Robotech - Tales of the RDF

The sergeant chuckles over the radio.  "Let me see what I can do for you, Red Pandas.  Wait one."  Two long minutes go by as you wait for Sgt. Oroke to get back to you.  Finally, he comes on the air.  "Sgt. Taniya, I have a code that will open the outer doors, but it sounds like you have already solved that problem.  They do not know about any tripwires inside the entrance; perhaps by using the transmitted code will turn off the electronic triplines.  We are going to be lifting off in five, so you are going to be on your own.  Good luck in there, Pandas."


Doug makes the comment, "It might be something that we just can't turn off.  We'll need to be prepared for a scrap once we go in."


Barbara nods on the vid-comm.  "True that, brother.  Lets try the code to see if it disables the triplines.  Worst case scenario is that it doesn't, and we'll be walking into a fight.  Well, we've never backed off from a challenge yet!  Why start now?  Boss lady, I'm ready to broadcast the signal when you give the ok."


When Taniya gives the authorization, Barbara begins to send the code.  There is no visible difference inside with the infrared grid that you can see.  It is still up and visible to your IR sensors.  The good news is that there is no blaring of any alarms to indicate that there is a security breach, and you are fairly certain that if there were alarms, you'd hear them over the sounds of the ventilation blowers that you can hear.


What do you do?
 
Staff Sergeant Taniya


Taniya thought a moment then keyed the radio.  "Gratitude for your quick results, Sergeant.  Safe journeys back home for you and yours."


"All right, Red Pandas.  We have appeared to have attempted every option.  Take cover, then let us proceed with McKinley's plan."  With that, Taniya made certain to keep Eadric on point with Zaile guarded the rear with everyone else, herself included, covering Eadric.  Using the walls and floor of the area, she tried to give her squadmates the best field of fire with the lowest combat profiles.  Once everyone was in position, she gave the order.


"Fire when ready, McKinley."
 
"Switching to flak and firing. Excuse me, don't want to hit anyone by accident." Connor said, making sure nobody was in front of his guns, and getting to the front if the passage was big enough. "Firing salvo." Connor repeated, firing a short burst of flak rounds down the hall and into the unknown.
 
Corporal Zaile Alencar


Once Connor opens up on the hallway, Zaile tightens up her focus on the back corridor.  This is exactly when a surprise could happen; defenders, automated defenses, who knew.  What she did know was that her thumbs were on the triggers to her plasma cannons and anyone intending some payback on the Red Pandas would have something else to think about!
 
Staff Sergeant Taniya


Taniya watched McKinley's rounds streak downrange.  Her mind continued to wonder about what awaited them below.  With humans, she was learning, you never knew what to expect from one day to the next.  
 
The airburst shells fly down the tunnel where the proximity fuses in the shells trigger them to explode before actual impact, sending a hail of shrapnel out in a deadly cloud.  Off in the distance, you can hear a siren going off, echoing down the tunnel, showing that there is something active down here besides the air purifiers. 


Barbara calls out, "I'm getting a whole bunch of encrypted radio traffic, probably in response to the weapon fire.  We have gotten their attention.  Now lets see what comes out of the hornet's nest, ey?"


Then, a new signal comes in, this time prefaced with the proper recognition codes marking it as from the naval base.  "Red Pandas, this is Wilcher.  You are ordered to cease fire and stand down.  This comes directly from General Zhu, the commander of the base.  It seems you have stumbled upon something Top Secret, and General Zhu wants you out of there ASAP.  Acknowledge this and pull back."


Doug looks confused.  "What the hell?"
 
Staff Sergeant Taniya


Taniya felt this moment simply proved the earlier point she had made to herself.


"Acknowledged, sir.  Pulling back."


 Taniya switched to the team frequency.  "Red Pandas," she said simply, "pull back."  Taniya attempted to make an example out of herself by being the first to do so.


Though she wondered, she kept her thoughts to herself. Commands like these came from commanders like those whom she served among the Zentraedi.  She expected no explanation; only further orders.


So the Meltrandi ace, having done as ordered, waited patiently and listened.
 
Eadric Braidwood, Field Scientist


Eadric had been watching down the hall when the new orders came in.  His complete surprise was clear in his tone as he involuntarily asked, "What?"  Then, blushing (and thank goodness no one can see inside his mech), he got hold of himself and continued, "Ah, I mean, yes, ma'am."  He checked to make sure his transmission was squad-only, then added, "Though I cannot help but wonder why we were sent out here by one level of command and pulled back by another.  I think we should remain cautious, ma'am.  Unless something's changed, we still don't know who the leak is, and ... well, ma'am, I don't want to accuse anyone on no evidence, but I think we should be prepared for the leak to have occurred at any level of command."
 
Corporal Zaile Alencar


Positionally, Zaile was in the back so she was the first to withdraw.  And she withdrew the moment so ordered, though she yielded the now-point position to her commanding officer when it became obvious Taniya intended to lead them out.  


Rotating back to watch their flank, the blue-haired Zentraedi lifted an eyebrow in her cockpit at Braidwood's observation.  "...you think we've received false orders?" she questions back.  "How can we confirm for sure?  Should we contact Sergeant Major Wilcher independently and confirm orders?"
 
Eadric Braidwood, Field Scientist


Eadric followed the others out.  "Not exactly false orders, no.  I just can't shake the feeling that something's off about the command staff in this base.  Between the way things looked when we arrived, and then now that we've done something about the stolen mecha and are investigating a potential enemy hiding spot and are suddenly called away and told it's top secret... Maybe it's all perfectly in order, but right now it doesn't feel that way to me."
 
Barbara can be seen on her video feed doing a rapid data search.  "According to the records, this General Zhu is the commandant of the base.  He has had a distinguished career that has skyrocketed up after the Global Bombardment nearly wiped everything out.  At that time, he was stationed in a now destroyed base in South Africa, and for a long time has been the highest ranking RDF soldier on the continent.  It seems he was able to pull a bunch of favors to get Port Carson built as a service dock for the large supercarriers of the Atlantic fleet, and has swept in to become the big guy on base here.  This is all available from his public records, so its not like I'm breaking into any secured databases to get this info." 


Doug turns his Tomahawk around and slowly works his way back out of the ravine.  "It feels to me like we are in the middle of something sticky, and I don't like it.  Give me a clear target to go after and I'll blast it from one side of the planet to the other.  I don't like not knowing where the enemy is.  But, we have been ordered out of there, so out we go.  I am still quite interested in finding out just what we've stumbled onto in there.  Babs, any ideas on where to find that info of what this hole in the ground?"
 
Corporal Zaile Alencar

The Zentraedi woman thinks fast and furious about the scenario, grappling with something new and unknown in her experience. In her culture, it's routine for leaders to keep details from their subordinates. But Micronian culture was far different, and if its military often seemed the most like the Zentraedi, its members remained Micronian.

"Zentraedi follow orders," she says at last over the squad radio. "So do soldiers in the chain of command. But I remember a class I took on Core Military Values. Most of the scenarios I remember were concerned with life-or-death situations. That doesn't seem to be the case here. Additionally, there's been some inconsistency in our orders. We received this mission but were provided with no intel on this facility and the need to leave it alone. We informed command what we were doing and it wasn't until we penetrated deeply into the facility that we were ordered to fall back. Maybe it is Top Secret and Need to Know and we didn't need to know until we did."

"If the Staff Sergeant is to decide our next course of action, she needs as much information as possible. Everyone else, in your experience, what's the risk if we obey orders and leave this place alone? What are you worried about?"
 
Staff Sergeant Taniya

Taniya kept quiet as Zaile asked this highly-important question. Yet again, Taniya could not help but feel a sense of appreciation for Zaile's insight, for Taniya had not thought to seriously question the order, regardless of its suspicious nature.

Once again, if the humans whom Taniya and Zaile were trying to protect had some insight as how to deal with this situation, now was the time to provide it. For Taniya, the idea of her not following the orders of an RDF general were almost that of her following any high-ranking warrior under her celebrated Lord Breetai's command - slim to none.
 
"Right now, I think it's a good idea to do what the higher ups tell us to do. We can snoop around later. But right now, we can't really do anything without stepping in something we don't want to." Connor said, turning his Defender around and following the others out, keep an eye on his radar, for whatever good it'd do underground. "But I won't be much help, I'm not the snooping sort." he admitted to them. And it was true, he wasn't one to quietly go around hacking computers and looking through files. Quietly being the key word here, and he wouldn't know what exactly he was looking for and most likely skip right past it.
 
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