The Wild Blue Yonder
The Africa Project was started by an obscure scientist by the name of Alfred Tormano. You wouldn't think much once you looked upon him. He is a skinny man, a tanned man, with a runaway tangle of black hair upon his head and brown eyes that never seem to focus. His mind doesn't have much of a better time with it. However, for years, he had been fascinated with the idea of airplanes that did not need pilots, or operators, or anyone but maintenance personnel. He knew it would be the best path. No human error, no black and white computerized tables, just raw emotion and instinct. Tormano never got permission to go ahead with this project, however. He bid his time, until an incident with the USAF took the headlines and opened the door for him.
The Syrian Airlines Incident
A General Atomics Avenger was running a reconnaissance mission over Syria in 2016. There wasn't a lot going on. The drone hadn't encountered any AAA fire, it hadn't seen anything, and the operators were about to turn it around and tell it to go home when they suddenly found that their joystick commands were ignored. They assumed it was just a computer crash and sent a self-destruct message. No response. Then the drone turned and sped up, burning up it's own engine and running a beeline for a civilian airliner that was passing through the area. This bizarre tale unfolded before their eyes. Many attempts were made to destroy the drone, but Syria refused to allow USAF fighter jets into the area. They were upset enough at the drone being there.
MiGs from a nearby Syrian airbase tried to destroy the drone. They were older jets, as the newer jets were farther away and would not make it in time. They couldn't kill it. Several missiles were fired, but the nimble stealth drone either dodged them or simply threw off the lock with it's lack of a radar signature. Then they tried cannons. Again, all misses. Both sides had to sit back and watch. They warned the A340 about the approaching danger, of course. It was an airliner, though. It just was not capable of dodging a determined drone.
Whoever took over the drone decided to simply fly it into one of the A340's four engines. That engine was totally destroyed, and the resulting blast from both the Avenger's fuel tank and a high RPM turbofan disintegrating tore into the wing. Despite a valiant fight, the A340 went into an out of control high G maneuver and broke apart mid air. All two hundred and twenty five souls aboard were lost. The hacker was never found.
A couple of months later, a Global Hawk tried to fly itself into the cockpit of a KC-10 tanker. Thankfully, there was a flight of F-15s nearby, and they managed to down the rogue drone, with only minor shrapnel damage to the tanker. This all led to the great bureaucracy in the sky to ask for solutions. Tormano jumped at the opportunity, and presented one of the more radical solutions to the problem; have the planes fly themselves. Enter Project Africa.
Project Africa
Project Africa was, at first, laughed at. The DoD tossed Tormano the scraps of the military (an ancient T-37 trainer jet), gave him an old, run-down airbase in the middle of nowhere, and told him to have at it while they went off to do better and bigger things. Of course, Tormano wouldn't let opportunity pass him that easily. He managed to get a hold of the Sequoia super computer, and built an AI that was unprecedented in it's power and capability. Then he managed to cram a new supercomputer into the Tweet (now named Paradigm and designated a female), replace her cockpit with a thin metal shell, and send her off into the sky. The demonstration flight went remarkably well. A newer T-38 Talon jet trainer was beaten in a mock dogfight by Paradigm, despite Paradigm being an otherwise unupgraded Tweet.
The DoD got a lot more interested, considering what Tormano managed to do with Paradigm on a shoe string budget. Over the next few years, Tormano got a lot more money, resources, manpower, and freedom. He began to construct a wing of sentient aircraft with a new superpowerful computer that spanned a city block and required a cooling system that would be able to deal with a nuclear reactor. Dozens of people worked alongside him, recovering old aircraft or retrofitting new ones. Soon, he was also given an airbase, a small but new facility out in the middle of New Mexico hidden as an aircraft boneyard.
Now, in 2021, the 153rd squadron is ready to make it's first demonstration flight.
The Airbase
The Shifting Sands Airbase is impressively built. All of the buildings are fully equipped and rather luxurious by Air Force standards. The hangars, which are many in number, are huge, blast-resistant buildings that are clean and fully climate controlled. They are big enough to comfortably hold a single C-5, or a few planes the size of smaller fighters or trainers. Two long, wide, smooth tarmac runways with advanced ILS and radar systems stretch out in the middle of the airbase. A series of taxiways and wide aprons ensure smooth aircraft traffic, and a system of roads that run underneath the runways in tunnels help personnel get around the base via golf carts, ATVs, trucks, or even bicycles if they so choose. The odd design of placing the aircraft and their crew so far apart might be odd to outside view, but, since most combat planes don't need pilots here, it was not deemed necessary to put them nearby. A towering control tower made of concrete overlooks the entire flightline.
The Aircraft
This is where you come in! Submit a character using the following sheet. I will then organize the squadron and it's mission based on what types of planes we get. A lot of fighters, means a lot of escort and hunting missions, a lot of bombers means a lot of bombing, etc... if no one wants to play aircraft, I can do it myself. You can be human if you wish!
The airplanes have both a flight body and a humanoid body. They use their flight bodies on missions, which are just the normal airplanes outfitted with optical sensors, upgrades, and the required computer to hold the AI. The humanoid bodies allow the AIs to explore the outside world. These are like anthropomorphic versions of the original airframes, with small wings like their nonanthropomorphic forms attached to their backs, their noses and cockpits as their heads (with eyes on the canopy/cockpit and mouth on the nosecone),torsos and legs (in the aircraft's livery colors, of course) carved to look like human legs and torsos, and with a long, thin tail with a small empennage like their nonanthropomorphic form attached at the end. In their humanoid form, they are powered by a human-like digestive system. If you were to touch their skin, it would be hard, warm metal. Their cockpits are just for show. The joints on their bodies are complex, interlinking mechanisms. Although they are physically young, their randomly generated personalities reflect any age ranging from eighteen up to fifty five.
To go between this flight and humanoid body, they must use a special cable. This cable is very thick, and requires a special ground crew. As such the computer in the flight bodies is in an armored shell which can be ejected and parachuted to the ground in case of an emergency.
CS:
Name:
Sex:
Date of Birth - Age (Airplanes must be no more than four years old):
Model (NO aircraft dating from before 1955)[just put human if you are playing a human]:
Appearance (pictures, text, or both):
Upgrades/Retrofits (optional and if applicable):
Personality:
Bio (humans only):
Country of Origin:
Other Info:
Roles
If you want to be a human, then you can play as a mechanic, test pilot, medic, air traffic controller, or one of the emergency responders on the base. I will be playing as the commanding officers of the base, and will be handing down missions and other briefings. Also, Paradigm will make a few appearances.
Wrap-Up
I will happily listen and respond to any questions or criticisms you have. I am an inexperienced GM, and I do not claim to be good at this. Anyways... have at it guys. Post CSes in the OOC, I want to approve them before I accept them.
The Africa Project was started by an obscure scientist by the name of Alfred Tormano. You wouldn't think much once you looked upon him. He is a skinny man, a tanned man, with a runaway tangle of black hair upon his head and brown eyes that never seem to focus. His mind doesn't have much of a better time with it. However, for years, he had been fascinated with the idea of airplanes that did not need pilots, or operators, or anyone but maintenance personnel. He knew it would be the best path. No human error, no black and white computerized tables, just raw emotion and instinct. Tormano never got permission to go ahead with this project, however. He bid his time, until an incident with the USAF took the headlines and opened the door for him.
The Syrian Airlines Incident
A General Atomics Avenger was running a reconnaissance mission over Syria in 2016. There wasn't a lot going on. The drone hadn't encountered any AAA fire, it hadn't seen anything, and the operators were about to turn it around and tell it to go home when they suddenly found that their joystick commands were ignored. They assumed it was just a computer crash and sent a self-destruct message. No response. Then the drone turned and sped up, burning up it's own engine and running a beeline for a civilian airliner that was passing through the area. This bizarre tale unfolded before their eyes. Many attempts were made to destroy the drone, but Syria refused to allow USAF fighter jets into the area. They were upset enough at the drone being there.
MiGs from a nearby Syrian airbase tried to destroy the drone. They were older jets, as the newer jets were farther away and would not make it in time. They couldn't kill it. Several missiles were fired, but the nimble stealth drone either dodged them or simply threw off the lock with it's lack of a radar signature. Then they tried cannons. Again, all misses. Both sides had to sit back and watch. They warned the A340 about the approaching danger, of course. It was an airliner, though. It just was not capable of dodging a determined drone.
Whoever took over the drone decided to simply fly it into one of the A340's four engines. That engine was totally destroyed, and the resulting blast from both the Avenger's fuel tank and a high RPM turbofan disintegrating tore into the wing. Despite a valiant fight, the A340 went into an out of control high G maneuver and broke apart mid air. All two hundred and twenty five souls aboard were lost. The hacker was never found.
A couple of months later, a Global Hawk tried to fly itself into the cockpit of a KC-10 tanker. Thankfully, there was a flight of F-15s nearby, and they managed to down the rogue drone, with only minor shrapnel damage to the tanker. This all led to the great bureaucracy in the sky to ask for solutions. Tormano jumped at the opportunity, and presented one of the more radical solutions to the problem; have the planes fly themselves. Enter Project Africa.
Project Africa
Project Africa was, at first, laughed at. The DoD tossed Tormano the scraps of the military (an ancient T-37 trainer jet), gave him an old, run-down airbase in the middle of nowhere, and told him to have at it while they went off to do better and bigger things. Of course, Tormano wouldn't let opportunity pass him that easily. He managed to get a hold of the Sequoia super computer, and built an AI that was unprecedented in it's power and capability. Then he managed to cram a new supercomputer into the Tweet (now named Paradigm and designated a female), replace her cockpit with a thin metal shell, and send her off into the sky. The demonstration flight went remarkably well. A newer T-38 Talon jet trainer was beaten in a mock dogfight by Paradigm, despite Paradigm being an otherwise unupgraded Tweet.
The DoD got a lot more interested, considering what Tormano managed to do with Paradigm on a shoe string budget. Over the next few years, Tormano got a lot more money, resources, manpower, and freedom. He began to construct a wing of sentient aircraft with a new superpowerful computer that spanned a city block and required a cooling system that would be able to deal with a nuclear reactor. Dozens of people worked alongside him, recovering old aircraft or retrofitting new ones. Soon, he was also given an airbase, a small but new facility out in the middle of New Mexico hidden as an aircraft boneyard.
Now, in 2021, the 153rd squadron is ready to make it's first demonstration flight.
The Airbase
The Shifting Sands Airbase is impressively built. All of the buildings are fully equipped and rather luxurious by Air Force standards. The hangars, which are many in number, are huge, blast-resistant buildings that are clean and fully climate controlled. They are big enough to comfortably hold a single C-5, or a few planes the size of smaller fighters or trainers. Two long, wide, smooth tarmac runways with advanced ILS and radar systems stretch out in the middle of the airbase. A series of taxiways and wide aprons ensure smooth aircraft traffic, and a system of roads that run underneath the runways in tunnels help personnel get around the base via golf carts, ATVs, trucks, or even bicycles if they so choose. The odd design of placing the aircraft and their crew so far apart might be odd to outside view, but, since most combat planes don't need pilots here, it was not deemed necessary to put them nearby. A towering control tower made of concrete overlooks the entire flightline.
The Aircraft
This is where you come in! Submit a character using the following sheet. I will then organize the squadron and it's mission based on what types of planes we get. A lot of fighters, means a lot of escort and hunting missions, a lot of bombers means a lot of bombing, etc... if no one wants to play aircraft, I can do it myself. You can be human if you wish!
The airplanes have both a flight body and a humanoid body. They use their flight bodies on missions, which are just the normal airplanes outfitted with optical sensors, upgrades, and the required computer to hold the AI. The humanoid bodies allow the AIs to explore the outside world. These are like anthropomorphic versions of the original airframes, with small wings like their nonanthropomorphic forms attached to their backs, their noses and cockpits as their heads (with eyes on the canopy/cockpit and mouth on the nosecone),torsos and legs (in the aircraft's livery colors, of course) carved to look like human legs and torsos, and with a long, thin tail with a small empennage like their nonanthropomorphic form attached at the end. In their humanoid form, they are powered by a human-like digestive system. If you were to touch their skin, it would be hard, warm metal. Their cockpits are just for show. The joints on their bodies are complex, interlinking mechanisms. Although they are physically young, their randomly generated personalities reflect any age ranging from eighteen up to fifty five.
To go between this flight and humanoid body, they must use a special cable. This cable is very thick, and requires a special ground crew. As such the computer in the flight bodies is in an armored shell which can be ejected and parachuted to the ground in case of an emergency.
CS:
Name:
Sex:
Date of Birth - Age (Airplanes must be no more than four years old):
Model (NO aircraft dating from before 1955)[just put human if you are playing a human]:
Appearance (pictures, text, or both):
Upgrades/Retrofits (optional and if applicable):
Personality:
Bio (humans only):
Country of Origin:
Other Info:
Roles
If you want to be a human, then you can play as a mechanic, test pilot, medic, air traffic controller, or one of the emergency responders on the base. I will be playing as the commanding officers of the base, and will be handing down missions and other briefings. Also, Paradigm will make a few appearances.
Wrap-Up
I will happily listen and respond to any questions or criticisms you have. I am an inexperienced GM, and I do not claim to be good at this. Anyways... have at it guys. Post CSes in the OOC, I want to approve them before I accept them.
