Robotech - Tales of the UEEF (Main)

[Sherwood]

Another salvo is launched, and once more the barrier moves to intercept them before they have the chance to hit the ship. They explode upon impact, and despite the damage done, the barrier holds strong.

As you are watching the missiles fly, Scorch spots a brief glimpse of . . . something . . . moving under power coming around from the aft section of the Lenin. You think that it is about the size of a linked Alpha and Beta but its hard to tell, and it is moving slow, loitering around the rear of the Command Cruiser.

What do you do?

 

[Psychie]

Going from zero to full afterburners, Scorch calls out, "Target spotted! Moving in to intercept! Its roughly a hundred meters aft of the Lenin! Going in." She flips her weapon safeties off and lights up her targeting radar, and tries to zoom in with her camera to get as much data on file on this thing as possible.

 

[Sherwood]

When Scorch fires off her jets and turns on her targeting radar, there is nothing on your screen, even though you see the object clearly.

With her sudden announcement, alarms start going off across the fleet, and on the various radio channels, voices can be heard calling out in confusion. No one sees this target that Scorch has spotted.

No one except for Alex. He begins to call out on the radio rough coordinates for the thing, yelling at Grumpy to turn the Valkyrie around to face the potential threat.

 

[Orikanyo]

grumpy snaps out of his thoughts and snaps around, his torpedos armed and ready for a possible threat. "Alex where is this thing?" he called to his second head behind him, looking all over for the target, he could barely get a lock on anything.

 

[Epiphany]

"Target spotted?"

Lightning doesn't see it on radar but she's still on edge from reading the mission report on the Raven-04. Vanishing people. Vanishing ships? With a toggle of her jets and joystick, she flips her Veritech end for end and accelerates on a parallel course to Scorch's, ready to cover her squadmate and potentially box in the target if it tries to run. If she can see it in the first place...

 

[Sherwood]

With the Veritechs of the squadron all boosting at full power after Scorch as she flies off towards some mysterious ship, the strange vessel suddenly flips about and begins to accelerate away at high speed.

With the flare of the thrusters going off, everyone now sees the fleeing ship. It is somewhat blurry due to the angle you are seeing it from, but there is definitely a ship there, even if it does not show up on your radar.

With Scorch's fast response when she saw the object, she is the closest to it. You still do not have a lock on it, but you can try to engage with missiles or your gun pod if you wish. You are fairly certain that you are close enough for the GU-11 to hit. The rest of the team are farther back, and out of range of the gun pod. But you can try a missile shot.

What do you do?

 

[Epiphany]

"Command, this is the Storm Dragons. We have confirmation of a ship of some kind, stealthed and invulnerable to radar. It's fleeing. Orders?"

With an unknown intruder, piloted by pilots unknown for purposes unknown, Lightning had no intention of committing the UEEF to a potential war without confirmation up the chain of command.

 

[Sherwood]

A slightly surprised voice comes back over the radio. "Wait, you can see a ship? A stealth ship? Try and intercept, but do not fire on it unless fired upon. I say again, do not fire on it unless fired upon."

 

[Psychie]

Scorch keeps up the thrust, hardly daring to even blink, thinking she might lose sight of it. "Copy command. Do not fire on it. How about a warning shot? I promise not to hit it!"

 

[Sherwood]

That's up to you. If you roll a 1-4 on the die, you might hit the ship anyways.

 

[Psychie]

With careful aim, Scorch decides to try a shot off to the left side of the fleeing aircraft with her gun pod.

 

[Sherwood]

The gun burst flies off to the side, just as you planned. This causes a reaction in the fleeing ship. It cuts its thrust, flips end over end until it is facing you, then begins to accelerate right towards you! It is not trying to ram; it will just pass close by. It does not fire any weapon in response.

 

[Psychie]

"Slippery little bugger, I'll say that for it. Watch it, guys! It's heading right for you!"

I'll flip over in my Valkyrie to begin chasing it, hoping to box it in.

 

[Epiphany]

Already on a parallel course, Lightning widens out her velocity into an arc to intercept the intruder.

 

[Orikanyo]

"Alex, try and contact this thing if you can, we gotta figure out who the hell these people are! That tech is amazing.. Flew right under our noses without a single blip on our radars..." grumpy thought on this for a moment... this tech could come in useful if they could get their hands on it... But if it were a zentraedi vessel they would've spotted it a mile off... And nobody has said anything about the Robotech master having this.... the Garudians have said nothing, and the Paraxians didn't seem to be ones to be sneaky... He.. can't remember the name of the bear people, but they don't seem to be sneaky types either...

It's not firing any weapons.. maybe it was just examining them... But... What could this thing be...?

"...You think this thing may belong to the folks our friends were looking for? the haydonites?" grumpy asked as he tried his best to keep tabs on this things location.

 

[Sherwood]

With the alarm raised, the Combat Air Patrol fighters are angling over in your direction, and with Lightning and Scorch coming up from behind, and Grumpy, Juryrig and Stinger on the front, the strange ship lets out a bright flash of light that blinds you, and suddenly, your world is filled with pain. Then, darkness as you pass out.


As awareness returns, you find yourselves lying down in a crumpled heap, the echo of the pain you experienced still ringing in your minds. Cracking your eyes open, it you are greeted by natural sunlight shining through the visors on your helmets. As you begin to untangle yourselves from the pile of bodies that you are in, you can see that you are still wearing your CVR-3 armor, and your sidearms are still in their holsters.

Looking about, you see that you are in a small clearing surrounded by heavy tree growth and shrubs. The only other sign of technology is a single cargo crate sitting on the grass a few feet away from you. Other than that, all you can see is that it is a bright day on an unknown world.

What do you do?

 

[Psychie]

With a groan of pain, Amanda tries to push herself to her feet. "Uhng! Oh, my aching head! What the hell happened?" She starts to look around, a measure of fear rising up inside her. In a flash, she draws her Gallant laser pistol, looking for something to vent her fear on. Not seeing any obvious target, she slowly lowers her shaking hands down. "Ohmygodohmydohmygod! Not good! This is not good! Where are we?" Her eyes are still wide, and it won't take much to push her over the edge into full blown panic.

Amanda continues to scan the surroundings, and doesn't let go of her weapon. Almost as an afterthought, she glances down to check the power level on it, making sure that it was fully charged.

 

[Orikanyo]

Grumpy held his head as the world finally stopped spinning, this was a wierd dream, he could swear things were going well for once. Atleast for a little while, oh well, maybe he will wake up soon if he just lays there....

...

.......

...........

Yep, definitly not a dream...

The man rose up from the foliage that was covering him, seeing that he was currently in his CVR-3 armor, only with his dinky flash light pistol and Scorch.

"No offence Scorch.. But when people asked if I was stuck on a desert island and could only take one person, you aren't very high on the list." Grumpy groaned as he began to fully stand, takeing in the world around him.

The man spots the crate, the jungle, Scorch, the jungle, the crate, the... Jungle... "Why are we in a jungle?" Grumpy asked, looking outright confused as he leaned on the crate.

 

[Kwops]

Juryrig looks around for a second, a blank slate of a face, then throws his hands up in the air and starts pacing. "I'm done. Done! SO DONE. Alien abductions, disappearing ships, and now this?!?! I can't take it anymore!" He sticks his arms out in a T-pose and topples backward on to the ground.

 

[Epiphany]

Lieutenant Chen Tseng wakes slowly, shaking off the cobwebs of sleep or drugs or whatever happened to her. The intact seal of her armor is a bit reassuring at least, and helps cut the glare of all that unexpected sun. Her heart momentarily squeezes with the urge to remove her armor and drink in all that beautiful sunlight. It'd been...months? A long time since she'd been out of space. Chen hadn't expected to miss Earth this much but it was practically a compulsion to remove these barriers blocking her from feeling a breeze and the sun's warmth on her skin.

Instead, she assess the clearing and immediately notices the crate. As her squad woke and reacted, Chen searches the undergrowth for activity and finds nothing.

"Storm Dragons," she says at last, drawing their attention to her. "On your feet. Fall in!" She pivots to face them, much as their training sergeant once did when they all went through training. Hopefully the call and reminder to discipline would help master their anxiety, much as her demand for discipline helps Chen to master her own.

"If someone has a chronometer, let's check to see how much time has passed. Lieutenant Kilgore, I want you to try contacting the UEEF by radio. I know what we have is short-range but we might catch someone. Or overhear someone. Grumpy, Juryrig, see to the crate. See if you can determine where it's from, and what's in it, safely. Scorch, Stinger, see to the perimeter for the moment. Feel free to look around but don't get out of sight of this clearing."

"As for me, I'm going to see if I can find some footprints or any indication of who put us here and why. If we end up being here for a while, I'll also see about finding us a water source. I know this isn't what most of you trained for. Veritechs, not vegetation, right? I am trained for this, though, all STORM Commandos are. We'll pull through it. For the moment, you have your orders. I'll be back in 30 minutes. Scorch, you're in charge while I'm gone."

"Now get to it!"

 

[Psychie]

With a shaky nod, Scorch gives out a "Yes, ma'am!" With that, she begins to move out and check the perimeter, looking for any sign of movement or footprints.

 

[Orikanyo]

"Alright, come on Juryrig lets see to the crate..." Grumpy began to snoop around the thing, looking for an opening mechanism or simply a label, then moving to open it.

 

[Sherwood]

With orders given, the squad begins to move out. The first thing that everyone can notice is that there are no footprints in the soft forest ground around you leading up to where you all woke up. It is as if you were dropped into this spot; or, perhaps, teleported.

Alex looks over at Chen. "I'll do what I can with my helmet radio, but I have to tell you, it only has a range of about ten miles. I don't expect to get anyone with it." That being said, he begins to broadcast a general distress signal on as many frequencies as possible.

Juryrig and Grumpy turn to the crate, and discover that it is a standard UEEF shipping container, roughly five foot square. The mechanism to open it is fairly straight forward, and as the side slides open, it reveals a plethora of items.

Six 50 MDC Heavy Duty Arm Shields
Six Field Surgery and First Aid Kits
Six UEEF Survival Packs, each with:
--One Bivouac Bag
--High Intensity Flashlight
--Compass/Inertial Mapper
--Hunting and Fishing Kit
--Saw Wires
--Fire Starter Kit good for one dozen fires
--Survival Knife
--Small Tool Kit
--Four Signal Flares
--50ft Nylon Rope with Climbing Gear
--48 disposable Washcloths with Sanitizing Solution
--Water Purification Tablets enough for twelve gallons of water
--Canteen and Food Bag with a half-gallon of water and ten days of food
Six M-25 Wolverine Assault Rifles, each with:
--Two magazine of 48 SDC rounds
--Three magazines of 48 SLAP MDC rounds
--Four Fragmentary Grenades
Eighteen Smoke Grenades
Eighteen D-30 Cobalt Grenades
Eighteen D-40 Cobalt Limpet Mines
Six Rifle Attachments for the Gallant H-90, each with:
--Two Rifle Energy Clips for the Gallant

The Survival Packs are the same ones that come standard in your Valkyries, and a quick examination of the weapons show that they are all in excellent condition and are ready to be used. It is clear that whatever force that put you here intends on making sure you all have a fighting chance to stay alive, with a survival pack and weapons for each of you.

While Amanda and Ty examine the perimeter of the clearing, you can see that there are a few small trails cut into the undergrowth, and from your wilderness survival training, you are certain that this is caused by local animals moving through here, so you know that there is wildlife to contend with as possible predators or food sources.

There is one thing that everyone is able to see that is different about your CVR-3 armor. There is a small display on your right forearm that is some kind of digital map, using the familiar UEEF markings that you are all used to. This display shows four navigation points marked out, three of which are fairly close to you. The other markers seem to be locater beacons. There are two clusters of these beacons, one is centered in the map that you believe to be you guys, with a larger cluster almost on top of one of the four navigation points. Other than those clusters of beacons, there are two individual ones roughly a few miles away.

With the perimeter searched with no results, everyone is gathering at the shipping container. As people walk up, Alex suddenly says, "Hey! I got a Capt. Wilson on the line! He says that he's a part of the radar crew of the Raven that went missing last week. He's been stranded here for days, and wants to meet up with us. He also says that there is a bunch of Invid on this planet, and to watch ourselves carefully. Do we want to meet this guy? I'm guessing that we do."

 

[Psychie]

Amanda comes back to the center of the clearing to report in, and she seems to be somewhat calmer. "There are some animal trails out there, so there is some wildlife. We'll need to keep watch if we are here at night. Which it looks like we will be." She looks at the open cargo container and gives out a sigh of relief. "Well, at least we have some supplies and water so we won't starve for a while." Reaching in, she snags up one of the Wolverines and hefts it with a wry smile. "I don't know if I should be happy to see the guns, or worried."

When she hears that there is another castaway out there, somewhere, Amanda's head perks up. "More people from our ship? Oh, from the Raven. Yeah, that makes some sense, I guess. And he says there are Invid out here. Great. I guess we'll be needing these guns after all." With that, she slaps into it a MDC magazine and begins to load the grenade launcher. As she does so, she looks about. "We have to meet up with the Captain, for intel on what the hell is going on here if nothing else. Hopefully he'll have some answers for us."

 

[Orikanyo]

"hmm... This looks like pretty good survival gear..." grumpy looked over the stuff, fiddling with the gear. "Enough to keep us alive... whoever sent us here really wanted us prepared... Maybe this is a game to them? Or maybe...." he grumbled more, picking up a rifle and testing the sights, getting them to what he liked. "Heres hoping we find plants and animals that are edible around, in case we're here for much longer.... Nonperishable foods should go last of course, but if we can tag something and find it's edible atleast we'll get something outta this..."

"Then... the lights what took them took us as well, we should meet with this captain, figure out our plan of action... Invids... God knows we've yet to come against em... Remember hearing something about their eye parts being weak from the reports the zentraedi gave us.. Bless their big hearts."