Week 6 Rescue Mission - You shouldn't try and drink a Da'uhnb under the table

They were brave EEF soldiers but none of them had been on TV before. Hell for most of them they had only learned about holonet TV since coming to space. So Cpl. Leroy Jenkins had an idea. Hit the Beer tent before the game started and the drink a little bit. They weren’t on combat duty after all. And Leroy pitied the fool who would pass up a beer on an alien planet.
So even General Giffords would not be shown up by this aggressive Corpral, and they walked past the many aliens who filled the beer tent. There were Ydyara reporters from Yd Ev Nar in one corner swilling beer and popcorn. You could see the little bits of food entering their mouth and dissolving inside them.
The EEF soldiers walked past a table that had a trio of Horned Dog Cultists who gave them dirty looks.
General Giffords was suddenly happy he had ignored his first instinct to order the men to go on their own. He was sure those Horned Dogs would start a brawl. If not Leroy Jenkins would certainly do so.
The General leaned into Mitchell Jeffers and said, “Cpt. Jeffers your standing orders is to prevent those Horned Dogs and Jenkins from making an international incident out of this.”
“Sir? With all due Respect, How do I do that?” asked Jeffers, and he had been involved in some of the most dangerous fleet actions of the war.
“How about a distraction?” asked the General, seeing a Da’uhnb he recognized from the battle of Unity Core.
“Faro, Faro Macintosh, is that you, you old dinosaur,” said the General with a genuine smile.
The Da’uhnb extended his clawed hand and deftly shook the General’s hand without cutting it up. A true sign of Da’uhnb friendship, Faro had explained on their last mission together.
“General, with all do respect, who is this blue reptile?” asked Cpl. Jenkins sitting at the stool next to the General.
“You are a lucky man, Jenkins,” said General Giffords, “This is Faro Macintosh, a Da’uhnb hero of the war against the Unity. Back when the Universe knew who the good guys and the bad guys were.”
“I hear that,” growled the Da’uhnb, “Back then I was a hero, now Im running for my life.”
“What the heck you talking about? If you need Faro, I’ll talk to your CO, put in a good word with Field Marshall Strykker and have him contact your CO?” said General Giffords.
“Naw I can handle it Adam,” the Da’uhnb replied motioning to the Mekanoid behind the bar serving drinks, “Hey can I get a pint for my boys in uniform over here. Adam your men will love this stuff. Best beer within 1,000 years.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” said Jeffers as he looked down at the Mug of brown beer with obvious sediment in it.
General Giffords worried for his former ally, “What crime did you commit?”
“Tricked a spoiled brat of an I.R. aristocrat’s daughter into joining the Horned Dog Cult two years earlier than she originally did,” said Faro, “But orders were orders, and Grand Admiral Sessoren Thei’Gann is not a man to try and mutiny against.”
“Did you think the orders were wrong?” asked General Giffords.
“The alternative was worse,” said the Da’uhnb as he downed another mug of beer in one gulp, and order another, “Adam tell your little corporal to cool his heels, Im not a reptile, Im not cold blooded. We may be reptiliod in form to your eyes… “
“What is this fool talking about, Leroy Jenkins thinks this fool already drank too much,” said Jenkins as he downed his beer.
“You couldn’t keep up with me if you wanted to,” the Da’uhnb with a snarl.
“Faro ignore him,” said General Giffords.
“No, this squishy human offended me,” said the Da’uhnb as he rose up to his full seven feet of height, “He challenges me.”
“I could drink any lizard under the table,” said Leroy Jenkins with false pride.
“I’ll pay if you can drink it,” said Faro as he motioned for the Robot to bring over shots of a bubbling green liquid, “Before you ask its rare Djinni liquor called Green Smoke. If you can go drink for drink of this, then I’ll defer to you human.”
General Giffords raised a calming hand, “We can’t go round for round with you Faro, we have to judge the match in a few minutes.”
The Da’uhnb swayed on his feet a little and smiled a toothy grin, “You can watch it on the Holovid here. Then you report at the end. Me and Jenkins have some drinking to do.”
Eight hours later, Giffords and Jeffers were falling asleep watching the Da’uhnb and Jenkins pound drinks one after another. By fourteen hours, Jeffers was on watch and Giffords was asleep leaning on the bar.
“Who ever thought a twenty four hour match was a good idea was silly,” muttered Jeffers under his breath as he had another beer. Finally by eighteen hours of match he was personally past twenty four hours awake. He succumbed right as he saw Jenkins lift a final drink to his lips and pass out smaking his head on the bar.
The following morning they woke up in the empty beer tent.
Faro was standing over them, “You guys missed your time to judge.”
“What happened?” asked Giffords.
“The only problem with Green Smoke is the alcholol is slowly vapourizing. By the time we hit the third hour everyone in this tent had inhaled at least ten drinks worth of fumes coming off the drink,” said the Da’uhnb, “I assumed you guys knew that.”
Gifford grabbed the front of the Da’uhnb’s tunic pulling him closer, “You have to time shred us back so we can be part of the final ceremony. The Field Marshall with have my commission for this.”
“I’ll fix it,” said the Da’uhnb and they all disappeared in a flash of light.
However instead of ending up on the same planet a few hours before, they appeared on a battlefield on an unknown planet.
Tracer fire streaked overhead.
“Where the hell are we?” asked Giffords.
Faro turned to answer when a .50 Cal sniper round went right through his chest and dropped the Da’uhnb with a single shot.

Giffords looked out across the alien battlefield, and really hoped he survive long enough for the reaming Field Marshall Styrkker would give him. He activated his emergency homing beacon.
--
Three EEF soldiers are trapped on a planet in Free Systems space, where the Da’uhnb Queen Army and its Earther allies are fighting against the Da’uhnb soldiers of GAST and their menagerie of allied aliens.

The planet is protected by both sides orbital guns (10 batteries each) which will destroy any Capital Ships (light and above) who arrive in orbit above the planet.

There are two armies of 2,000 Da’uhnb and 10,000 Earthers in brawl.

EEF mission is to safely extract their three soldiers from the heart of the battle.

This mission is open to All Players.

Post your plan to this mission on either the defenders or attacker's side here on this thread only. First person to post gets a single extra repost later to launch secret attacks, ambushes etc. All other players get one post only. This thread will be locked at 11pm E.S.T. on Friday June 10th. Only actions listed on this mission thread will count as locked in for player actions.

You are encouraged to set up threads in your own factions to discuss this matter.

Jeremiah Strykker looked at the growing pile of paperwork and reports and requests on his desk and wondered for the hundredth time where the hell his aide Jeffers was. Jeremiah was not a man made for paperwork. Mitchell Jeffers on the other hand had a mind for details and could handle the most complex bureaucracy like most people tied their shoes. Jeffers had become an integral part of Jeremiah's office by handling most of the day in and day out drudgery which left Jeremiah free to actually run the damn EEF. Almost the hour Jeffers had set off the flow of work out of the office had begun to slow. Still sending him and Giffords had been a good idea. At least it would have been had they actually shown up. What rankled even more was that everyone seemed to assume that the EEF judges had simply blown off the event but Jeremiah knew that Giffords and Jeffers wouldn't do that, maybe Leroy Jenkins, he was a good man in a fight but not exactly the most stable member of the EEF. Still he followed orders so something must have gone wrong. They'd been out of contact for over a day but the Wren, the gunship that had carried them to Haephestom was still in orbit. So whatever it was happened on the surface. His mind started working out some disturbing possibilities when his door banged open and Captain Park rushed in throwing up a salute.
"Sir we've found General Giffords! His emergency beacon just went off."
"His emergency beacon?" Jeremiah frowned "Have the Wren make a combat drop on his position hopefully the others are still with him. We need them back here so I can have them shot for making us look like idiots." Jeremiah grinned at the joke but saw that Park didn't.
"Sir they aren't on Haephestom anymore. We're picking up the Generals FTL beacon. They're well, at least he is in the Free Systems." He said handing a Ft. Lindell produced data pad over. Jeremaih scanned the information there and looked back up at Park.
"How the hell.. No it doesn't matter right now we need to move. Have four specter gunships go now. They should be able to slip past the orbital guns easily enough. One can land for pick up after establishing radio contact while the others fly cover. Make sure that each of them has a leyas generator and an anchored energy bridge on board in case we need to send in back up." Park saluted again and hurried form the room.

In the silence of space, a fleet of Arcturus Warships and various fighters drifted within sight of the planet, yet they held there position as they approached the full range of the its defenses. The capitol ships would go no further and instead deploy their fighter escorts to continue the path to the battlefield. One hundred and fifty Sagitae and one hundred and one Jotun fighters streamed down in line formation to conceal their exact numbers for as long as possible. The Sagitae went directly into conflict and secured the air space above the Earther forces loyal to the Queen. The Jotuns stopped to deliver the payload of one hundred and one co-pilots.

Roughly fifty of them were Beacon City Recognized with shield in hand. They scattered to all manner of positions and began to work vigorously as they shaped raw matter into spheres of metal. Several of the other pilots were clearly setting up what appeared to be Unity technology.

meanwhile...

Shots continued to fire as General Adam Giffords and Captian Mitchell Jeffers forced Corpral Leroy Jenkins to take cover. Apparently this was not an automatic response from the Corpral when under gunfire. The three unarmed men tried to think of a plan to evade the fire fight but five other aliens had already surrounded their position. Yet, before Leroy Jenkins could say "Leroy Jenkins", the five rebels were shot through the head. Then, from the backside of the mound crept up General Garmin Fe and a small squad of Recognized and Nano-Fusion Sages. The look on their faces was that of puzzlement. Was he time-shredded here as well?

"Ah, I'm surprised to see the three of you here. I don't suppose you are here on purpose? Anyway, doesn't matter now. We have secured the field of battle up to this point. You can make your way back to Operations in that direction, though I can't say for how long any of our holdings will be secure. The enemy forces can easily slip past most of our checkpoints if they wanted to. I don't suppose you could instead make yourselves useful?"

Garmin wasn't sure about the General and the Captain, but the way the Corpral gazed longingly at the RPG held in the hands of one the sages gave him a clue.

"Soldier", Said Garmin.

"Yes General", said the Sage.

"Give him your weapon. I'm sure he'll make better use of it then you will."

Receiving the launcher filled Leroy with glee, but then he looked longingly again to the soldier to the right of Garmin. Garmin glanced over. He motioned for the pilot to hand over his chain gun. For a moment the pilot resisted.

"Look soldier," said Garmin, "you see the look in his eye? That's called crazy! He's got it and you don't. Give him the gun and all your rounds, and your rifle too for that matter."

Feeling at least the desire to be armed, Adam and Mitchell looted the dead aliens for sidearms. The Ganeral Garmin Fe turned to one of his men. "Get the message to the Queen. Let her know that we've secured the first checkpoints and that I'm ready to begin my operations."

Leroy viewed the air combat and said, "Damn pansy air battles!"

But Jeffers knew better. The Sagitae were keeping a safe distance from the fight and at no point exposed a flank that couldn't be covered by an assisting ally. Whatever the reason, the air battle was a ruse. He noticed the Recognized set up field-lite platforms. "You plan on sweeping the battle with those Jotun energy lances, or perhaps take out those defensive platforms and bring the whole fleet in?"

Turning his attention back to the EEF soldiers, "Negative, that is just a ruse like the air combat."

Just at that moment they all felt the ground shift a little. "What was that?", asked General Giffords.

Garmin Fe glanced over with a smile, "I'll tell you, but only if you tell me how you would have voted in the Hephaestom battle."

[The fleet of 7 Arcturus will be supported by 50 Sagitea and will stay outside of orbit. The 150 Sagitea in the battle will secure the air space and keep from getting shot down or captured. Once the field-lites are set up, sweeping strikes of energy lances will draw the attention of the rebel forces, forcing them to engage them. The Sagitea will expect this. So will the 100 or so Nephilim riders we deployed via Unity Satilite. Earthmancers will tunnel the underground to key checkpoints in the battlefield and assist to surprise the enemy forces along with wargiants. The 50 Nano-Fusion Sage co-pilots deployed early on will take sniping positions and cover the Recognized who are busy at work. Each one will have a zela metal round to deploy against priority targets or energy bridges from opposing forces.]

A squad of 10 catskinners with missile launchers in all open slots, rendezvous with the EEF specter gunships en-route. A message comes across the com.

"EEF, this is AlphaCatOne. We have orders to escort and assist in extraction. We will be laying coverfire and support. Get in, get your boys and let's go home."


AlCO, as he had designated himself after being promoted to a squad leader, could barely contain the excitement burning in his memory core. His first real mission as a squad leader! No more training missions! He re-checked all systems, loving the sleek feel of the catskinner chassie he had become a part of. As he moved into escort formation, he thought to himself, "If I come out of this without a single scratch, I just might buy those earthers a drink!"

Childeen stared at the ships circling the planet like moths to the flame. He knew the Dahumb on both sides on the ground must be going ape shit with this many possible threats just out of range. His course had been decided upon well before he even entered space.
The other two Vespa freighters fell into a loose formation with him. He knew all three of them were loaded to the top with weapons and armor. He hoped him flashing merchant credentials and the Vespa’s immunity to being turned away would get him in the atmosphere. After that the fun began. If not the orbital guns would tear them apart before they even knew what was happening.
The entire crew had lost fingers or had memory and DNA scans done before the mission set out. The stump of Childeen’s pinky still felt ragged and sore.
The ships wove their way through Garmin Fe’s, Fort Lendill’s, and the EEF fleets. The communications officer sent their and purpose (To sell goods) and course down to the main space port and to each fleet command. Granted the course after re-entry was a fiction, hopefully no one would notice in the heat of battle.
Entering the no man’s land around the planet was strange. The clutter of the fleets gave way suddenly to painfully open space and the first tugging of the planets gravity. The captain got on the PA, “Listen up everyone, we will be entering the atmosphere soon, our course should keep us over GAST controlled airspace, and their guns will hopefully be warned not to clip our wings. Green team when we get to ground please meet the welcoming party and request permission to conduct your mission.”
Silence and the barely audible rumble of friction increasing on the hull filled the ship as everyone strapped in and quietly double checked their systems. Normally the ships would slowly descend fighting gravities grasp and keeping the ship in smooth slow entry with no excess friction from the atmosphere. They didn’t have that kind of time though, that kind of time allowed people to think of questions to ask the ship. So the ship started to be battered on its hot and fast re-entry, the old way.
“Sir, after we break into the atmosphere and have lost enough speed to maneuver we will redirect to FOB Hernon.” The Captain paused, “Getting out may be a problem though, if the Dahumb Queen guesses what’s up I doubt she will just let us blast off.”
Childeen nodded, “I am hoping in all the ruckus we can drop the guns, hopefully get the good guys and get out. If not we go to plan B. Besides escorting us here the S-Crow and the 30 Aegis fighters with us can EMP some of the gun emplacements and cut us a quickly closing corridor off this world.” Childeen could feel his pulse pounding as he drank deeply of the fear of everyone around him. This could go no problems or it could be a world of hurt.
As Childeen checked in with the other two Vespa’s one of the captains noted, “Are Vespa freighters really meant to act like drop pods?” All Childeen could do is shrug and hope the banking guilds obsession with clockwork precision and quality held true.

***
OoC: Bottom line up front (BLUF)
3x Vespa freighters loaded with weapons ammo and armor flashing merchants IFF and a flight plan to the main spaceport. Also transmitting fake cargo manifests (The Dos Marx girls and a load of booze for the fronts).

All crew and Childeen have rez'es waiting for them if/when this goes to hell.

After breaking through the atmosphere fly fast and low over GAST controlled space to FOB Hernon. I will RP the actual meeting in forum because I have no idea if I can even make it on planet.

This can also be the EEF soldiers ride off planet.

LT Cliffhaven and his squad were packed into the VESPA freighter like sardines. They were strapped in between crates of ammo and weapons. They were in regular EEF uniforms with nothing to identify what unit they are a part of. Cliffhaven had never realized how much thought went into their uniform design compared to what the average joe got.
They got the message that they were entering the atmosphere and soon the freighter was bucking. It reminded Cliffhaven of the few times he had ridden in a drop pod. That was disconcerting.
After they broke through reentry though he watched the horizon rise up to meet them with a terrifying alacrity. They flew nape of the earth all the way into a wickedly jarring combat landing.
As the back hatch opened the lions grabbed their rifles and headed for the outside. LT Cliffhaven saluted the highest ranking person in the welcoming party. “GAST Forces, permission to rescue three of our soldiers trapped in that battle field. We will be back before the freighters are ready to leave.”
Cliffhaven expected to get it with a condition they revive some of the GAST forces that died on the battle field. Each of the soldiers carried a six pack of nanite syringes. Beyond that they have standard loadout.
When they find Giffords and the rest with the body of Faro they would revive him and lead the EEF soldiers and any other lookie loos who decided to show up back to the Vespa's. Once they were aboard their extraction would be Blackhearts problem.
If another EEF team got to them first the Lions would provide what ever support they needed to extract the three soldiers. Or wait with Vespa's if their services weren't required, though they provide medical support to the GAST soldiers.
As they left The LT handed the GAST forces commander a letter from their boss. (OoC: Letter will be in the forum)

Prime considered Garmin Fe's approach; watching from a small black probe which had followed Garmin Fe's fleet. He had sent a number of capital ships which might be ended by the orbital guns of those fighting the queen. The loss of life could be enormous, as the explosions might catch transports, or infantry waiting to be deployed.

If this battle turned to disaster, the Unity would lose the potential to gain an ally in the Time-Shredding aliens. This would be unacceptable. The small probe, directly connected to Prime as an eye spy, prepared a number of launch tubes calibrated to launch projectiles which would explode into target-baffling chaff.

As Garmin Fe's fleet descended, he heard the quiet ping accompanied with Prime's communication request. He shook his head, and signaled acceptance.

Prime's message was brief; "Garmin Fe, I've detected some orbital batteries drawing a bead on your ships. I believe you may be able to get through unscathed with your good standing. However, if you are fired upon I've prepared target-baffling chaff which may give you a chance to get planet-side. Good luck old friend."

Twain sat at one of the workstations in the back of his Trident. Next to him Nawt, Joanni, Dante and Holstroom each sat at a workstation. Twain had picked his first Ground Specialist Team to not only be TNI's public faces around the Polar Expanse but to help him on particularly special missions. Today TNI would attempt its first recon mission so he knew that he needed his A team along for the ride.

"Gaia, are all sensor systems runningatoptimal?" Twain asked.

"Yes Twain, the sensor packages we obtained from the EEF have integrated seamlessly with our own systems."

"Very good! AretheMagnaRailsonline?

"Yes Twain, the Magna Rails are online and the new ammo is cycling through the feeder system flawlessly."

"Excellent! Nawt,Joanni,Dante,Holstroom, howarethingsonyourend?"

It took the members of TNI's Ground Team A to figure out that Twain was in fact addressing them.

"Aaahhh... everything looks 5 by 5 Twain." Joanni said after receiving affirmatives from her squad mates. "All sensors are set for max quiet mode, the ships cloaking is running at 100%, we're showing minimal heat and noise and are well out of way of any incoming or departing ships."

"Very good. Now let's hope for something interesting" Twain said with a roguish grin.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
OOC: The mad mad mad technicians at TNI have fitted two sensor packages from EEF Cats Paw Drones to the Trident as well as two Magna Rails. The same mad mad mad TNI technicians have modified Magna Rail ammo that would normally have been filled with plasma to house TNI's Non-Newtonian Radiological Absorptive Foam. It is not known what will happen when the rounds impact a target, just that they fire as normal rounds do.

TNI's primary objective is to observe faction tactics, abilities, strategies and leyas usage.
TNI's secondary and optional objective is to test it's new 'Foam's capabilities.

The Trident will stay out of the way of everyone who shows up but will attack any pirate or TRILAT ship that attacks any EEF, Blackheart or Fort Lendill ships.

A set of satellites will be placed in orbit to help direct rescue operations by the EEF.
Sector General Palomedes is interested in seeing Dauhnb tactics in action.
All data will be analysed by IR Scientists for weaknesses.

A single Megaladon Ship enters the outer system and takes up position awayt from the other forces and outside the range of the cannons.

On the bridge, Lt. Micheals stood, thinking "We should be off protecting Haephestom from the IR, but orders are orders."

Looking to his men, "Well, boys, our job is to make sure that the EEF extraction team makes it out alive. Those EEFers down on the planet went missing from a UFC site and we are honor bound to make sure they are ok. We are still having trouble with comms to Haephestom, but i just heard from Lady Ja'cyln. We ARE to everthing in our power to make sure the EEF makes it out alive without causing to much damage. So here is what the plan is.

One: this ship will wait here and then meet up with the extraction team and provided cover once they leave the planet.

Two: we are going to send out 2 squads of Limpets to prepare to clear the defense guns if need be. They go weapons hot only if the EEF team is getting shot at during withdrawl. they will be under orders to use Disabler rounds from the boarding cannon. that should put down any guns and targeting systems that could cause problems. They are to only use Breaching rounds as a last resort in self defense. They are to scram out of danger if needs. the ships themselves have all been told where the rendevous points are.

Remember, we are here only in a support capability. Comms, Send a message to our allies and the IR stating that we are here only to observe and help out if necessary. Then let LAdy Ja'cyln know we have arrived on station. She is stressed out enough about the President"

Both the Da'uhnb Queen Army (DQA) and the soldiers of Grand Admiral Sessoren Thei'Gann watched to see which side each leader aided. A civil war among the Da'uhnb was not linear. They did not experience it as all others on the battlefield did.

They did not drag the three EEF soldiers here. That was an unfortunate. 100 Da'uhnb from each side of the civil war were going to save the 3 soldiers and deliver them to EEF 5th fleet or EEF Field Marshal Strykker.

Only Blackheart and Garmin Fe will be safe from attack.

All others just showed up and will suffer for it? Or will they?

The 13th Free Systems Armada will be on hand to assist the Temporal Empire, led by Mankuso Guirgis. This Armada consists of 1 converted IR mothership (full compliment of 50 Sparrows), 50 additional sparrows (4 of which will have anti-ship disablers), 1 EEF gunship and 30 EEF gunpods, a Ft. Lendill Stalking Horse (attack mode), 1 sav and 1 Sentinal Strider. These ships will:

1) ping all vessels coming into Free Systems Space
2) Advise their entry is unauthorized and they are to leave the Free Systems. This warning will be repeated twice in quick succession.
3) All parties, other than those allowed by the Temporal Empire, get one set of warning shots to cease and desist
4) Coordinating with Temporal Empire requests and orders, to attack ships that are not authorized. Ships will have no less than 3 attempts, as long as they're not attempting to either run past the blockade or attack, to cease and desist and that their entry is unlawful and in violation of Free Systems sovereignty without prior authorization.
5) Lions of Earth, Blackheart, and Cult of Horned Dog ships will be advise to turn back immediately or be fired upon. No warning shots. Their locations and signatures will be pinged and relayed to "interested parties."
6) For any "merchant" vessels, their location and cargo manifest will be requested. They will then be requested to land on a different planet for search and inventory check, as well as for the purpose of tax collection.
7) Any EEF ships found will be pinged to Temporal Empire for orders (attack or no attack). Temporal Empire decides. Otherwise no action, and explanation given to EEF will be "temporary allowance" if requested.
Any troop smuggling will be penalized through death. In the case of EEF, bodies will be sent to Zaodonai Celyse as a courtesy for her assistance. Ground facility will have 3 striker striders, and a full compliment of troops.
9) Routine patrols will pick up any satellites and drones and eventually return them to their owners if not authorized. If any of the above are weaponized, they will be destroyed.
10) If anyone states, "we're here to help", the response will be "the EEF should contact the Temporal Empire. No further assistance, therefore, will be required. Cease and desist." Then above protocols will be put in placed.

This armada will patrol routinely. No immediate offensive action taken for most parties. Their job is to protect the sovereignty of the Free System and prevent any force that appears and/or acts aggressively.

Any EEF ships that is spotted (which probably won't happen since the only ones in system are cloaked) Will comply with the orders of the Free Systems Armada and leave.
As for the gunships once they have completed pick up they will leave the planets surface by way of energy bridge to the plane or awareness rather than shadow jumping away. Should any force attempt to interfere with pick up the gunships will use their energy bridges to get reinforcements. Which will consist of two wraith teams three goliath teams four oni teams two grenadier tanks and three squads or EEF regulars per gunship. Once the missing men are secured all forces will immediately withdraw back to Refuge thought the energy bridges. Hopefully this will not be needed.
If any captured EEF or Lions of Earth soldiers are murdered by Free Systems forces the EEF will for now only file complaint with the Banking Guild against Su Meahl personally for murder and interfering with a humanitarian mission. Should any Free System soldiers end up in EEF hands they will be released unharmed as the EEF makes it withdrawal from the planet.