Edwards Air Force Base Emergency Beacon mission -- RPLOG - RPLOG
Participants
Date
28/1/2017
Log
It's a quiet day outside the city of Fairhaven. The skies are clear, with a few puffy clouds drifting lazily along.
At least, it would be, if it weren't for the two agents arguing right outside an impressively large looking transport truck, designed to accomodate whoever decided to come along, diesel engine idling with a thunderous rumble of pistons firing and cams turning. The taller, burlier agent, a Doberman-morph, appears to be waist-deep in a fight with the smaller, scrawnier one, a severe-looking Owl-morph. They both are wearing standard Zephyr uniforms, and appear to be both male. The owl spots a few agents approaching in the distance, pointing it out to the doberman. Noticing the slew of agents approaching, he frowns, sighs, and stops arguing, while the smaller one smiles smugly and crosses his arms, waiting for the team to draw closer.
Light is walking up slightly ahead of the pack of agents, arms behind her back while walking. Female clad in a dark colored kimono along with her darker colors, revolver at side with a pack on her back with a red cross on it. She nods towards the two men while she continued onto her approach, humming along the walk towards them.
Firecracker, a pint-sized pale pink pony pegasus, drops down from above to land atop the truck. She looks down to the others from over the side as she happily chirps, "Hiya! I'm Firecracker! What're your names? And is the place for the stuff with the things?" She hangs her forelegs over the side of the vehicle as she watches more people arrive, giving a smile and a happy wave, introducing herself to each as they come.
Fenris trots up to the transport and snaps off a smart salute, then stands at ease with his thumbs tucked into the heavy utility belt around his thick waist and a pleasant smile on his face. "Heard someone needed help?" he says, polishing the copper badge on his chest that reads SGT CHUBBS. He smiles at the pony and points at said badge. "My badge says Chubbs!" he says, by way of introduction.
Naiko was the last to arrive for now. A large, sturdy looking completely mechanical robot. They slowly walked up to the transport truck, waving to all the agents around.
A Synthetic robotic voice echoed from the robot's speakers, "It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Naiko." The robot did also glance at the Tanuki for quite a little while, adding.. "Hmm. I think I recognize you!"
"Welcome, welcome! My name's Sherrod." The owl says, looking significantly more amiable since he 'won' the argument." On the other hand, however, the canine merely grunts gruffly. "My friend here is named Stu-" The doberman growls, warningly. "Simon, I mean. He's not feeling particularly friendly after he lost a bet just a little bit ago."
"Yeah. This is the trip for the stuff. And the things." The owl notes with a dry smile to the excitable pony, and offering a nod towards to chubby canine. "Welcome, yes... someone should need help, according to the radio. But we won't know until we get there."
The fox chuckles for a bit while she hears everyones name, "My name is light, and its a plasure to meet all of you." She listens in and laughs a little towards Sherrod giving the little situation that his buddy lost in. "A bet? Well thats a shame." Her laughs goes down to a snicker while she looked at Firecracker, turning around to Naiko then Chubbs. "A pleasure too meet you both aswell."
"Then what're we waitin' for?!" Firecracker shouts as she hops up into a standing position atop the truck, thrusting a foreleg forward to point onward towards adventure, "Onwards to adventure!" After her little announcement, she hops right off the side of the truck to land atop Fenris's head softly, ready to go! "Hiya, Chubsy! You all ready for adventurificationizing?!" she asks the group in general.
"Adventurificationizing is my middle name!" Fenris says, thumping his belly to make a sound like a bass drum! "Let's get a move on!" The tubby tanuki agilely heaves himself into the back of the truck, even with the pony settled on his head.
"Good! If things get a little ugly I'll do my best to help." Naiko clicks and whirrs, hopping on the truck. "Adventurifi..Cationizing? I'll make a note never to say that word out loud." They laugh, shaking their head lightly. "Onto... Adventure. Gods, I haven't said that word in a very long time."
"Everyone load up, then. Hop on the truck's back and we'll get to moving." Sherrod says, waving everyone on while Simon grumbles and gets in the truck's cabin, fiddling with a few knobs while all the agents hop in. "Nice to meet you all, at any rate. Hopefully, our mission goes without too much "adventure" and with minimal deviation. I'll give you all a full briefing once we're moving." He looks at Firecracker a little strangely, shrugs, and starts to hop in the passenger side of the cabin. Once everyone is actually inside, the truck gets to rolling, quickly getting up to a decent speed... except, in the back, there happens to be no windows. That's the problem with old trucks.
"Adventurficationizing? Thats a new one to hear, maybe it wont be that last one I hear either." Light giggles a bit before helping herself up to the back of the truck, settling inside and twiddling her thumbs while she waited for the briefing.
Firecracker rides Fenris's head right into the back of the truck along with the others, watching as the light disappears as the doors are closed behind them. "Oh! It sure is dark in here! That kinda makes it hard to play games while we wait! We can play charades! No wait... I Spy! Wait no, that doesn't work either. Marco Polo! That works!" The little pegasus hops off the tanuki's head and starts calling out "Marco!" as she pronks around inside the truck.
Fenris finds a seat and settles himself in, folding his hands over his round belly and tipping his uniform hat down over his eyes. It is only moments before he starts to snore gently.
It's a wonder how Naiko fits perfectly in the back of the truck, considering the robot's size. Their head emitted a faint red laser grid as it scanned everyone in the back of the truck.
"Sooo.." Nodding towards Firecracker and turning one of their shoulders' emergency lights, they exclaimed, "Polo? Am I doing this right? Also, I seem to have seen you often around Zephyr." Turning towards the Tanuki and nodding again, "Nope, still can't recall where I have-.. Well that was.. Fast.." And finally, to Light. "And you..." After a brief pause, Naiko tilts their head, adding. "Look pretty cool actually!"
"Advance teams have already secured the area around the base. Scouts are set up with rifles to pick off any ferals. The risk should be minimal to you all... provided you use common sense." Simon speaks, his voice gruff and harsh, compared to Sherrod's smooth, polite chatter. The trunk goes over a particularly large bump, and everything rattles.
Light smiles a bit as she gets her vision back inside with the Naiko's emergency lights kicking in. "Thank you Naiko, and thanks for the complement." She smiles, turning her head around to look at the point of the noise, nodding towards Simon and Sherrod. "Minimal risk, well thats all good." She sighs in relief, swaying to the side and lightly bounced up and down from the large bump.
"Wow, this game's a lot easier when there're lights on!" Firecracker giggles as she hops right over to the giant robot, tagging its foot with a forehoof. "And yeah, I was there a little while ago!" she answers before being launched up into the air a few feet from the minor bump, simply going straight up, then straight back down with her legs under her as if she had never left the floor. "I have summa that sense stuff, I think," she says in reply to the doberman.
Fenris nods at the excplanation, though he might really be asleep. . .
"Ask first, shoot if things come to that. Seems easy enough, but if it comes to that I'll do my best to keep everyone well covered." The robot synthesizes, before briefly nodding to Light once again.
The truck rattles again. Roads being unmaintained for the better part of a decade doesn't exactly make for a pleasant driving experience. The owl chimes in, Sherrod turning around to make sure his voice is heard. "We don't know who's alive in there, and we don't know what they are. Probability tells us they're probably still human, but. We're there to make contact if there's people, and salvage if there's not. So, yeah, ask first, shoot later is the directive of the day. Even if any survivors appear to be hostile at first, we're not exactly human, if you've noticed. That may throw them off."
"Well thats something that cant be predicted." Light chimes in after, nodding a bit and jostling a bit more. "If anyone needs bandages, I'm not a medic but I do have first aid training." She smiles only for a second. "More humans, thats gonna be something inspiring. Though they will be afraid of us first for sure, lets not be the ones to point the guns right at them if they arent hostile."
"We're not exactly human, but I fancy it's easier for them to conceive a robot thingy than.. Well, Y'know. No offense, anyone. But if you want, someone who's better at negotiating terms and.. Speaking in general can stay inside my cockpit and walk me around or use my speakers." The robot throws their shoulders back, adding. "It's an option."
Firecracker bounces up and down as the truck jostles on the road, apparently paying it no mind. "Got'cha! Make friends with the people we find! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Now I just gotta find some lemons!" She looks over to Light, nodding her head as she agrees, "Yeah, guns aren't very good for making friends!"
Fenris must be listening, because the snoozing tanuki is suddenly enveloped in a puff of ramen scented smoke. When it clears, a chubby, completely human man in a police officer's uniform, complete with pants! Though a thick, tanuki tail still wags behind him.
"Anyways. We're just about to pull up now." The owl, Sherrod, notes. Outside.., well.Edwards AFB. Site of several Space Shuttle landings, and the home of the Air Force Flight Test Center. Several experimental planes have took off, went into space, and landed here. Many revolutionary planes had flown for their first times, here.
Unfortunately, the times have changed. What was once an immaculate, highly-guarded fence, has weathered and developed many holes over time. Even moreso, concrete has cracked, and broken-down planes strew several runways. A few hangers have caved in, and the checkpoints now act as gaping holes into the base. How the mighty have fallen.
The transport truck crawls along the road to the nearest checkpoint gate, and, after stopping there, continues through after a short period of tense silence where both of the Zephyr agents look nervously out the windows. Not a soul in sight.
Light takes a deep breath, not hearing anything and the chipper voices in the front ending. After waiting in the near silence except for the purrs and roars of the engine. "So what's going on out there?" She says, arm down on her lap. She looks over towards everyone else, taking a deep breath. "So this was the adventure you wanted Chubbs?"
"Oh! We're here!" Firecracker chirps out as the truck comes to a stop. She flits over to land on top of the used-to-be-tanuki-and-now-human-with-a-tanuki-tail. She leans over his head and knocks a forehoof on his forehead, shouting "Wake up, Chubsy! Adventure time! Operation: Make Friends with the People at the Place with the Stuff and Things is a go!"
Fenris peeks from under his hat, revealing a round, pleasant face. "Not yet," he admits to Light, "But you have to start somewhere, right?" He turns a smile on the excited pony. "Sergeant Chubbs, ready for duty!" he says, heaving himself to his feet. The tanuki-turned-human looks pretty good, if chubby.
Naiko nodded towards the tanuki and the pony, beeping in a low tone, preparing to head out once the truck stops. "I just hope that whoever they are, they don't get too feisty or trigger happy with weapons or anything. Let's do our best to have a passive outcome on this, shall we?"
Watching the truck pull up is a pretty heavily armed and armored dragoness who looked like she wasn't in the mood for nonsense. Her weapon was a massive beast, and her armor managed to conform to her body enough to be clear that yes, this was a woman. She looked bored despite having such a serious expression on her face. Once teh truck stopped, she walked over. "Corporal Buzamu Herrick, USMC. Currently on contract from Zephyr for scout duty for this little expdedition. You the diplomats?" She asked teh agents as they dismounted from teh truck.
"Diplomats. More like salvage team -- you know as well as I that the likelihood of anyone being in there is minimal." Sherrod says, rolling down the window to look down and over at the dragoness. "Between the strength of the signal and observed activity, we estimate there's one or two survivors, MAX. It's a shame, too -- this place had a fascinating history. Anyways, hop in." Simon turns around, glowering at the people in the back. "Don't be getting too riled up back there. After everything's settled, we're going to head unto the base proper. The place is massive, and covering it on foot is impractical."
The fox pulls out her magnum, peeking her head out for a second before dismounting and landing onto the ground right besides the truck. "Either way, we have a job to do now guys." She keeps her gun down onto the ground while she waited for the little bit of talking. "It is a shame, at least we can archive what happened."
"Good thing I don't have any feet then!" Firecracker answers, looking down to her hoofsies upon Fenris's hat. "How about with wings? That's practically practical! And I thought we were there already! Are we there yet?" she asks the two up front.
Fenris takes this opportunity to polish his badge and the shiny uniform shoes he is suddenly wearing. "Gotta make a good impression," he says, then pulls a packet of oreo knockoffs and munches happily on a cookie, spilling crumbs down his front.
"Right. Point the signal's been coming from is towards the storage bunkers. My guess is one got turned into a survival hole on P-Day." Buzamu said, walking to the rear of the truck and pushing aside the flap and climbing in.
The fox pulls out her magnum, pointing it right down onto the ground. "Either way, we have a job to do now guys." Light keeps her gun down onto the ground while she waited for the little bit of talking. "It is a shame, at least we can archive what happened." She looks up to Bazumu and nods to her, settling the gun right onto her holster again.
And the truck begins to move, again, pushing through the broken checkpoint gate and driving along casually towards the source of the signal. Sherrod glances at a small machine, and occasionally instructs Simon to turn left or right based on it. Everything's quiet... until two uniformed soldiers, a male, a female, come out from behind a tanker truck, one wielding a dangerously large rocket launcher and the other with a service rifle, both pointed at the truck. Naturally, Simon immediately stops the truck. One of the soldiers, the woman, shouts. "Get out of the truck! Both of you! What in the hell are you doing here!?" The owl, very calmly, begins to disembark. "We heard the message..."
Light jerked for a second while she was being taken quite the ride in the back of the truck, taking small breath. She keeps her hand on her holster while trying get onto the both of us. She looked at the each of them and did not say a single word towards her comrades.
(Light's voice comes into each of her comrades minds, "Don't say a word or make any type of noise.")
Firecracker chirps out, "Okay! Now we're really actually here! And our new friends are already here to meet us!" She flies out through the front of the truck as the owl opens the door, popping up a few feet in the air to happily wave a foreleg at the two pointing guns their way. "Hiya, new friends! I'm Firecracker! What're your names?" she asks as she hovers a short distance to the side and above the truck. "We're here to help! Either of you know Johnny?"
As the truck rolls to a stop, Fenris hops lightly out the back and saunters around, obviously not good at following instructions. At least he is less conspicuous than Firecracker. "Are we there, then?" the tubby man asks, tipping his uniform hat back a little, "What's all the shouting about?" He seems to be utterly oblivious to the pointed weapons and raises a chubby hand in greeting. "Hello there!" he says, "Heard there were people out here who could use some help?"
Naiko, however, stands completely still, aside from a brief, silent headshake. The Robot watches Firecracker and Fenris stepping out doing the chatter, but doesn't seem to wish to risk their progress by stepping out. Not yet, at least. Instead, they wait for Light to make their move.
Unable to stop herself, Buzamu rolls her eyes. "I think your thought just went out the window there." Buzamu says to Light, before gesturing for the rest to step out. "Come on folks." She states, walking around the truck. Once in view of the two soldiers, she promptly drops teh magazine that'd been fitted to the M2 Browning Machine Gun, pulling the bolt back and locked it open, putting away the magazine and then raising ehr hands in the air. "I'm not hot now. You both just watched me bolt clear. Corporal Buzamu Herrick, USMC." She states, having shifted her armor to be in the woodland MARPAT design while in teh truck, just in case. Sure, ti was atop her desert MARPATs, but at least her uniform was in proper order despite her changed form.
The two soldiers glance at each other. The man, wielding the launcher, grips his knuckles tighter on the grip. Judging from the size of it, a direct hit, or a nearby, would be neigh unsurvivable. The woman does the same, muzzle tracking each and every person that hops out of the truck. They're both wearing ABUs -- a tipoff that they're Air Force, and not really trained for combat. Well, hopefully not. Simon sighs, and Sherrod does the same. They could probably handle the initial negotiation themselves, but, as predicted, agents complicated the matter.
"What the h- EVERYONE FREEZE RIGHT NOW." The woman barks, firing a warning shot at the foot of Firecracker. Her aim is surprisingly remarkable. "EVERYONE STOP MOVING RIGHT NOW OR THAT THING'S GOING BOOM." Buzamu's diplomacy helps little, as long as the two are spooked. Sherrod grimaces. "We came for the distress sign- YELP!" The owl is cut off by another warning shot.
The fox muttered to herself, taking a small pill covering her face as a small smoke gathers around her. Soon her fur disappearing along with her tails and ears, she reaches into her backpack and pulls out her darkened headphones along with reattaching her COM unit onto her wrist once more. She takes a deep breath and sits there, looking to Naiko with a smile on her face. Light assumed on her human form once again.
Firecracker doesn't even flinch as the bullet whizzes by under her, continuing to hover in the air. "Oh, I can do that!" she chirps out happily, becoming comically-still with her legs locked out straight beneath her, only thing in motion being her wings as they keep her in the air.
Fenris seems unbothered by the warning shots. He pulls another cookie from his little packet and munches it thoughtfully. "So, you didn't send out a call for help then?" he asks calmly, "That is okay too." He holds up the half empty cellophane package in his hand. "Cookie?" he offers, "Before we go?"
Naiko remains still, quietly whispering to Light as she turns human. "Common sense is something... Rare.. Nowadays.." The robot shakes their head slowly and lightly.
"Everyone calm down! There's no need to shoot." Buzamu says, looking over the two airmen. No stripes on their sleeves, which Buz recalled the Air Force did for enlisted, weirdos that they were. Which meant looking at their collars, where having ranks was sensible. And promptly snapped to attention and saluted. "Captain, Lieutenant. We're from Fairhaven, and we heard the comms calling for assistance from a Major Derek, but the signal was garbled."
Nobody moved. That was a good thing. The absence of strange people moving about rapidly gave the two officers time to catch their breath -- at which point, the woman (the captain) sighed and started to loosen her grip a little. "Okay. Okay. What I need, is for those people still in your truck, to come out with their hands up. Then we can start talking about what we're going to do next." Sherrod quickly nods, trying to gesture for Simon, Light, and Naiko to exit the vehicle and do as the nice lady says.
"Yes... at ease, soldier. We.., well. We didn't really want that message to go out, you see."
