It wasn't long until the rest of the Black Knights had rallied back into the air once more; forming the squadron they were all dedicated to now. Once everyone had been accounted for, Knight One peeled the squadron away from the [i]Stormcloud[/i] and the still recovering Thunder Island that unfortunately still burned in several areas as smoke continued to rise into the atmosphere. Though Rodriguez was bothered about the destruction of his new home, he was more concerned about one of the pilots in the group whom still had family on the island. He would ask Austin about his kids but with official military band reports and local radio news stations flooding in plus their task at hand; there was plenty to be concerned about.

Already an hour later, Rodriguez was beginning feel like he was back on his early patrol, doing absolutely nothing in a cramped up cockpit. Luckily though since the entire squadron was moving in a neat straight vector with little course changes, he pulled out his E-Reader from his vest pouch and turned the tablet on, accessing the recent headline articles he had downloaded before takeoff. To keep his eyes mostly focused has he flew his F-16V, Rodriguez swiped the menus on the E-Reader and opened the ever-so-helpful app that read the many articles to him and only demanded his attention to jump to the next page.

Personally he had wished that he could have used the device earlier during his patrol but since the basis of a patrol demanded he maneuver to difference navigation points and watching the skies and the local ocean for anything suspicious; there was unfortunately little time to focus on something so minuscule that did not demand his immediate attention. Plus the last thing he wanted was in getting into a dogfight while listening to Betty Crocker unveiling yet another addition to her endless list of recipes or cookware. The awkwardness would have been spectacularly bad and life threatening.

Out of the blue came the voice of Watchman, the local Airborne Early Warning and Control operator greeting the squadron through the secured channel informing them of the current situation in French Guiana. Apparently hostilities have light as of late surprisingly given what had gone down. Of course Watchman then mentioned a tropical storm hitting the region which would make everyone’s day worse, explaining the lack any real concerning activity. Then again, it did allow for some much needed breathing room for the defenders there and additional time to plan the next phases, especially when supplies were coming their way too.

Then a KC-10 came into view rising out of the cloud cover greeting the squadron. [i]"Afternoon boys and girls, we were in the area and heard y'all might need a top up. Form an orderly queue; we got plenty to go around, over."[/i]
 
[i]"Okay, squad, you heard the fine gentleman. Prioritize in order of your fuel need, and go through the process like in training. Nice and simple; just fly the probe into the basket."[/i] Knight One’s voice followed.

Rodriguez complied and formed a queue with the other planes in the squadron based on fuel needs. He positioned himself behind both the new modified Chengdu J-7 in the squadron and behind Kat’s A-10 Thunderbolt II seeing as though those craft would have more need for fuel than his F-16 due to their lesser range capacities. After a bit of time, it was his turn next.

For an F-16 pilot, the refueling procedure was both simple and yet complex. The easy part was that the flying boom operator technically did most of the work with positioning the fuel rod into fighter’s slipway so the refueling process can begin. The hard part however was positioning the bird as the slipway for the F-16 was located on the aircraft’s spine where the pilot could not accurately during the setup see and thus had to make the adjustments going by conscious logic and a guiding voice. The other part could be argued was the fact of maintain position while the fighter got refueled was also a trick process since a slight deviation could risk breaking equipment worth more than a pilot’s salary and screwing over the entire procedure with the other aircraft in line.

Luckily enough, Rodriguez was able to position his F-16 nicely in place for the operator to do his thing. After exchanging some friendly dialogue, the operator disconnected the boom after procedure was complete and wished him luck. In compliance, Rodriguez saluted the man back and banked away back into formation to allow the next pilot their turn.
 
[i]"All right, ladies and gents, everyone's bellies should be nice and full. Let's head on in to our new digs. Keep on the lookout from now. While Watchmans' reported no activity, doesn't mean it'll stay that way. Give everything a check over, and stand by."[/i] said Heartbreak to the rest of the newly refueled squadron.

Rodriguez made his own checks to his aircraft to ensure it was still operating normally and combat ready. After a couple more hours of flight time passing by uneventfully, the capital city of Cayenne surfaced from the natural face called distance and its coastline came smoothly into view. But over the horizon was the earlier mentioned tropical nearing its massive and menacing approach and was probably less than an hour out before it hit the city. Understandably, Rodriguez had no intention of flying though that dark mess of raging wind and infinitely heavy rain during a combat sortie; clearly no one did either.
 
[i]"Let's practice an overhead recovery; with things going as they are, I don't want us overflying the jungle too often if we don't have to. And who knows - we might need combat recoveries before this is over. Taxi straight to the shelters as soon as your wheels touch ground too. I think we should get the aircraft under cover quick, those clouds don't look good."[/i]

[i]No kidding.[/i] Once the opportunity presented itself, Rodriguez dipped his aircraft into a lower altitude and lowered the fighter’s landing gear as he made a pass around the landing strip, allowing him to plan his landing vector ahead of time while breaking into a couple of ninety degree banking turns. When everything aligned perfectly, his dipped the craft into a steep decent before coming up to the runway and pulled up as subtly as he could and touched down on the long trail of asphalt.

As he followed one of the vehicles leading into nearby hangers, Rodriguez quickly took note of the extra preparations and recent additions to the facilities, identifying the layers of installed sandbags in and around the hangers in hopes of protecting the structure from any man-made blasts caused either by rockets or bombs. As soon has the rain hit, his fighter was positioned just outside the designated hanger and shut down to be handled by yet another busier than normal base personnel; at least they were not under threat from being shot at though working outside during a storm was hardly less ideal than the former.

Rodriguez popped his canopy open once the F-16 was secured inside the lukewarm and still somewhat dry facility to which the dripping wet fighter was not helping with has he made his way out of the aircraft and formed up with Valentine and the rest of his squad mates. [i]"All right then. So, we're here, and in one piece. The inventory on our gear reads that we ought to have munitions for a good number of sorties. As soon as I get in touch with local assets, we'll being organizing our first sorties as soon as the shitty weather clears. Right now, there's not much more to do. As soon as we get some crash-space assigned, we get some rest and get on familiarizing ourselves with the local geography; work out the landmarks and easy reference points, and set out some lines of defense for the space port and its' approaches…"[/i]
 
Rodriguez understood why his CO paused as a surge of rain battered against the roof of hanger so loudly it literally drowned out every other sound before dying down a moment later, [i]"…Anyway - good job everyone on the way over. For now, let's keep sharp and alert. The real job starts tomorrow. For now, let's get a look at our surroundings."[/i]

Soon a man whom identified himself as Chief Bowman approached and greeted them with a handful of rain jackets and other pieces of water-proof clothing and further explained the current situation to them along with details about maintain their planes during their stay here. Rodriguez took his share of the clothing and got his arms and body into one of the jackets before folding the hood down over his head and partially his face to protect against the unrelenting rain. He nodded back to Bowman before the chief and his staff attended to their duties once more.
After riding on one of the minibuses provided to them, the sight of a rather impressive hotel set Rodriguez into a more positive feeling, hoping to actually kick back after such a long and chaotic day. Unfortunately part of that desirable thought blew away into the wind as he found the hotel had been converted into a military HQ with personnel and soldiers running their laps and tasks around the perimeter. [i]Hopefully the second floor and the jacuzzi hasn't been deputized yet[/i] thought Rodriguez but given the recent events that had transpired, he wasn't going to hold his breath.

[i]"Take a load off people, there's nothing we can do just yet, and we've been on the go since the attack early this morning with no pause…"[/i] another interruption for Heartbreak came in the form of a Deputy Hugo Depardieu who introduced himself to Rodriguez’s CO and possibly to the entire squadron.
 
Due to the arrival of what Rodriguez could assume as a government official to, he wasn’t sure if this demanded him to stand up professionally or to let his feet rest and allow Valentine to do the talking. However, it seemed that neither Depardieu nor Valentine were all that concerned and were more focused with the addition details about the unfolded chaos. It seemed that recent events have left the region scrambling to organize the defense lines against the local insurgents from breaking in and causing serious damage, especially to the launch site and the surrounding population centers.

The inclusion of Major Constantine into the mix whom shared Rodriguez’s and probably some of the squadron’s natural sentiments took a seat and explained in great detail where the recent attacks in region have taken place as well as the few reports about the enemy aircraft encountered by some of the soldiers too. Heartbreak’s response in the matter identified the need to get familiar with the local surroundings and pinpoint tactical positions and areas for later operations; a good call considering the obvious change of scenery from ocean and mountains to ocean, mountains, the thick natural foliage of the regions and the eventual launch site. Rodriguez quickly contemplated with the mindset that they were in for more busy days to come. [i]I really hope that jacuzzi is still open.[/i]