[quote]"Charnel, you copy? This's Stalin. I'll engage one of the Panthers and Ka's, the transporters can carry a maximum of 10 grunts. Way too many guests, too little food and drinks, da?" [/quote]

"Copy that" Marciano replied, a small grin on his face, he had the feeling that he was going to like this pilot. Banking right to keep with the rest of his squadron, the Tornado's pilot kept his head on the swivel, looking for the bandits Knight-1 had warned them about. He hoped to see at least a glance at them before they got the drop on him, however as the alarm that began shrieking at him warned that today, was not going to be the day where that happened. Gritting his teeth he saw Stalin pull a few hard G turns to face the incoming threat and throttled his own engines up. As he entered into a hard left bank, Marciano keyed the safeties on the Sidewinders, leaving the AMRAMM's on standby. As he pulled out, Charnel saw that Stalin was still tangoing with Bandits, but they seemed to have gotten behind him. Throttling back a bit, to stop the Tornado from overshooting the pack, Marciano pulled his targeting reticule over one of the MIG's the slow beeps of the lock on began sounding as the computer acquired the target. Almost as if that was queue the MIG suddenly broke off, rolling to the right, trying to brake the Tornado's gaze on it. Swearing softly Marciano pulled to keep his aim on it, as the beeps turned into a long continuous note.

Keying his radio Marciano broadcast a message to the only friendly MIG in the sky "Stalin, It's Charnel. Heads up launching Fox-2's, watch your tail." As he said this he thumbed the firing button on his stick, a dull thump sounding as the Sidewinder detached and launched, the contrail streaking out towards the MIG. The Bandit took a hard left, miniature suns being launched from its under belly, drawing the Sidewinder away from the fighter. "Shit, looks like this might take a bit. But I'll keep on 'em. How are you holdin up Stalin?"