauling the trailers behind your mecha. Otherwise you could make your way overland through the woods and shave a few miles off your trip. But with the five of you hooked back up to the trailers, you once more set out.

As you get closer to the town, you can see from a few miles out that there are several fires burning up ahead, sending up plumes of thick black smoke into the air. Turning the corner of the road, you see a checkpoint set up by what appears to be the Brazilian military consisting of several modified main battle tanks and a couple of APCs with infantry manning heavy weapons. Dorsey calls to them on the radio to identify the team before you get fired upon, putting the minds of the Brazilian soldiers at ease once they are able to confirm who you are.

Once past the checkpoint, you can see that several smaller fires are burning in the rubble of other armored vehicles that did not survive the engagement with the Zentraedi, including two wrecked Spartan Destroids. The larger fire is coming from a factory complex that has suffered heavy damage, having been shot to hell by the heavy MDC weapons of the attackers. Under the withering amount of fire, even the armored buildings of the factory stood no chance once the meager handful of defenders were wiped out.

Now, you can see that there are several pieces of heavy equipment and fire fighters working hard to extinguish the flames and clear away rubble, including a squad of three Valkyries. When the 3rd JSOG comes pulling up, you are directed to please use your mecha to help dig into the ruined building to get to possible survivors by the lead fire marshal that is directing all the efforts of the rescuers.

 

[Purr]

Unless Sgt. Dorsey belays that order (or is outranked by the one giving it), Miyazaki finds a safe spot, detaches the trailer from Maru and transforms it into Battloid mode. Using her education in detecting concealed objects (in this case, Micronians), and Maru's thermal imager, she listens and watches for signs of life as she sets about digging at the spots she thinks are most likely to have survivors.

 

[Sherwood]

Steven follows Kitty's lead, only pausing long enough to hand off the supplies in his trailer to the front-line workers that need it before moving his tank into position to start moving debris away from any possible survivors inside the structure.

 

[GunMan2]

Chris follows the lead of the other and places cargo next to the other before changing to his battleoid form. “Geez, they either are bored or they trying to make as much problems as they can so our forces are spread thin or their programming is way too strong” said Barnes as he boosted his radar to try and find as many survivors as he can. He sets his face in a neutral mask, preparing to see some heartbreaking sights.

 

[Psychie]

Without a doubt, this is the brutal side of war that the recruiting posters don't tell you about. The images bombarding your eyes are horrible, but it could have been much worse. Someone was doing their job properly and sounded the alarm, giving the factory workers some time to be able to get to cover in shelters before the worst of the attack could hit. Thankfully, the amount of casualties here are low as your mecha's powerful hands work to move rubble away from the entrance of the underground shelters that have protected many of the workers.

Even so, there are bodies of those that were not able to get to shelter.

As you work, Doug calls out in a grim voice on the squad channel. "Miya and Nova. Do not exit your mecha without your helmets on. There are a lot of harsh feelings going here against the Zentraedi, and I don't want you to be the target of any misdirected hate. Keep anonymous as you help out."

Nova replies in a clipped tone, "Understood, Sergeant."

The medical supplies and other goods that were in your trailers are broken into by the relief workers, and they work quickly to make good use of the gear inside. As you work, Doug asks one of the aid workers here about what happened.

His response is fairly predictable. "The damn Malcontents hit the factory as a part of a raid. They shot up the city on their way in and out, causing random damage as they went. Fucking bastards. But from what I'm hearing on the radio, the raiding party was spotted and taken out by RDF air assets, so they got what was coming to them."

Doug doesn't bother to correct him, knowing that it is more important to get the work done than to try and claim credit. He says, "I heard that, too. What was this factory making that made it a target for the Malcontents?"

"Computer components of some sort. A lot of it was used in military applications, so it's all a bit hush-hush. Whatever it was that they were working on, its all up in smoke now, and will be offline for weeks if not even longer."

The sergeant asks, "What about military assets protecting the place? What happened to them?"

The aid worker says, "Overwhelmed. Whatever didn't pull back were blown away by the sheer volume of fire from the Zeeks. I do have to say, those Destroid pilots are the real heroes. If they didn't stand and fight for as long as they did, the survivors of the factory wouldn't have had enough time to get into the basement shelters and a lot more lives would have been lost. Damn shame."


Several hours go by, and as you are finishing up your part of the clean up and recovery process, you get the recall signal from Anton-17. Those workers that are still there are all thankful for your hard work and the delivery of the supplies, saying that you are most definitely responsible for several lives being saved due to being rescued by your timely arrival.

It is a quiet trip back to the post, with each of you lost in your thoughts.

 

[GunMan2]

Barnes was quietly contemplating the mission and the events that transpired. He was confronted with similarities between his previous tenure at the RDF before transferring to the southern cross.

As he helped he got flashbacks on similar happenings but from the human side attacking a zentraeti settlement. Calling it a ‘peacekeeping’ mission but the him of that time knew the real reason for it but he did not care not untill…

The pilot shook his head to clear the memory and began to check scanners and sensors for any more ambushes just to keep busy.

 

[Purr]

With a soft sigh, Kitty takes a moment to lean back, relax, and take in the beautiful sights of Brazil as 3rd JSOG continues on. What incredible vegetation this land possesses, she thinks! Such life and variety! How very lucky these humans to be born on a world like this - the chances might be one in a billion, maybe even a trillion - or more!

Despite the war and death and destruction all around them, it was as if the planet Earth could not have cared less. Earth was going to "keep on, keepin' on" regardless of what anyone else did on her surface.

Searching herself, Kitty finds that she can do the same. In fact, it is what she was grown for. Terrible images of what humans would probably call "atrocities" and "living hells" were firmly imbedded in her Meltrandi mind before her body had even left her gene-tank.

She peeks about. If her teammates are quiet, seemingly wrapped up in their own thoughts, who is she to disturb them? Each must deal with war their own way. If approached, she will assist. Otherwise, she would let matters stay where they were.

War is life! If anything, she fears what life might be like without war. She wasn't certain how she would adjust to such an existence. She might like it a lot or... she might grow bored and miss fighting and surviving terribly. She doesn't know.

All Kitty knows is that she is alive now and that is enough. Thoughts of a peaceful life were thoughts left for another day. Save those you can, miss those who die, and just "keep on, keepin' on" like Earth until either you are either killed or you run out of enemies.

What a strange thought! A life without enemies! No war! Looking to her squadmates, Kitty silently smiles and wonders how her fellow Micronians can get by without it!

 

[Psychie]

It has been a long day for you by the time you get back to Anton-17, not so much as physically draining, but emotionally from the stress of digging out the bodies from the rubble. As you come up to the BSURP and park your mecha inside the cavernous vehicle bay, you are met by the techs that come out to look over your mecha and are pleased to see that while you may have some muddy tanks, they are not blasted and all they need to do is replace the spent rounds for your heavy cannons. An easy day for them.

Once everyone's tanks have been checked in and are in the hands of the maintenance crew, Doug gathers everyone together. "You all did good out there, and we put a serious blow to the Malcontents with the losses that they had dished out today. Take a break tonight. Get a good workout, watch a movie, get to bed early; whatever it is that speaks to you, go do it. You've earned it. I have some reports to file, then I'l be taking my own downtime."

When everyone gets to your rooms and start to decompress for the evening, Nova and Miya are in the process of putting your megasuits away when you get a call on the room's intercom that the two of you have a secure transmission that is coming in at the communications center, one that requires you to enter your security codes to authenticate the signal, and that requires you to be in the comms center and not have the message redirected to your room. Nova looks over at Miya and raises an eyebrow, saying, "As the humans say, there is no rest for the wicked. I wonder what this signal has in store for us?"

For Steven and Chris, you are in pretty much the same boat as you are storing your gear and starting to wind down. You have some time to yourselves; what do you do with it?

 

[Purr]

Doug gathers everyone together. "You all did good out there, and we put a serious blow to the Malcontents with the losses that they had dished out today. Take a break tonight.

Kitty smiles contentedly, feline-like even, at her superior's praise and offer for a break. Instantly, Kitty is reminded of her recent conversation with herself about living in peacetime and in doing so, she realizes she has little idea what she wants to do with her downtime.

"Squadmates? I wanted to ask your advice on where I should next take my education. Now that I have Boxing under my belt, where else do you recommend I improve myself? Would you be so kind as to share your thoughts with me?"

When everyone gets to your rooms and start to decompress for the evening

As they begin to divide to their separate quarters, Kitty can only wave and smile keenly to her male counterparts. "Do enjoy yourselves, Steve, Chris, and Doug!"

Given their hardships recently, Miyazaki could not help but feel a little relieved for "the boys." Micronians after all seemed to require more maintenance after scenes like the ones 3rd JSOG had recently been a part of, but for Kitty, it was just another day in the field. And yet, without war, without duty, Kitty earnestly felt it would be herself and not "the boys" in dire distress!

Nova looks over at Miya and raises an eyebrow, saying, "As the humans say, there is no rest for the wicked. I wonder what this signal has in store for us?"

Then the decision is made for her. Kitty grins. Complaints on being pulled from her downtime don't even arise to her mind. "And why us, the only Meltrandi in 3rd JSOG? Odd, isn't it? There is only one other Meltrandi here in Anton-17; I am curious to know if the message is sent by her. Shall we?" With a light skip to her step, for Kitty loves a good mystery, the GMP officer proceeds with Corporal Nova to the communications center to live the next chapter in their tale together.

 

[Psychie]

Purr
When you and Nova get to the command center, it is staffed with the night shift crew, all plugged into their various terminals and keeping watch on the screens. The watch commander looks over at you and asks, "You're here for that message, right? It came through coded with an 'Eyes Only' tag for the two of you. You can use the ready room terminal to unlock it." He turns back to the technician he was talking to when you came in, already done with you unless you ask him something.

Nova nods. "Thank you, sergeant." She glances over at Miya with a unspoken question in her eyes as she heads for the indicated room. The ready room is not very large, but for just the two of you there is plenty of room. A computer terminal is in sleep mode sitting on the desk, waiting patiently for someone to come along and use it. The two of you slide into a pair of seats next to one another in front of the terminal and you log into the system.

Right away, you can see the pending signal in your 'in' box. It is encrypted with a specialized GMP code that you both recognize from your training. Once you enter your ID codes, the computer unscrambles the message into a simple series of text messages. Now clearly legible, the message reads:

Corporal Miyazaki and Corporal Nova, there are several strings of innocuous text code that your data mining uncovered that has been sent from Anton-17 six times in the past week just prior to the Zentraedi attack on the post. These messages are short and scrambled, making it difficult to decode, but there is a pattern to the signals that has become apparent. By cross referencing the duty logs of Anton-17 with the times that these messages were sent, there are only three individuals that were logged into a terminal each of the four times. They are:

2nd Lt. Kevin Renner
First Sgt. Antonia
Corporal Dana Carey

Continued surveillance of these three is recommended, because it is highly likely that one of these three are the mole you are looking for. If it is possible to access their private files covertly, do so. Continue to update me with your progress, and once any breakthrough is made in the encryption, you will be signalled this way again.

Colonel Mark Greevey, GMP Command, Brazilia Base

Nova leans back in her seat, momentarily silent. She then turns to look at Kitty and says, "Well now. Isn't this an interesting turn of events."


Sherwood GunMan2 Are you doing anything in particular right now, or are you just relaxing in your room?

 

[Sherwood]

Steven will get changed into a set of work out sweats and will head to the gymnasium to do some weightlifting to blow off some stress.

 

[GunMan2]

Steven will get changed into a set of work out sweats and will head to the gymnasium to do some weightlifting to blow off some stress.

Chris was doing some light exercise in the gym as he was working on keeping himself fit. While being a pilot meant he was sitting in a giant metal death machine all day did not mean he would skip his workout for that. "Man, this is getting more and more complicated. What in the world do those malcontent want with all this electronics equipment." This...deeply bothered the man. The malcontent movement so far was all focused on getting electronics and only electronics as if they were building some sort of communication device. 'Maybe...Nah can't be' He dismissed the silly thought.

Barnes turned around and saw Steven enter the gymnasium. "Ah, Steven came here to blow off some steam too?"

 

[Psychie]

As Steven heads over to the weights to begin his workout, a few of the other people in the exercise room wander over to stand nearby. One says, "Hey. You two are a part of the new tank squad we just got, right? Not a bad set of work you did out there, even if you do have a couple of Zeeks with your team. How do you manage to work with those bitches without gagging?"

 

[Sherwood]

Steven looks at the speaker with a bit of a frown. He may not like the Zentraedi around him that much, but Nova and Miya are both members of his team, and he doesn't like it when anyone talks shit about his team. He tries to blow it off, saying, "Yeah, we're the new blood here. And they're not so bad once you get to know them. Besides, we owe each other our lives from the stuff we've run into out there. It's not a big deal." He bends over to grab some weights to slide onto the bar to begin his workout, hoping that this will end the talk about his teammates and how much they rub some people the wrong way.

 

[GunMan2]

Corporal barnes frowned at well in a lazy sort of way but was not going to let it slide so easily. “Ill take note of the insulting compliment. I would watsch that mouth of yours if i were you.” He said as he went to take a pair pf boxing gloves and walked to the ring.

“Being a part of the tank crew they are already our allies. There are zentredi who are just trying to live a normal life. But people like you two exist who keep the animosity from the past. I might not be a hitory buff but i knowt that the zeeks as you call them, DID NOT MAKE THE CHOICE TO ATTACK US.” He said it in a harsh tone to the two. “Yes, there are time i wonder if the ones that made them will come back and try to take control of them. But, till that time comes where i am forced to point my gun to Nova and Kitty. I will be their team member by then.”

Once he finished his triad, being a bit more passionate than before but then calmed down to the point of apathy “Now then, since you insulted my comrades. Who wants to have a round or two in the ring” he asked as he got into a boxing stance

 

[Psychie]

The first speaker lets out a disgusted snort. "Fuckin' Zeek lovers. They'res probably doin' those bitches. It is the only reason that I can see for a human to want to have a couple of those things around."

The other man nods in agreement, saying, "Why bother getting 'into the ring'? Think that you can handle taking on the three of us, little man? We don't have some cushy mecha to cart us around; we're infantry. The ones that get the job done. I say we put some smackdown on these Zeek lovers and show them who's boss in this place."

The third man tosses his towel to the side, obviously ready to jump into a fight against Chris.

Sherwood What does Steven do when he hears this?

Purr What is Kitty doing at this time?

 

[Sherwood]

Steven walks over to stand next to Chris, saying, "Three dumb-ass grunts against two tankers? Yeah, sounds like a fair fight to me." He pops his neck as he settles into a easy fighting stance, not expecting that this is going to end up in any kind of a peaceful resolution, and he is sure as hell not going to stand by and let someone mess with a member of his team!

 

[Psychie]

The three infantrymen step forward, fists raised up with the intent to do some harm to the two of you. This is no simple sparring match; this is a real fight.

Initiative rolls, please!

 

[Sherwood]

Initiative roll for Steven

Not so good. A total of a 6 Now up to a 9 with the Action Point

 

[Psychie]

Just need a roll from GunMan2 and we can have ourselves a brawl.

 

[GunMan2]

Initiative roll for Barnes

A total of 10 for me

 

[Purr]

Corporal Miyazaki and Corporal Nova, there are several strings of innocuous text code that your data mining uncovered that has been sent from Anton-17 six times in the past week just prior to the Zentraedi attack on the post...

(ellipsis mine)

Kitty pulls up every last shred of data there is on the three subjects the Global Military Police have pointed at. She every last piece of data sent and received by these three. She leaves nothing to chance.

Using her Computer Network skills, she begins to put together a list of the people that these three people have contacted and what each of them might be up to. As far as Kitty is concerned, three separate stacks of crimes might be taking place here and if she can get all three via investigation, she will.

If Computer Hacking is required, she does not hesitate. If she finds codes, she begins to crack them using Cryptography. All the while, she's using her Research skill to try and find solid data in half the time and put it together in a way that creates a solid picture of the facts at hand for the GMP.

The mole, taking top priority, requires digging into where each of the suspects has been online, and if she can find out, offline. She's looking for patterns, motives, behaviors, and who these suspects are talking to, why, and what exactly is being communicated.

At all times, Kitty covers her tracks and leaves no trace that she has been anywhere. In this stage, there is no letting the prey know they're even being hunted.

Kitty also talks to no one but Nova, teaming up with her in sharing relevant data as it comes in.

Performing investigations could be tricky business. It was all like looking for tracks in a wild jungle. Every footprint tells a story, every direction points a way, and every blood-trail shows signs of both a predator and prey in action. And if corpses are found along the way, well, despite the old Micronian saying, dead men DO tell tales.

Kitty and Nova are digging. They need to strike gold here. For the sake of justice and the safety of everyone on and off Anton-17, Kitty is bringing along the biggest shovel she has.

 

[Psychie]

GunMan2 Are you going to roll that Action Point, have me do it for you, or do you not want to bother?

 

[GunMan2]

Psychie can you do it please

 

[GunMan2]

Psychie can you do it please