Rhona W

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

Everyone say Hi to Shining Sector - he PM'ed me to join us and play. Glad to have you aboard, and from your first post I'm sure you'll fit in great :)

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

New post is up, and our next course and objective is pretty clear. The real plot starts from here...!

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

Earlier

Nathanial turned to look Jed in the eye "It was lucky we found you before those bandits got to torture you for amusement away from the rest of the hostages." He said clearly and slowly, making sure the pine martin was listening and remembering what he said. "Am I right?"

Jed may have been scared and young, but he wasn't particularly dense - especially now he'd managed to get a chance to survive. Nathaniels' meaning was clear to the young Marten, and he nodded in understanding. "It was close," he answered clearly and firmly. "If I'd been there any longer, then they would've had me for sure. If it wasn't for you guys showing up..." he left the sentence hanging and looked between their faces for confirmation he'd said the right thing, clasping his hands together a little nervously. Now The only words offered up were from Ken, regarding his earlier mission and the assigning of a co-pilot. Blade took them with a nod - the younger man could certainly use some assistance, especially given that they'd likely be relying on the 'eye in the sky' a lot from now on both for their own support, and for the deployment of Esailia's team as well. The Captain in question looked as though she was about to speak up, but held her tongue. No one else had anything to offer, so Blade pressed on. Picking up his PADD, he toggled a few of the hovering holographic icons, dimming the room lights and projecting images from the debriefing on the wall. "The captives we recovered during the operation were a mixed bunch. They all came off of the Landcrawlers that Captain Sprinsteams' team investigated, and were split into three groups; two of them recovered, the third were relocated. "It seems, from interrogation of the surviving bandits, that those black-painted and heavily modified GEARs that were encountered outside of the mine were from a group separate to the bandits, and not allied to them; they were in the mine moments before we arrived, and were in search of a particular captive." He nodded to Esailia, as the screen displayed the Garzas, the couple that the fireteam had discovered in hiding inside the Landcrawler. "These two aren't actually straight-forward civilians. They actually openly declared themselves to the LDF once we had them in the debriefing room. Cynthia and Luke are actually Kynthia and Lukasz, and they're operatives for the Red Guard of the Imperial Family. One of the more elite units of the Northern Empires' Army, if you'd forgotten." He paused to let that sink in, before clicking onto another slide, a still picture of the same black GEARS the team had encountered, but this time with the heavily-scarred face of a male lynx alongside one. "They also revealed that the black GEARS are part of a special unit; they don't even have a real name among the Imperial Army. Their purpose is to hunt down and recover VIPs, defectors - from either side - or anyone else 'of interest' to the Imperial Army, and the Emperor. "Their target this time was Princess Angaria Velostroya. That's the Emperors Daughter." The face of a young adult black-furred vixen appeared on the screen. She was attractively fresh-faced, with a determined look in her green eyes. The family lineage to the head of the Empire was clear, but she lacked the burning insanity in her eyes her father possessed. "Intel from the Empire says that Dad and his Daughter disagree on a lot of things, but he loves her dearly. She's been a voice for more moderate approaches, but hasn't ever struck out on her own like this. If she's left home, then it means she's either been captured, or there's something afoot. Either way - the Red Guard operatives said that the bandits took her and split them up - but here's the doozy. The bandits only arrived after the 'crawlers had been disabled by another unit. The people who took them were fully clad in hi-tech body armour. They described it as sleeker and more refined than our own body armour or GEAR pilot suits, and that they had weaponry they didn't recognize. Whoever this unit were, they headed out on the same vector those fleeing GEARs and the landcruiser Ken pulled a recce of were in - so that's our next port of call. We head to the South, and to Martenstown. As it is, we need to drop off prisoners and re-provision, so we're gonna have to do a bit of bootwork to get any leads on who these guys are - pick up stories, snoop around, and go lookin' fer a bit of trouble. But we'll deal with that when we get closer to the place. In the mean time, I'm sure this time you might have some questions..."

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

Sorry, Urukhai, but I thought I'd better get a GM post up since it's been 8 days since the last one, and my own rule is not to wait too long. If I let it slide, then I'll let it slide too much and everyone will be waiting, and I'll forget or start not caring. If everyone wants to get their posts up with their reactions to the end of the battle, and then the following events. I'll get another post up as soon as we have a round of posts up in reply. You don't necessarily need to write much, as I realize I haven't given a lot to go on. Needless to say, I'll have a lot more story next time, and we'll probably even get to meet face to face at last :O

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

Scott tipped an imaginary hat to Kat as he formed up alongside the A-10, nodding to her. She followed his lead and held in good formation with the ASF-14 as they skirted a wide circled around the remaining amphibious forces, that were now well on alert for the prowling Black Knights

"You think they wanna tangle with two jets after seeing us tear through their forces on all fronts? I'm saving the rest of my SUUs' ammo for the choppers."

"I think we definitely shook their cage a little. I reckon we'll have a bit more of a contest running in next time, but they don't have much left to throw at us after our first run. I'll bracket up the other choppers with my Sidewinders and Vulcan on the run out too, if you're taking the others with your guns. We'll go in together for the last run; they won't have a chance to reorganize that way, and less chance to shoot at us too, over". St Helen read off the headings to both attacker pilots, and Scott lead the way, putting power into the ASF-14's powerful engines, the wings part-sweeping back in reaction to the increase in speed and power. A steep descending weave, zig-zagging to low altitude, and he was lined up on the last of the Hovercraft, leaving the APC's for Kat's A-10 and its' more accurate firepower. "Knight one is on the hovercraft, over," he confirmed to her, before letting loose with another volley of rockets at the leading BHT of the pair, and rippling off the last of the bombs onto the second. Then he was over and pulling up, the airframe resounding with a thunk as at least a few rounds of small-arms or heavy-machinegun fire found a home in the Tomcast grey-camouflaged fuselage. The cockpit resounded with the harsh buzzing of a hostile lock-on from the helicopters, who had positioned themselves wisely - unfortunately for them, Scott's piloting was better, and the ASF-14 considerably faster. He pulled up hard enough to have grey spots dancing at the edge of his eyes, and a small rhino standing on his chest, before tipping the wing over and sliding into a downward dive onto a pair of the remaining helos from above. The hot exhaust and the leading edges of the rotors were enough heat for the AIM-9's super-cooled seeker heads. The target in his helmets' targeting visor blinked red with a lock, and the warble of a good tone sounded. "Fox Two!" he called twice into the radio, squeezing the trigger under his finger. His left hand danced on the throttle, and he cued up the second sidewinder as he shifted target, the helmet-mounted targeting system easily letting him shift over to the second aircraft. The pair of sidewinders leapt off the rails, drawing white plumes across the skies, and then Scott was pulling up and out of the dive, the planes' hull and canopy glittering with reflected sunlight as he swept upward. Meanwhile, above the over-water skirmish, the twisting dogfight in the morning skies was growing deadly. Dmitry's instincts and movements were sound, and the MiG on his tail overshot, despite his thrust-vectoring, as the bigger Sukhoi pulled up and left. The red-and-white twin-tailed fighter tried to nose around to bring his own guns to bear on the bigger jet, but the Black Knight pilot got there first.

"Guns, guns, guns." He announced through the comms as he closely tailed the fighter

30mm rounds from the Sukhoi's gun slammed into the portside wing of the MiG-35, and threw out a stream of debris and smoke into the airstream, shaking and jolting the soviet-built fighter violently as the pilot tried to regain control. To his credit, he attempted to evade as the lock-on tone sounded, but with a damaged wing, there was no chance. The missile shot off the rail, and as the AA-11 closed in, the canopy of the fighter blasted into the air, with the pilot close behind before his aircraft was engulfed in a fireball. The MiG-35 trailing Charnel had closed in for the kill. As the Tornado F.3 loomed large in his sights, he let fly with an AA-11 of his own, the short-range heatseeker angling in for a kill on the swing-wing jet. The MiG pilot was canny and aware, however - as soon as he'd fired the missile, he weaved aside, and came in at a new angle, avoiding target fixation and frustrating Dmitry's attempts to shoot him down with gunfire. With the other pilot now on him and his wingman down, the MiG dived for the deck and extended, increasing his speed and running back in the direction he'd come. "Bandit is running," announced the ground controller moments later. "Most of the enemy assault force is sunk, and aircraft over the island are mostly under control. We're gaining the upper hand- wait one," she announced, her tone changing to one of caution and shock. "Target running a low level - no wait, second target high altitude, rapid speed... ALL AIRCRAFT, BRACE FOR IMP-" From the Black Knights' perspective, a glimmering star fell at rapid pace from high above, drawing a white line in its' wake across the clear, blue morning skies. It dipped somewhere below the mountain range that split the island down its' length, opposite side from the four pilots, and there was a thunderous explosion that shook the air itself, and threw debris up into the air, along with a titanic spout of water that began to cascade back down as rain. The radio was full of chatter as questions flew across the airwaves, and reports of casualties and crises began to report in. What little of the enemy remained began to turn back and run. Scott's voice broke onto the Black Knights' intra-squadron channel a moment later. "That... that was a kinetic kill weapon. From orbit. Whoever we're fighting has access to one... but why did they target us? And why when they had an invasion underway... what the hell is going on here... All aircraft," he continued, finding the stern-ness back in his force as he shook his head, sliding his visor back up his helmet. "Report status and check in. We'd better overfly the island and see if there's anything we can do to assist with the SAR, and be ready for any hostiles... over"

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I'm waiting for people to post as well. If no one does by Tuesday, I'll get another post up.

Thunderbolt Black - Aerial Combat, Near Future

Bump, because I could use a few more players. It's running okay with the four of us, but one or two more wouldn't hurt, and the game hasn't gone too far that it wouldn't be even remotely difficult whatsoever to introduce any new players and characters into the group in any way.

Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

No worries, once yours is up I'll post a GM post. Looks like the four of us are the only ones who are still here and interested, so we'll just carry ourselves along.

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

I'll include it when I put up the second half of the briefing - sometimes I just lose track of everything. Either way, I think we can assume Jed would just be happy to get out with his life, and get off home. He's a disposable NPC :P

GEARS - Mecha Sci-fi with Anthro characters. RP in a detailed, story-driven world.

It's supposed to have been a couple of hours, so he could have got there easily enough in that time and had time to do the 'paperwork' part of the mission too, or at least get it started.