Robotech - Tales of the UEEF (Main)

[Psychie]

Scorch gives off a victory fist pump with a loud cry of, "Yes! Damn right you did! Took out that sumbitch hard! Good shootin', Grumpy! Whatever these Invid are, they sure do blow up nice. Now, are we about to get into it with the Zeeks? Hmm. Looks like Alex is using his silver tongue to sway them from getting hostile with us. LT, we gotta bump this one up the chain of command to let those getting paid the big bucks do the negotiating. I'm gonna call this in." Shifting to the command frequency, she gives the MacArthur a quick report on the situation, and requests immediate assistance with the situation.

 

[Epiphany]

Lightning is delighted by how effectively the Storm Dragons saved the situation. The potentially hostile Zentraedi and their escort add some lingering tension to the bizarre situation but at least the approach forward seems matter-of-fact.

"Good shooting, Scorch, Grumpy. Alex, keep up the good work. Now, let's back off a little. Fast flip with a short burn, flip back. We don't want to look like we're retreating and seem like an appealing target. But a little breathing room goes a long ways."

Ordinarily, she'd be the one reporting up to the MacArthur but Scorch's instincts are good instincts. So she concentrates instead on monitoring the ships and mecha in play, suggesting positioning to her squad as they prepare in case things go bad...while trying not to look too confrontational.

It's only in the empty minutes during negotiation that she feels a slightly hollow pit in her stomach at the prospect of blowing up the giant clones. They'd never been more than the enemy before. But a nice evening spent making one smile had one lingering effect; she couldn't think of them as just the enemy anymore.

 

[Sherwood]

As you wait, Alex says, "I'm getting a tight beam scrambled laser communication from the Mac. Patching it through to you, LT."

When the image pops up on your HUD, it is Capt. Romanov. "Lt. Tseng, the MacArthur is on our way there with several ships, ETA six hours. Until then, the burden of the negotiations will have to fall upon your shoulders. Use your judgement, but do what you can to play nice with the Zentraedi and the other aliens. Record everything you say and do, and don't rise up to any provocation that you might be faced with. We have already communicated our status to the Admiral, and he can take over the talks once the Lenin folds space here. Keep your head screwed on tight, and watch your backs, and remember that you are not alone out here. Romanov out."

On your radar, you can see that there are two Female Powered Armor units that have broken off from their position by the Scout ship and are heading your way. They are both a bit scorched from the recent fighting, but they are both in good shape. The lead FPA radios you. "This is Pilot First Rank Cabal, and I have been instructed to offer to escort you to our ship for a meeting with Lord Kendra, the captain of the Rhabwar. Only the three of you are invited, and I offer you assurances on behalf of Lord Kendra that you will be allowed to leave after your meeting if you so wish and you will not be molested. Will you accept our offer?"

 

[Epiphany]

Lightning nods a the HUD image of Captain Romanov. "Orders acknowledged, sir." She'd like to say more but, really, her instructions are straightforward and clearly the MacArthur has other things to do. Like back up the squads here rather than soothe the nerves of an inexperienced squad commander.

So she toggles her radio, flipping the bandwidth of the frequency to include all Veritechs in her response. "Pilot First Rank Cabal, this is Lieutenant Chen Tseng of the Robotech Expeditionary Force. Thank you for your offer. We accept. This squad will follow you in and disembark to meet with Lord Kendra upon arrival while the rest of our ships hold position. Proceed at your discretion."

Flipping the radio toggle to encompass all Veritechs only, Lightning adds "If this meeting isn't in good faith, take out their engines in case they have any fold capability. Then back off until the MacArthur arrives." Her tone lightens into near laughter as she adds "While I'd love the cavalry riding to my rescue, the Zentreadi have enough remaining effectives, there's no sense in further needless risk."

As the Storm Dragons move to follow the FPAs, Chen switches to the squad frequency. "The reward for excellent performance is the expectation of more excellent performance. Scorch, Grumpy, bring your sidearms. They may ask us not to but, in case they allow it, I would rather be armed than not. Alex, stay with the ship. They only want three of us, maybe they don't know one is a two-seater. I want to keep you here to watch our ships and, if this does not go well, inform our ships of what happened."

"Questions?"

 

[Psychie]

Scorch holds her breath as she listens to the transmission from the Zentraedi pilot, wondering what might be about to happen. When Lightning accepts the offer, she gulps. Oh, man. This is some serious shit here. Wow. With her best professional tone, she replies, "Only one; are we going to dismount and get into the Cyclones, or are we going to go totally on foot with just our body armor and sidearms? Not that I'm expecting a fight, but if there is a bad scene, it might be nice. Either way, I'll follow your orders."

 

[Epiphany]

"How would we feel if we welcomed aboard previously hostile Zentraedi, who then made a point of putting on power armor in front of us after they disembarked their ship?" Lightning returns.

"It would be nice to have our Cyclones. But should they turn hostile, we will not survive either way. The MacArthur is in route and everything we do will be recorded. Let us be the peacemakers our senior officers were and follow in their example."

While she speaks, she checks her pistol and puts a round in the chamber. "And since they are so much larger than we are, with luck they will not see we carry sidearms. Just in case."

 

[Orikanyo]

"The chance to be inside one of their ships... Damn I'm drooling just thinking about the tech..." grumpy mumbled to himself, whipping just a tad bit of drool away. "No questions, just I'm pretty certain we're negotiating on favorable ground, Machiavelli would be proud of the situation we're in... We came in, saved the day, and now we should make certain why we're here... If their a rogue force with a bunch of other alien lifeforms, this is gonna get interesting real quick."

The man readied himself for the departure, sidearm ready, camera ready as well. They were gonna be in some hostile territory... maybe, depending on how gratitude transfers from Zentraedi to English. Still, seeing some full sized zentraedi is always interesting.

 

[Sherwood]

Following the two suits of Powered Armor, they lead you into a side airlock that is easily large enough to fit 40-50 mecha. Once the outer doors are closed and the interior is pressurized, the inner door opens to reveal a powered armor staging area with six full sized Zentraedi women in light weight armor and packing assault rifles waiting there. Four of them go to assist the two suits of FPA as they lock into place in the various mecha stalls and open up to let the pilot climb out while the other two point over to the side. "Micronians, you may exit your mecha over there. You and your vehicles will not be harmed; for now you are under Lord Kendra's protection. Pilot Cabal will be your escort to meet with the Captain."

From his seat, Alex reports, "Good news is that I can still get signals out to the fighters outside, so if things go badly, we'll be able to send up the alert to them and have a rescue launched. Keep your comms open to me, and good luck in there."

The operator of the FPA suit has finally finished securing her suit, and she goes over to a small hover platform that is normally large enough to fit just the operator, but there is plenty of space for three humans to join her on the base of the platform. She looks over at the three of you. "Come along, Micronians. This will get us to the Command Center faster than you walking, and will not require one of us to carry you."

They do not seem to blink an eye at the sight of the three of you in your CVR-3 armor, and they don't make any effort to tell you to disarm. Either they don't want to insult you, or don't consider your small weapons to be enough of a threat to worry about.

 

[Orikanyo]

being carried.... Well shit that sounds kinda cute in a way... Would they carry us like a child or kinda under the arms like a kid holding a cat? grumpy questioned mentally, not wanting to insult anyone... or worse make anybody laugh. Grumpy simply followed Lightning, keep an eye out for anything odd, or might peek his interest regarding the technological stuff all around them.

 

[Epiphany]

A little more like this.

 

[Orikanyo]

(grumpy can dream.)

 

[Epiphany]

(Well, like that but with a really hot green-haired woman holding you in her hand.

...yeah, that actually does sound pretty dreamy...)

 

[Orikanyo]

(2/3 of the squad suddenly getting really awkward on the elevator.)

 

[Psychie]

Scorch does't waste any time when the Zentraedi shows them where to set up her mecha. A quick check of her sidearm shows that the Gallant is fully charged and is ready to use. She makes sure that the safety is still engaged and slides the weapon back into its holster. No need to have an incident from a weapon misfire.

Shutting down her Valkyrie, she opens up the cockpit and climbs down to the deck and looks around. Seeing this one FPA pilot getting on a hover platform is a bit of a relief; no need to have the awkward moment of having the Zentraedi carry them. With a side glance to Grumpy and Lightning, she says, "Ready to go into the lion's den?"

 

[Epiphany]

Chen holsters her pistol and hops out of her cockpit once parked. As her two fellow officers fall in, she nods in brief greeting and smiles brightly at Scorch's last question. "I've always liked cats."

Craning her neck, the Chinese woman peers up at the tall Zentraedi woman standing over her and briefly wonders what her date looks like that tall. "Thank you, Pilot Cabal." And she climbs up onto that 'small' hover platform, offering a hand to her squadmates. "We're ready to see the Captain if she's ready to see us now."

 

[Orikanyo]

Grumpy forms up, ready and willing, his only hope that this wasn't a trick to... Actually yea that'd make no real sense, aside from having them be hostages to try and negotiate a peaceful escape. That they likely would give anyways knowing the nature of the exploratory forces. Gotta make friends somehow.

"Heres hoping nobody ends up getting catty during the meeting... Christ... Shes a big one..." he could help but creen his neck to look up to the pilot, jesus christ she was huge... And worthy enough for a quick camera snap, no flash of course, last thing he needs is to be mushed because of a little light flash... The recording was on of course, but damn he may as well get something outta this.

 

[Sherwood]

The pilot flies the small hover platform through the ship in a winding path, trying to avoid areas of damage that was done to the Scout by the Invid ship. Several airlocks and buklheads are sealed shut with red lights above them, indicating that the area beyond the door is in vacuum. Also, instead of going to the main command center, you are going to what looks to be an auxiliary command area near the engine room of the ship.

In this aux command center you find seven Zentraedi, all women, three of which are working at terminals. Two more are obviously guards wearing body armor and packing rifles, and the last two are officers. Besides them, there are several dozen other aliens in the room, all of which are much smaller than the full sized Zentraedi.

The first of these look like a strange mix of a humanoid cat and fox. Standing at just under five feet tall, it looks like they are all wearing some kind of face mask and are wearing some light armor on their chests.

The second group are not wearing anything other than belts or vests to provide them with pockets. They look like they are made of rock or crystal of some kind.

Alien race number three look like some kind of bear-people, and I don't mean Winnie the Pooh. The ones you see are anywhere between seven and a half to eight feet tall, and they are almost as wide. They appear to all be wearing heavy armor and carrying massive weapons.

The last group all look to be human women, except for the fact that they are all head and shoulders taller than you at six and a half to seven feet tall. Very beautiful in appearance, they are also dressed in very Greek or Roman style clothing or togas and carrying spears and bows. Very strange.



Cabal gently sets the hover platform down in the hall, getting the attention of all inside the room. She then motions to you to follow her. "M'lady, I have brought the Micronians as ordered." She indicates one of the officers and says, "This is the Lord Kendra, captain of the Scout Ship Rhrabwar. You will talk to her with the respect she is due or I will have you spaced without your armor to protect you. Am I clear?"

The Captain lets out a snort. "Stand at ease, First Pilot. I am sure our guests will be well behaved. Please enter and be welcome."

 

[Orikanyo]

Grumpy could help but stare... and take quiet snap shots of the oddities in the ship. The cat fox had such a grace about them... And a really fluffy tail... The rock person looked fucken cool as well, like a living breathing statue! the bear, man hes seen things like that guy... or is it a girl? On the internet, hopefully they don't go on those types of sites, god forbid they learn about how people have been dreaming about folks like them... And the cat/fox person to he guessed...

the tall amazon woman amde him damn well near want to take as man pictures as he could, look at that kick ass armor, hell she had a bow in this day and age, woman looked like she could take 5 of the bear folk in a wrestling match and still come back for more.

Ah shit, but they were here for diplomatic stuff... Guess he couldn't go see if he can get any good shots... Plus Command might reprimand him for being an idiot...

But fuck how he wanted to check that tech out.

 

[Psychie]

Scorch is amazed at the sight of the other aliens. They just looked so cool! She had a million questions about them all. What are they? Where did they come from? Why are they all here? Are there more of them on the other ship? What is their relationship with the Zentraedi? Are those tails as soft to pet as they look? That last one might get me in trouble; keep it to yourself. In a quiet voice, she murmurs on the secure squad channel, "Alex, are you seeing all of this? Please tell me that the video is coming through ok!"

 

[Sherwood]

Alex replies, "Yes, I am, but I'm still not believing it! Don't worry; everything is going back to the fleet in real time, so watch what you say unless you want everyone to hear it."

At this point, one of the tall women walks over to the three of you and she asks up at the Zentraedi, "Are these the Haydonites we are looking for? We need to find them if we are to have any hope against the Invid."

Kendra shakes her head, and as she does so, you can see that she has a very nasty scar across her face, running from the top of her forehead down her eye to her chin, leaving her blind in the damaged eye. She replies, "No, these are not the ones we seek, but they still might be useful." She looks down at the three of you and asks, "What do you have to say, humans? Why did you come to our aid?"

 

[Orikanyo]

Grumpy looked to Lightning, hopeing to god she had a speech planned. Cause grumpy was half way ready to start taking snap shots at any second now. Fucking christ he loved extraterrestrial species!!

 

[Epiphany]

The ride through the Zentraedi ship is fascinating, particularly for Chen as she's never had a chance to really look too closely at the interior of their ships before. Despite Zentraedi being on earth for years now, their technology and especially their full-size ships and gear weren't something the average person ran across. Again, she found her thoughts straying to Commander Zyorna and with an act of will she banished thoughts of the adorable warrior leader from her mind.

Then they arrived in the auxillarly command center and it took no effort at all to focus on the immediate situation.

Aliens. Actual aliens! Not "they look just like humans" aliens but real aliens! Despite her commitment to professionally representing the REF, Chen openly gawks at them for a good four seconds before slamming her dropped jaw close and straightening up. Human-sized standing foxes, giant moving statues and several Baloos from the the Jungle Book packing more firepower than the Terminator. By contrast, the gorgeous Grecian women seem almost ordinary. If not for the fact that they're gorgeous.

What is it with me and beautiful alien women? I am not Captain Kirk.

When the Zentraedi pilot urges the Storm Dragons to follow, Chen does so, coming to attention before the Captain of the ship. She ignores Pilot Cabal's warning because she has no need of it; this was a no doubt legendary warrior of the Zentraedi standing before her, one who might have centuries of battle experience. Someone who could be their gateway to an introduction to all these other alien species, if she was treated well.

"First of all, please accept my thanks for your welcome, Captain," Chen says at last. "I am Lieutenant Chen Tseng of the Third Armored Expeditionary Division, representing the United Earth Expeditionary Forces. These are my squadmates, Lieutenants Derek Darwin and Amanda Loxley. We picked up your signal, saw you doing battle with the Invid and thought we could help out. We've met the Zentraedi before. Some are even working jointly with the UEEF. One of our Command Cruisers is en route to this location and I'm certain one of our Admirals would love to open up formal communication with...all those represented here." Chen's head swivels to once more take in the sight of the aliens present in the command center. "In the meantime, Captain, it looks like you've taken some damage. We'd be happy to help with repairs, or to reinforce your picket out there so your folks can concentrate on getting this ship fully operational. How can we help?"

 

[Sherwood]

The Zentraedi captain looks down at Chen. "Well met, Lieutenant Chen. Repairs would be welcome, along with extra security. We have taken serious damage from the Invid, and have suffered losses from their swarming attacks, and I would welcome a chance to speak with your Admiral. Word of the human victory over High Lord Dolza's fleet has spread, and allies against the Invid would be welcome. The ship we are escorting is filled with refugees, representatives from the four races you see here that are looking for ways to free their worlds from the grip of the Invid invaders. We have heard word of another race that is fighting the Invid; one that we had hoped to make contact with. The Haydonites have the potential to be powerful allies if they can be found. I don't suppose that you have any idea where they are?"

 

[Epiphany]

"I'm sure that's a good question to ask my Admiral, Captain," Chen replies smoothly. "What I can do is ask your permission to instruct our combat squads out there to join your CAP out there in case more of the Invid show up. In the meantime, Lieutenant Darwin here is an expert in mechanics and we'd be happy to help out here if you can find a use for us until our Command Cruiser reaches us. Let us know where we can do the most good, Captain, we're at your service!"

 

[Orikanyo]

Grumpy could help but keep his eyes on the beings before him, hell even the zentraedi was fucking cool. A big scarred warrior, leading a bunch of runaways towards finding a odd race of beings that could possibly turn the tide against an enemy thought to be insurmountable.

"Haydonites....?" grumpy mirrored... thinking about it, what could they have that would turn the tide... And a better question is what the hell were they? maybe.... they had some wicked weapons? Maybe cloaking tech!?

Wait a second did Lightning just sign him up for engineering detail?

On a zentraedi vessel?

This was like trying to stitch a wound on a elephant.

But fuck orders are orders, and this elephant better stay still. "...I.. Do have some knowledge of technology and how to return it to working order.." he addmitted, trying to keep his eyes from eyeing the shiney amazon in the room's... armor... yes the armor.