Wildcards Year 1 Act 1: The Conflagration Starts Here!

[Sketchley]

CG-420 H. Ito - Orbit of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; morning

Captain Daniels had been ordered to take his Stealth Space Cruiser to Nora, in the Williams Star system, to investigate a mayday received from the planet the previous day.

Arriving over the planet, he had ordered his communications officer, Duquesne, to contact the main settlement, Phej, to see if they knew anything about the mayday.

The leader of the main settlement, didn't know nor had heard anything about a mayday. 

Daniels wasn't surprised.  It was a small settlement on a remote planet with little more than a radio and a field for cargo ships to land in.  The mayday had come from a ship via fold communication.

He ordered the crew of the Ito to scan the surface of Nora, looking for anything unusual.  He then headed to his quarters for a break - his experience telling him that he'll need to be well rested if and when the crap hit the fan.


afternoon
After a brief siesta, Daniels ate a light lunch, and started watching the live feed of Vanquish Caesar.  As usual, it's a pretty intense match.  Just when the competition between Tachyon & Express's VF-1X++ and Viswa & Oder's VF-19ACTIVE reaches it's climax, his room's PA speaker begins squawking with Duquesne's voice.

"Captain to the bridge.  We've found something."

"On the way," Daniels said, after leaping to the nearest speaker phone on the wall.  He put on his captain's hat, does the Picard Manoeuvre, and leaves his quarters, cursing under his breath about the timing.

[Sketchley]

CG-420 H. Ito - Orbit of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon

Captain Daniels strides purposefully onto the bridge.  "What is it?" he barks, directing his question to no one in particular.

The radar operator, Vista, turns to look at the captain with a serious expression.  "On the overhead monitors, sir.  Crash site."

The overhead monitors display a live feed from the ship's belly cameras of a patch of jungle, with a couple of long, thin scorched areas, full of toppled trees, large pieces of space ship, and with a few spots still smoldering.

"Where did you find it?" asks Daniels.

"On the other side of the planet," replies Vista.  "Opposite of Phej," she hurriedly adds to clarify.

Captain Daniels squints as he carefully scrutinizes the images on the monitors.  "Looks like they were coming in at a low angle - possibly attempting to land - and their ship broke up just before touchdown..."

Daniels strokes his chin absentmindedly with his right hand.  "... if anyone bailed out before landing... there's a possibility they survived."

The captain asks the communications officer, "Duquesne, any emergency channel activity?"

"Negative, sir", she promptly replies.  "But it might just be that we're out of range."

The captain grunts his understanding.  "Caine, Get me Major Stonewall and 3 of his best pilots in their briefing room ASAP."

"Roger," the ship-board systems operator responds, and immediately begins paging Major Stonewall.

Daniels looks toward his communications and radar operators, "Duquesne and Vista, I want all the data you've got on the crash site, the mayday and the colony response to our enquiries ready by the time I get to the Wildcards' briefing room."

He then glances at the helmsman, "Delko, plot a course that'll keep us in the best position over that crash site for launch and recovery ops.  You have the bridge."

"Righty-oh," replies Delko as he starts entering commands into his console.

Daniels exits the bridge, heading toward the briefing room.

[Sketchley]

CG-420 H. Ito - Orbit of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon

Captain Daniels turns a corner in a hallway and meets Major Stonewall, who is also heading toward the Wildcard's briefing room.

Daniels speaks first, "Ah, Major Stonewall, time to earn your pay."

Stonewall grunts affirmatively and nods.

Daniels, "Did I ever tell you why I picked you as the "ace pilot" leader of my "elite" squadron?"

Stonewall looks at Daniels with an odd expression, as he shakes his head horizontally, saying, "uhn-uh".

Daniels leans slightly toward Stonewall as they walk, and whispers, "'cuz of your... uneven background."

Stonewall scowls.

Daniels's posture returns to normal as they continue walking and he smiles smugly.  "My choice is gonna pay off now, as this mission's right up you and your colourful squadron's alley."

Stonewall's scowl becomes slightly quizzical.  He briefly glances sideways at Daniels, before reverting to staring straight ahead.  "Don't mention me background in front of the newbies, mate," he flatly says.

Captain Daniels smiles mischievously and nods, "Don't smeg up."

Stonewall snorts a laugh as the left side of his mouth curls into a smile.  "Touché."

[Sketchley]

CG-420 H. Ito - Orbit of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon

Commodore Daniels leads Major Stonewall into the Wildcards' briefing room.  Already seated in the room are Roben "Ro" Janos, Safron "Wilde" Jacques-Burton and William "Wolfie" Archer.

Daniels slumps his shoulders almost imperceptibly when he sees Stonewall's pilot choices.  Stonewall picks up on the captain's minute reaction, and the edge of his mouth curls into a faint smile.

Daniels heads to the console to one side of the rear of the room, and Stonewall sits in one of the chairs in the front room.

The large screen at the front of the cramped room activates and what amounts to a satellite image of the crash site appears.  The image alternates between visible light and infrared; with the main difference being hot spots that show up as the source of smoke in infrared and one of the larger pieces of the ship ruins glows white hot - indicative of a continuing fire.

Daniels summarizes the information gathered so far - which isn't very much.  He continues, "Wildcards, your primary objective is to rescue survivors and your secondary objective is to find out why that ship went down and the recovery of the black boxes.  We aren't expecting an attack, so the engine nacelle pallets will be exchanged for cargo containers to facilitate recovery operations.  Major."

Daniels leans back on the chair at his console as Stonewall stands with his arms clasped behind his back.  He looks at the satellite images for a long moment before addressing the team.

"Wildcards, just because we aren't expecting to be shot at doesn't mean we can let our guard down.  If anything, this will be as hairy as any combat mission."  The major looks each of the three pilots in the eyes.

"Wolfie, your job is to scan for survivors and document the area.  Ro, you and I will search the wreckage."

Stonewall stops and looks at Safron.  "Wilde, dear, I've got an extra special job for you.  Something that'll put your name right at the top of the report and will be a good entry on your resume."  Stonewall pauses long enough to confirm that he's got Safron's undivided attention.  "Recover the black boxes, hon."

Stonewall returns to his authoritative mode, "any questions?"

[Jet Jockey]

Something about Stonewall's tone got Saffron riled up.  "Hon"  It felt belittling to her.   

"May-jour I believe using that term in front of me could be consider sexual harassment.  Not to mention racist.  We like to call them flight data recorders.   I'll reover 'em."   Then with a wide grin she adds, "I'd help you with the other kind but I don't have that may black friends.  It just wouldn't feel right to hook you up with 'em.

[MasumiX]

  "this will be as hairy as any combat mission." 

  "Words to live by..." Roben mumbled to herself as much as anybody else.  She fingered the prosthetic surface of her left arm, thumbing the tabs that would photo-imprint the Satellite feed to her hard-memory.  She knew she would have a copy of the most up to date image before their decent in her fighter.  It never cost her dime to be cautious tho.

   " Ro, you and I will search the wreckage."  aye Sir  Roben sub-vocalized while nodding her head.  There was something about Stonewall; almost like she knew him in another life.... maybe she had. She scratched at her scalp momentarily, as if that action would somehow loosen the locked up memories.
   
   Okay, so fire means we have an atmosphere, oxygen at the least....wait..

 "uh, who's ship is it anyway, do we have a crew and passenger roster? What was the cargo contents, mass of the ship and scheduled destination?"  Roben tried to get a word in sideways, before Wilde got her panties in a twist, or rather, tried to get Stonewalls in a twist.

   It just wouldn't feel right to hook you up with 'em.   Roben chuckled at the implication, letting  a small grin dart across her mouth.

[Sketchley]

CG-420 H. Ito - Orbit of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon

"May-jour I believe using that term in front of me could be consider sexual harassment.  Not to mention racist.  We like to call them flight data recorders.   I'll reover 'em."

Stonewall cracks a grin and snorts a laugh at Jacques-Burton's response.  He then quickly does his best 'I'm pretending to be serious but this whole situation makes me want to laugh' face.

"I'd help you with the other kind but I don't have that may black friends.  It just wouldn't feel right to hook you up with 'em."

Stonewall feigns disappointment and bats his eyes in an attempt to squeeze tears out of them.  "Next you're going to say that you hate Zentraadi.  Oh honey, don't let your fan-site know that you're biased against skin colour!"


"Uh, who's ship is it anyway, do we have a crew and passenger roster?  What was the cargo contents, mass of the ship and scheduled destination?"

Daniels glances sidelong at Stonewall with an exasperated expression as the Major is apparently more interested in his showgirl pilot than he is in the mission and the rest of his team.

The captain presses a few keys on the console before he answers.  "It's unclear who's ship it is.  All that is clear is that the mayday was on one of the frequencies that locals to Sector M45-3 commonly use for emergencies.  As the transmission cut out before the operator finished saying the third mayday, we have little else to go on.

None of the transport agencies in the sector have issued a ship-overdue bulletin.  Which implies that it's a non-scheduled transport."

The captain looks at his watch.  "It been less than 24 hours since the mayday was issued... so that's another indication that it's most likely a non-scheduled transport.  The size of the debris field also indicates that it's a small to medium sized transport vessel...

Hopefully during your search for survivors and the recovery of the FDR and CVR, the Wildcards will be able to identify the vessel."

[Jet Jockey]

Saffron starts to getting ready with her standard pre-mission ritual.  First step peeling off her right and left trigger finger's Lee Press-on Nails.  If they only knew the sacrifices that she makes for them.

[MasumiX]

  "...so in others words they were doing something illegal or unregistered as part of the sector." Ro mumbles to herself, glancing down at her own fingernails. Short cut and cracked in places from her rounds of boxing practice the night before. Shrugging she stands up and stretches.

  "A simple recon and recovery what could go wrong."  She smiles at Stonewall.

[Halley]

"Wolfie, your job is to scan for survivors and document the area."

"Yes Sir. Do we have detected anything that could hinge our progress, like bad weather, ion storm, gravity fluctuation or atmospheric perturbation?"

OOC: Sorry for the short post, working on the character's background and christmas is near

[Sketchley]

CG-420 H. Ito - Orbit of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon

"...so in others words they were doing something illegal or unregistered as part of the sector."

"Not necessarily," replies Captain Daniels.  "But it is a possibility."

"A simple recon and recovery what could go wrong."

When Janos smiles at Stonewall, he catches her eye and shrugs.  Glancing sidelong at Jacques-Burton, he asides, "someone could break a nail or something really nasty like that."

"Yes Sir. Do we have detected anything that could hinge our progress, like bad weather, ion storm, gravity fluctuation or atmospheric perturbation?"

"Ion storm?", the Captain repeats, as he scrunches his eyebrows and thinks.

"Ah!"  His face changes from the scowl to an eureka expression.  "You mean an ICME!"  Captain Daniels adopts the classic thinking pose.  "Hmm... nope."  He steadies his gaze on Archer.  "No ICME, atmospheric perturbations or gravity fluctuations.  Weather... well, the satellite images indicate a clear sky and little to no surface wind.  However, there may be wind shear and micro-bursts."

Daniels gives a smile indicating that he doesn't know anything else, and it's not likely that even the locals can provide a weather forecast for the remote area the crash took place in.


* * *

Surface of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon
The Wildcards uneventfully launch and perform reentry.

Nearing the crash site, it's immediately clear that it's a large area.  Perhaps 300 m at the widest, and 1,500 to 2,000 m long.  However, first impressions are that it's the debris from a small ship spread widely.

Stonewall radios, "looks like it came apart in the air... not surprising if it was an uncontrolled reentry... but why so compa..."  Stonewall catches his thinking aloud mid-sentence.  "Sah..." he quickly adds.  "Time to earn our pay."

Raven changes to GERWALK, slows and breaks right.  "Janos, let's start by looking for the four corners."

[MasumiX]

?   Following suit Ro shifts into gerwalk, quickly using the VFs magnification optic systems to take a quick peek at the largest sections of the debris.

    "Yes Boss, Always start a puzzle at its edges as my Dad used to say..."  She scunched her nose up, where the hell did that come from...   "if the craft came apart during entry its likely that the fore of the craft will be at the beginning of the debris field..."   Ro pulls up some data and physical surface scans to figure out the relative trajectory of the ship prior to distribution.  afterwards she secretly tweeks open her cybernet connection trying to pickup any signal that might make it this remote. if I can jump on the public system, I might be able to scope out some info from the private nets that will help... if they didn't know what they were looking for, they might have overlooked it.

[Jet Jockey]

With a flick of the 'G' lever Saffron's VF-171 spouts legs.   She reduces her speed and falls back to a rear guard position.   One eye on her radar and the on the horizon in case someone is gonna bushwhack them.

[Sketchley]

Surface of Nora, Williams Star
2061.09.02; afternoon

Jacques-Burton doesn't spot anything on radar as she slows and hovers in the rear.

"if the craft came apart during entry its likely that the fore of the craft will be at the beginning of the debris field..."

"Depends on how it came apart...", Raven mumbles, as he continues visually scanning the crash.  He notes that both Archer and Jacques-Burton are basically hovering and doing nothing.

"Oy!" he barks over the radio.  "Safron, black box!  Archer, help her track the signal while you scan for survivors!"

"Ah... right, boss," promptly comes Archer's response as he busies himself with checking for the black boxes' transponder signals.

Almost immediately he detects a signal.  "Safron, there's one in grid B-4.  Looks like it's near the central plume, there."


Janos surface scans indicate that the land is relatively flat.  Perhaps a flood plane for the river that runs through the area to the North-West.  Without knowing the rough weight and aerodynamic shape of the original vehicle, as well as the pieces that it broke into, it's hard to determine the exact trajectory, but she conjures up a rough range:
- if the ship was small, it came in low and fast, breaking apart a few hundred meters above the ground.
- if the ship was large, it came in fast and steep, breaking apart a few thousands meters above the ground.

As Janos doesn't have a fold-wave communication system built into either her own body or her VF-171, she can only access the ship's network.  It asks her if she wants to use the shipboard fold-wave communication system to access the public system.  She knows that if she does that, anyone monitoring communications on the ship and the receiver will be aware of her actions, but beyond that, if she uses the right techniques, she should be able to stay anonymous on the public system and possibly hack into some private systems.



Maps: http://studiootaking.deviantart.com/art/JungleFire01-276185159

[MasumiX]

  Tempted, but not enough to try it yet, Ro switches off the communications internally.  She scans the surface again, looking up to the comm when the block box is detected. She squints her eyes trying to visualize the area on the ground. its pretty plain here, I don't anything that might lead to a trap.... need to gather more intel.

   "Sir, permission to fly a low level circumference sweep."  Ro stays hovering in place, but slowely cycles her craft so she can keep an eye on Saffron as she moves towards a black box retrieval. Gun pod at the ready.

  if given permission Ro will drop down to 10-20 feet off the ground (or as close and safe as terrain/debris allows) and begin a slow counter clock wise tour around the edge of the smoke cloud, fast enough to cover the distance in 10-15 minutes or less