Project Icarus: Aces High

[BoxBob³]

January 27th, Sol System, high orbit around Earth, 600,000 meters above Earth, 0255

The R.E.F.I.R.E. had been forced into a orbit, orders coming explicitly from a Dr. Gervaino who had shoved easily a phone-books' worth of papers involving transfers of command, immediate reassignments, and non-disclosure agreements, already authorized to be in effect without even so much as a signature from any of the R.E.F.I.R.E.'s crew. In fact, the only information that the elderly scientist had given the captain was to ready several docks for Atlas and Titan class mechas, along with several extra Atlas hangars, one to receive any non-space faring Titans, and the others for various shipments. All other mecha's and non-essential cargo was to be jettisoned, and a total of forty pilot quarters readied for immediate occupation, along with roughly five-hundred quarters for special ground forces. All filed under a "Project Icarus Class-00 confidentiality until further notice".

Probably the most directly invasive thing to this however though, was the presence of the good doctor on the ship bridge, dictating things very strictly, in a wispy voice. "Rotate seven degrees solar north, the eclipse will reach us soon. Disable collision lights, and remove all tracking signals, authorization code seven, F, two, two. Send a radio broadcast limited to one-hundred meters away from the ship, use the card's programming. Code: Athens. Direct pilots to suitable landing bays. Ask for authorization code and callsign. Answer no questions, do not respond to any other incoming transmissions. Authorization codes and voice identification will be matched by the card." The Captain of Refire hesitate for a second, but then proceeded to carry out the orders.

That was probably the extent of things they had been told to what they were actually doing here though, the doctor not even looking at those he was instructing, watching the sun, and checking a watch occasionally, not bothering to directly address any of the personnel he was even instructing. Instead, he seemed wholly content to just wait for what he was expecting. Brief orders was given down the chain of command from the Captain, and green lights was sent back.

He didn't even show any signs of surprise or satisfaction as the first calls for approaching signals rolled in, before the moon crossed over the path of the sun, plunging them into the dark.

REASSIGNMENT: PRIORITY 0, INSTRUCTIONS ENCLOSED TO BE COMPLETED IMMEDIATELY.
Pilot, you are hereby reassigned, all commanding officers have already been informed to expedite your reporting in four hours to coordinates 08842331456, altitude 600,000. If your suit is unable to complete this flight without assistance, report to 08842334531, S.L.I.N.G. orbital launch will be initiated. Use enclosed codes to pass orbital radio checks. Final codes for use once at location will unlock in 3 hours and 58 minutes. Failure to comply will result in immediate civilianalization and removal from the J.E.F. Pilot division. Do not engage in radio contact with any other pilots while en route, you will be contacted once at the destination at 0300 hours.​

- J.E.F. High Command​

 

[Captain Wumbo]

January 27th, 2496
Nico Cario

Nico stood in front of his barrack door with his bags as he readied himself for travel. He would be leaving his friends at the Academy and make his way to the R.E.F.I.R.E. up in orbit. He had received the message about 20 minutes ago and in his excitement ran to him room and grabbed his clothes and his chain. Nico was aware that he only had about 3 hours and 30 minutes left before he had to get into orbit and make his way to the R.E.F.I.R.E. But he was nervous and excited at the same time, he had trained for his whole life, but he was now going to go into combat and fight against an army that was stronger than J.E.F its self. Fortunately, Nico was not alone, there would be others like him, others who were being assigned to the same place he would be. He could only assume that they would be feeling that same thing that he was feeling, and that encouraged him for some reason. Nico sighed and walked away from his room door and said hi goodbyes to fellow cadets as he walked by, some congratulated and patted him on the back, some just gave him a simple good luck. Nico thanked them as he went by and eventually made his way into the locker room. He walked up to his locker and inputted its code, the metal door opened up and reveled his S.P.S. Nico then changed into the white suit and placed his clothes and bag into the locker. With his helmet in hand he walked out of the locker and mage his way into the hanger.

He walked into the hanger and strolled past many mech's, some Atlas some Titan, all unique in there own ways, which fascinated him. These were the machines that saved and killed humanity throughout history, and it was the same machine he was about to climb into and blast into space with. Nico made his way outside the hanger were his personal mech, the Righteous Indignation, was placed. It was placed on the launch pad and was ready to go thanks to the bases mechanics, they had probably received some orders from the chain of command to do so. Nico was grateful for there help, he would have to thank them if he ever saw them again. Nico walked up the steps and onto the large, white, circular launch pad and looked up at RI, it was tall enough to block sun from his view. Nico grabbed the ladder that led up into the cockpit and climbed inside. The inside was his favorite part, it was small but beautiful. In the middle of the cockpit was a brown seat with controls and small screens on the armrests and sides, and in front of the seat what a holographic projector and navigation system. The rest of the cockpit was just a black sphere, Nico stepped into the cockpit and took a seat, he took a deep breath and started up the mech. The hum of the machines core was drowned out by the womanly mechanical voice that always spoke to him when the mech was started up.

"Welcome, Nico Cario, all systems are calibrated for orbit and is ready to go." The voice said as the cockpit changed from its black background into the beautiful scenery outside that he had seen a few seconds before. The cockpit enclosed and a notification showed up in front of his face, the notification told him that is was about to launch.

"Lets get this started." he said to himself confidently as he put his helmet on and the womanly voice spoke once again.

"5...4...3...2...1...0, LAUNCH." The mech shook and shuddered as the it shoot into the air. The mech flew through the air, speeding up as it ascended, in a matter of seconds the mech broke through the atmosphere and into to the silence of space.

"Thrusters know minimizing output." the mechanical voice said to Nico.

Nico used the orbital codes that was provided by the J.E.F and turned his sights to the navigation system. On the system, it indicated to him were the R.E.F.I.R.E. was orbiting, Nico checked the time, he had about 2 hours before the final codes were unlocked and given to the pilots.

"Well, guess I will have to wait." he said solemnly, as he crossed his arms and began to wait. He thought about what would be waiting for him on the R.E.F.I.R.E. He could not ask questions, nor could he indulge in radio contact with other pilots, what the hell was going on?

 

[Rax Rosetta]

Undisclosed Operations Facility : Gerard S. Cain​

Gerard was doing routine cleaning on his Titan Pilot Combat Suit (TPCS), which did aesthetically differ from the kind that was standard issue to other Titan pilots. It functioned precisely the same, did nothing better or worse in the protection field then the standard issue. He just liked how it looked over the other design, though that hardly meant he didn't like the standard issue's design at all, it was charming in its own right. When his orders came down the line, he found it odd that there was no station, ship, or Gaia class tagged along with the coordinates given. Strange, considering that he was probably piloting one of the least space worthy Titan designs in recent memory. But he would be reviewing those flaws later, while in transit, right now he needed to suit up. It took approximately fifteen minutes after orders arrival to suit up and get out the door, nodding briskly to the sparce few personnel wandering the barracks at the time. Taking up a brisk jog, he had places to be, new command staff to meet, and a war to win. It wasn't cocky or a braggart mentality, it was either win the conflict, or die. And he would much rather not be dying anytime soon without a damn good reason.

Arriving at the MECHA storage building, it didn't take long to get to his own personal Titan. The building layout had the smaller units first, while longer, more drawn out to prepare Titan and Atlas class units were farther back. It facilitated a fast first response team of Titans and a small handful of Atlas class, who would act and hold the line until heavier service units arrived on scene to deal with whatever situation the first responders were handling, if that was necessary at all. So one of the first stations was his own Titan, the Atreidies Mk I. A humble, mechanically simple model of Titan, it was that very simplicity that let it act as well as it did. No fancy experimental tech, no high end energy weapons or unnecessary accessories. Just armor, the necessary power and locomotive forces, and its ballistic weapons. There was very little to go wrong with the design, which was why Gerard still piloted the aging Titan design, it was reliable. Each weapon used isolated, boxed ammo supplies to limit foreign contamination and, through that, jamming. Its glaring flaw was its absolutely horrid Zero G operations capabilities. Unless he had a platform to walk on, magnetized braces making that operation possible with little impact on speed, he was basically adrift in space without the operational thrusters attached during S.L.I.N.G operations or prior to deployment. And even then, that wasn't a pretty sight.

Gerard hauled himself up and into the Mk. I with little ceremony, clambering into the compact cockpit and settling into the seat, strapping in and hooking up to the internal O2 generator, and as he started up the Titan class, O2 would be charged to his armor's oxygen reserves. Just in case, hell, he rarely operated in space with a pressurized cabin, utilizing that very same O2 charging system to keep him breathing in the suit. No explosive discharges of air to throw him off balance if a breach occurred. Which would be how he was going to operate, securing the helmet and watching the console light up, and he grabbed the joy sticks on each arm rest, turning and controlling view and aim via the left, locomotive action with the right. Other relevant information was plastered via monitors across the front of the cockpit, while avoiding an obstructed view. It was an old design, no data streams across the helmet view or elegant, narrow data pads or panels. But it wasn't likely the stuff would break, and as he got underway, Gerard was wondering why he was musing on the design and its strengths so much. Probably to defend the thing against whatever his new CO would say about it, no doubt.

Obviously the Atreidies wasnt' going to get space born on its own, so he made all ahead full towards the S.L.I.N.G station coordinates, arriving to undergo Zero G preparation. He had two and a half hours when it was all said and done to be at the coordinates highlighted by the orders, and he had not said a word to any other pilot as per instruction. Not too bad, would be a lot of waiting around for the codes to unlock. He finished preparing the necessary orbital radio codes before his interface lit up, informing Gerard that it was time to launch. Excellent, he settled in and mentally, and physically, braced himself for launch. In his head, he counted it down. "Launch will be in a few seconds now. Ready...steady....mark."

The Atreidies was off in a heartbeat, hurtling into orbit at far too fast for most folks to be comfortable with. Let alone the TPCS and its reduced gravitational force compensation. But this wasn't Gerard's first orbit launch, so as the security radio checks came in, he flipped the switch that would broadcast the appropriate counter signs and signals included in the orders, locking the new coordinates into his navigational system, which had the status of the attached thrusters in place now. Once in place, he began navigating the Atreidies towards the coordinates. Upon arrival, he did a time check. He had an hour twenty eight until the final codes unlocked for use. So he waited, the moment the codes unlocked he would broadcast whatever code was included in the orders, and wait to see what went down from there. Until then, he breathed calmly, relaxing in the cockpit and staring out across the stars and void of space. Time would pass in its own due time, no sense fretting or even worrying too much about it, so he cleared his mind and meditated.

 

[BoxBob³]

Elise-1.27.2496: 0350, blue

Elise thought about the message again as the platform slid her mech into position, feeling the jarring as the platform stopped, and another jolt as it started to rise up instead. As the lights started to flicker to green, she raised the mecha's left arm in front of herself, wiggling 'her' fingers as the interface on each of the joysticks came online, and allowed her to pull them up and over in front of herself, holding up both hands in front of herself, and squeezing to test each finger. As the final jolt of rising rocked the mecha, the G-force cancelling systems came online, stopping the shaking of the reactor against the mecha, the rumbling ceasing, and noise suddenly becoming absent.

Her eyes darted over the inside of her helmet, checking everything mentally, before she reached around, grasping the handle along the spine of the sword, and bringing it around to in front of her. The blade was easily from the waist of the mech to it's head, but the handle helped carrying the sword both in combat, and out of it. With the sword out of the way, the small thruster protrusions, or 'wings' as she liked to consider them, the thrusters hidden underneath flaring to life, and starting to lift her, before she straightened up to start her ascent into space. There wasn't even a gentle shaking where once upon a time pilots would be holding white knuckled to maintain their composure, she didn't even feel a slight unsettling in her stomach.

Suddenly she was free, well, mostly. The feeling of weightlessness kicked in, and so did the comms asking for verification codes. Elise paused for a second, looking over to the message again, and starting to read off the verification codes. There was a overtly long silence afterwards. She started to wonder if she had read the codes off wrong, almost opening her microphone up to say something before confirmation came through, and the channel was closed, leaving her suddenly alone in the cockpit. Suddenly there was a lack of human contact, she enjoyed it partially though, it gave her time to think, before the beeping interrupted it. Her mecha had been drifting off it's destination slightly, causing her to have to readjust, watching the projections starting to line up again, and relaxing again as she approached the destination.

She felt herself drifting through space, cutting the thruster, and looking around, picking out what looked like shapes against the darkness of space, but ignoring them for the most part, not wanting to risk breaking radio silence. Her eyes drifted to the clock, watching the final few seconds of of 0399 roll by, before the hour ticked over to 0400. She almost jumped at the sudden radio contact, and did jump when her mech identified it was coming from only 30 or so meters in the direction she was drifting, suddenly firing her thrusters to gain distance, and not responding to the radio hail for a second. It came through a second time, before she responded.

"Elise Von Seltein, callsign Lawgiver. Code: 482ZK7."

The silence that followed was unnerving, to have been contacted by a mecha hiding in the shadow of a eclipse, and then to have it also with it's anti-collision signals turned off was not normal. What was worse is that the response was rather straightforwards, and no identification on their ends either, just a simple and quick "Proceed to isolation hangar 43A." Even as she started to drift towards the hangar, she felt uneasy, watching the hangar bay doors open.