Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tanasha's voice spoke over the radio in a calm and metered way, as one who is trying to pick their words carefully.

They are a strange mix of very well known and completely unidentified. We know they are not friendly, but more than that I can not say. We are searching for answers, and are doing our best to prepare.

The green and white experimental fightercraft sped into Cedarbank outpost's range just as the call to break contact came through. "Mou..." Eileen muttered. "Too late." The blue and white of the sky filling two thirds of her spherical display system and the grassy green and brown of ground filling the other third gradually slowed from a blur to a casual scrolling as Eileen eased back on Vector Luna's throttle. Computer generated V's began spiraling in to her view in groups of three, forming into triangles which flashed twice before solidifying into IFF tags marking each member of Griffin's squardron.

"Vector Luna to Angeleyes," Eileen began, speaking as if addressing the guitar-tab-icon representing the out of visual range VAF-9, "is the situation under control? Over."

*A private line between Tanasha and the comm center of the ASDF-0*

How much of that did you get?

Quite a bit, actually. Water may have absorbed quite a bit of the spectrum, so we do not have an exact profile yet. Also some of the sensors were knocked-offline, but we do not know the cause.

Aff. Send the logs to the lab once you have finished your analysis.

Aff. Hehehe.

Hrm?

You said "a**l".

Tanasha brought a hand to her forehead, and chuckled lightly at the surreal context of the horrible joke.

I kept telling you that Television would rot your brain, Plissken, and here is the proof.

Plissken shrugged And I keep telling you that it will grow back anyway.

Tanasha smiled That is only once you stop. Tanasha out.

Aff.

Turning towards the door, Tanasha started walking to R&D. The last attack underscored the need for some sort of system to disrupt directional communication, and she wanted to see what could be done about that.

By the time the mecha had departed the knife-wind wastes of Limbo and returned to their proper base, the redskin was red-skinned no more. In fact, she sported a healthy tan - at least as much of one as some white-a** cracker girl was ever gonna get without hitting the bottle - and proper, feminine proportions. Mostly feminine. Low hip/waist ratio. Boobs ever so slightly out of synch. And Sir Mix-a-Lot would never croon about her caboose. But at least a healthy, red-blooded heterosexual male could openly admit to being attracted to her now.

If he was into baldness and tentacles, that is; Nida's hair hadn't grown back in after she'd shed the blue coif during her transformation, and she'd kept the tentacles out. These days, she rarely even retracted them fully. Which basically meant that she walked around shirtless.

No matter on that count, however. Aside from her officer cadre, of whom only three were human and all of whom were used to her topless state, the entire base was populated by Extremis derivatives. Absolutely teeming with the suckers. And they all called Nida "Mother".

Copulus, of course, with its characteristic rocky body, maw-tipped tentacles, and eyestalks. Hundreds of the watermelon-sized critters milled about. Some carried out tasks, but most were just chilling. More noticeable were the myriad rex variants. On top of the original strain Nida had produced, there was rex raptor, bipedal bird-legged hunters with longer bullet-shaped heads and tentacles more like Nida's own, as well as rex extremis, its redundant name pointing to its emphasis on its extra-long, extra-strong tentacles.

And then there were the others, rarely seen in the open due to their specialty tasks. Several manipulii were already at work removing damaged armor plating from the newly-arrived mecha. The base's two colossii strained their six-ton bodies as they levered the damaged Marauder into a sling to be lifted to the upper-level repair bay. And a few guard aerophysalis floated above, like air-dwelling jellyfish... with pulse laser rifles.

But back to Nida. The Mother. Currently clambering down the leg of her mecha, avoiding jagged armor shards as she went, jabbering away in her headset.

"The AI on those firing platforms is faulty, Gon, and I don't care what you say. Load the old version again. I swear those Veritechs didn't take more than two hits between them. ... It's your a** on the line, bub, because I'm not wasting valuable troops and machines on your quality assurances! This isn't some ******** bureaucracy, got it? I'm a results gal. All is forgiven if you can make it work. Otherwise, I'm taking an acetylene torch to whatever passes for your reproductive organs. ... Copy? Out."

Her XO - well -

Okay, let's get this out of the way. All you furries can have a field day. Oh, look, it's a cowgirl. A humanoid female - standard symmetry, no more than two of any given feature - bearing horns, legs modeled after the Bovidae variety, a short tail, very short fur (Holstein coloration) over the limbs and dorsal surfaces, and adorably huge eyes. Please, folks, restrain yourselves.

So this cow-chick fell into step with Nida, and the two bantered back and forth about the mission. Argued, at points. What was said isn't terribly important.

What is important is that at their final destination, Nida - another one - sat in a brig with good old-fashioned iron bars and a steel cot. This one had all her hair, as well as the tentacles. (Shirt stayed on. Halter top.)

"We need to talk," Bald Nida grunted.

As soon as the whirlpool started slowing down, salvage crews rushed out to the disabled and destroyed LRM launchers. They were looking for survivors more than salvage; they didn't expect to find anything new or interesting in the craft other than, perhaps, piloting controls fit for a decidedly non-human species. Besides, it's not like somebody would attempt to illegally harvest salvage that close to the ASDF anyway.

((Roger that. ^_^ I know enough about them to at least get one in the air. LOL))

Ashika was driven by Sayoko to the security gate. "You better report for duty Sayoko. I got a feeling something big happened while we were away." Sayoko gave him a kiss on the cheek and drove off after he got out. He flashed his ID at the MP. The MP handed him a note and told him to report to Angeleyes aka Griffin at the HQ. "MP can you give me a ride?" Ashika asked "Yes Airman. I can do that." The MP said he got into the waiting HMMWV and was driven to HQ. As he waited to arrive he read the note. The note told him that he would be flying one of the available VF-1 fighters and he reported to Hangar 14 for his plane. "All right, where is my flight suit?" He ran to the ready room and looked for a locker. when he found it he put on his suit and went out to his fighter. "Wow, A VF-1. Never thought that I would see one of these..." He said to himself as he climbed up in to the cockpit. He radioed his CO as the weapon techs were arming his plane. he taxied outside preparing for take off once he was authorized.