Once he was lined up without friendlies in his path, he squeezed the trigger, letting loose with [i]Pandora[/i]'s 20mm cannons. Rodriguez could feel each [i]thump[/i] of the two cannons vibrating throughout the craft as is screamed though the convoy. Zigging tracers zipped through the air and arched into the scorched earth and artificial metal alike, sending exploding plumes of dirt and spectacles of flaming sparks skyward. While his own attack only lasted mere seconds, Rodriguez caught a glimpse of one of the vehicles within his cone of fire erupting into an inferno just as he quickly pulled up and peeled away.

Rodriguez kept the plane in a stable climb while making the proper adjustments in his flight path, noting the firing vectors from the artillery below still illuminating in his HUD. By now however, the black splotches exploding in the sky became less concentrated, likely due to the gunners' aim being directed to the other craft completing their own attack runs and pulling away from the pummeled convoy. After achieving a safer altitude, [i]Pandora[/i] came to a neutral path while Rodriguez peered through the aircraft's canopy and gazed at the smoking mess they had created. At least six of the vehicle they had successfully strafed now stood as burning wrecks, victims of their swift assault.

Just has he steadily angled his craft into another dive, [i]Pandora[/i]'s long-range radar started going off with new contacts emerging into the screen. Rodriguez aborted and quickly turned to the monitor noting the four blips quickly advancing onto their earlier attack vector. Heading right toward the convoy. In the course of a few seconds, another vehicle exploded due to a rocket that had not come from his craft and neither from any of this other planes his squadron. Instead, it originating from the interloping biplanes.

It didn't take long until the intruder's radioed and demanded the reasoning for their presence here. Rodriguez patiently listened as Roland explained himself and behalf of the planes under his command before ending with an offer to vacate the local airspace. Given the rowdiness of the new group, Rodriguez was in agreement with the notion to avoid getting into further trouble than they were already. All seemed fine until it became apparent that trouble already had Roland's number. Some scanner with the group had ID'd Roland and the surprising bounty on their leader's head. [i]Five million credits, huh?[/i] Rodriguez's adoptive mercenary line of thinking piqued with premature interest. With that kind of money, he could be living it big with the most souped up and untouchable aircraft to ever fly over the States. And all he had to do was dive into a pursuit right on top of Roland and...

[i]No[/i], his consciousness quickly stamped out the opportunistic thought for greedy fame. He mentally reiterated the job he had agreed to and he was intent of seeing it through. Phasing out of the millisecond of plotting, Rodriguez refocused his attention to the biplane now shifting their attention to his group. Per Roland's new orders to engage, he maneuvered his craft into a wide observing turn around the attackers, ensuring that he held less than a kilometer distance from the attackers. Having seen the maneuverability of the enemy planes, he knew that he could not compete in a honest dogfight with the more nimbler planes climbing to meet them. [i]Pandora[/i] was simply not as agile and his only method of attacking and killing a wily opponent was with an unsuspecting strike above them. Before he could pull that off, he needed to know how the aggressing craft flew. Like before with Ryan's earlier approach, Rodriguez once more fired up his scanning equipment and angled the array to toward the craft.

"Pandora acknowledging," he radioed through the channel, "beginning scan of engaging bandits."