ShiningSector

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

"That must be it then..."

Rodriguez brought his aircraft about and came to a slight decent, stabilizing at fourth-five thousand and two hundred feet. Even being thirty-one miles out, he could see faintly see the landing strip in the distance. He closely monitored the flight instruments that gauged and dictated the Pandora's flight path and orientation, its altitude and speed. Were it not for the many modern mechanical upgrades to the old airframe, it may have likely choked and shuddered, struggling to maintain the improper loftiness and forcing a decent into more reasonable elevation. However now, the aircraft performed it new purpose to his expectations.

Twenty-four miles out now. Rodriguez eyed the shine of a metallic object off in the distance. The sensor suite to his right in the aircraft's cockpit earlier tracked the obvious aircraft under twenty minutes ago but predicted that its flight path would show no hint of interception. Granted, it had been wrong before and ended up putting pitting him into awkward scenarios he'd rather have been included with. On the positive note, those were rare circumstances and he learned to give his gut and intuition the final say. He noted that the unknown aircraft was that of a F/A-18; certainly a rare quality he himself rarely comes across nowadays, especially since props were more manageable and easier to maintain than a jet. Rodriguez observed the craft for sometime but eventually concluded that, like him, were heading toward the same place.

Unsurprisingly to him, the possibly friendly jet casually dropped altitude and entered into a procedural descent, affixing with the runway of the airstrip. With only ten miles to go, he figured doing the same. Rodriguez slowly decreased Pandora's velocity, easing the throttle as to took the plane down to a proper elevation. By now, he had already had his landing beacon lit, informing any individuals it concerned that he was approaching and reducing altitude. With just one mile out and the landing gear lowered, the plane flew steadily at a few hundred feet and quickly dropping as he got closer. Eventually, touchdown. The Pandora's wheels skidded and gripped the runway surface with the aircraft's spoilers and auto-braking system roaring with exhaust propelling ahead of the plane.

A minute later and the Pandora had safely landed and as directed by Rodriguez to align with the earlier fighter jet from before after confirming two persons present there; one of them seemingly matching the description of Roland Shaw. His contractor. the large plane rolled in and lastly came to a halt. Rodriguez followed procedure carefully and never cut any corners. the loud growl of his two turboprop engines lasted for two minutes before the revolutions of the four propellers, two to each engine, decreased and the loud sound died to a moan and finally a gasping hiss.

Having verified all of his checked, Rodriguez removed the flight mask and intake from his face, prompting a blunt yawn after travelling for several hours. Deciding not to dawdling any longer, he unlocked and slid away the portion of the canopy away, allowing him to exit the aircraft. After climbing down, he rallied to the two individuals before him.

"Roland Shaw, I presume?" he began, "Rodriguez Hefferman, reporting in."

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

Rodriguez Hefferman

PILOT
Name: Rodriguez Hefferman "Spyglass"
Age: 32
Height: 6’ 2”
Weight: 95.2kg
Pilot Class: Scanner
Nationality: American (Cascadia)
Appearance: Someone somewhere is missing their assault rifle… (credit to phelandavion)
Bio: Growing up was not an easy thing for Rodriguez. Though he was born to a happy family, there was not a whole lot of money to go around; repeated debts and failed loans only retained enough of a budget to keep him and his folks going with food and a roof over their heads. As the years went by, their finances further declined hopelessly eventually forcing Rodriguez out of guilt of not being able to help his parents with their teetering living expenses to find a job, especially at an early age too.

Despite his parent’s best wishes, Rodriguez joined the Cascadian militia personally out of financial necessity right, even when as the States warred with one another. After getting his placement tests, he later found himself in the Cascadia Air Force, rather unexpectedly on that note too and even further so when he realized that he had a knack for flying even though he never gave the concept much thought. Through further testing, Rodriguez was eventually assigned to aerial reconnaissance and patrol duties and wouldn't see active combat until much later hostilities broke out with Lone Star Land. Much of the actual combat he participated in initially comprised of opportunistic ground-attacks against lightly armed and isolated convoys unlucky enough to wind up in his patrol sectors. As fighting grew more fierce, Rodriguez's recon wing would end up operating closer to the front lines, and shortly afterwards, behind enemy lines.

After bringing his record to twelve successful nighttime raiding and information gathering and missions, Rodriguez was then offered a position to help expand Cascadia's electronic warfare technology and implementation in its air force. Interested, he gladly accepted the offer. Three months later, Rodriguez was back in the air, now with an aircraft armed the latest innovative gadgets available. During this time, a small conflict was brewing with Cascadia and one of the neighboring Midwestern warlords. As a live trial for the newly equipped aerial reconnaissance division, Rodriguez and other pilots from the same wing were deployed to discourage would-be raiders from violating Cascadia's airspace. Opening operations were largely successful with only a few instances of a dogfight breaking out while the majority of the encounters lead to those Midwestern intruders forced to withdraw from a possible combat zone after their airplane's instruments supposedly malfunctioned or went haywire for 'inexplicable' reasons.

Though returning to the civilian life was very pleasant after several years of service, Rodriguez grew unsatisfied and yearned to fly once more, even if was not combat oriented. As fate would have it, he would later acquire an old North American XA2J Super Savage had it refitted using the funds gained through his service with the militia. With the aircraft, dubbed Pandora, Rodriguez soon entered into the mercenary business as a freelancer, taking up spying and support contracts that came his way.

Theme Song: Coming Soon

PLANE
Name: North American XA2J Super Savage "Pandora"
Description: To Wikimedia!
Plane Type: Twin-Engine Turboprop
Extra Aircraft Notes: Due to modern upgrades, the aircraft can climb to higher elevations and achieve a much higher maximum speed than its previous un-upgraded airframe. The aircraft's cockpit, constructed to support three crew members has been outfitted with electronic warfare and sensor suite, effectively reducing the crew capacity to just the pilot.
Weapons Descriptions:
-Two forward-facing 20mm cannons
-10,000lb ordinance store (may carry up to six homing missiles, five bombs, or four torpedoes).
Weakness: Very low maneuverability due to large airframe, very ineffective in a dogfight.

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

Thank you, sir! Will do.

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

Hello! This RP grabbed my attention and I really wanted to sign on. Have my CS here below:

Rodriguez Hefferman

PILOT
Name: Rodriguez Hefferman "Spyglass"
Age: 32
Height: 6’ 2”
Weight: 95.2kg
Pilot Class: Scanner
Nationality: American (Cascadia)
Appearance: Someone somewhere is missing their assault rifle… (credit to phelandavion)
Bio: Growing up was not an easy thing for Rodriguez. Though he was born to a happy family, there was not a whole lot of money to go around; repeated debts and failed loans only retained enough of a budget to keep him and his folks going with food and a roof over their heads. As the years went by, their finances further declined hopelessly eventually forcing Rodriguez out of guilt of not being able to help his parents with their teetering living expenses to find a job, especially at an early age too.

Despite his parent’s best wishes, Rodriguez joined the Cascadian militia personally out of financial necessity right, even when as the States warred with one another. After getting his placement tests, he later found himself in the Cascadia Air Force, rather unexpectedly on that note too and even further so when he realized that he had a knack for flying even though he never gave the concept much thought. Through further testing, Rodriguez was eventually assigned to aerial reconnaissance and patrol duties and wouldn't see active combat until much later hostilities broke out with Lone Star Land. Much of the actual combat he participated in initially comprised of opportunistic ground-attacks against lightly armed and isolated convoys unlucky enough to wind up in his patrol sectors. As fighting grew more fierce, Rodriguez's recon wing would end up operating closer to the front lines, and shortly afterwards, behind enemy lines.

After bringing his record to twelve successful nighttime raiding and information gathering and missions, Rodriguez was then offered a position to help expand Cascadia's electronic warfare technology and implementation in its air force. Interested, he gladly accepted the offer. Three months later, Rodriguez was back in the air, now with an aircraft armed the latest innovative gadgets available. During this time, a small conflict was brewing with Cascadia and one of the neighboring Midwestern warlords. As a live trial for the newly equipped aerial reconnaissance division, Rodriguez and other pilots from the same wing were deployed to discourage would-be raiders from violating Cascadia's airspace. Opening operations were largely successful with only a few instances of a dogfight breaking out while the majority of the encounters lead to those Midwestern intruders forced to withdraw from a possible combat zone after their airplane's instruments supposedly malfunctioned or went haywire for 'inexplicable' reasons.

Though returning to the civilian life was very pleasant after several years of service, Rodriguez grew unsatisfied and yearned to fly once more, even if was not combat oriented. As fate would have it, he would later acquire an old North American XA2J Super Savage had it refitted using the funds gained through his service with the militia. With the aircraft, dubbed Pandora, Rodriguez soon entered into the mercenary business as a freelancer, taking up spying and support contracts that came his way.

Theme Song: Coming Soon

PLANE
Name: North American XA2J Super Savage "Pandora"
Description: To Wikimedia!
Plane Type: Twin-Engine Turboprop
Extra Aircraft Notes: Due to modern upgrades, the aircraft can climb to higher elevations and achieve a much higher maximum speed than its previous un-upgraded airframe. The aircraft's cockpit, constructed to support three crew members has been outfitted with electronic warfare and sensor suite, effectively reducing the crew capacity to just the pilot.
Weapons Descriptions:
-Two forward-facing 20mm cannons
-10,000lb ordinance store (may carry up to six homing missiles, five bombs, or four torpedoes).
Weakness: Very low maneuverability due to large airframe, very ineffective in a dogfight.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis retained his cautious posture but found that the entity no longer any harmful interest in his wellbeing. He watched with caution as the cursed form slowly retreated back into Zuri's body, seemingly uncaring now that what ever had caused it and its host harm was finally gone. Just as the entity fully withdrew back into the wound it had initially created, Zuri's bloodied and scarred flesh by that time had fully healed as if there was no paranormal rupturing to begin with. Travis gazed with astonishment, having been rightly worried for Zuri's welfare prior, now feeling strangely reassured despite the standoff that had occurred between him and her curse.

"Fascinating..." Travis muttered under his breath, temporarily out of the moment of concern for his comrade until he validated he was within safe passage to render assistance.

It soon appeared to him that Zuri quickly came to, showing no signs of discomfort any longer. Travis was still concerned as far as how the Causality Scryer failed to take into account of the livelihood of Zuri as it attempted, and nearly succeeded, in purging the still-unknown curse. Clearly, the spell nerveless did its job but not in the specifics that would meet Travis's expectations. It nagged him so and he was so close too that it seemed unreal that this was the end result of his live trial of the spell, even after all those hours spent verifying it's effectiveness. Coincidentally, the irrational contempt he presently had for Felix, whom had stopped him likely seconds away before the Causality Scryer could finish the job, was slowly eroding away.

Zuri's eventual innocent smile swayed relief over him but her silence still pulled the tight feeling of failure in his chest. Travis moved in but watched as she coiled into a ball on the floor with near child-like fashion. Certainly, it was an unusual response however not one without some justifiable merit. After what she went through, he honestly couldn't blame her. Feeling pity, guilt, and sensing the lack of resentment; his best surveyed guess anyway, Travis then scooped Zuri into his cradling arms and carried her off out of the laboratory, with him meeting Felix's eyes in the briefest of seconds in the process.

With culpability still at his throat and clouding the apologetic thoughts he so wanted to vocalize badly, he remained silent though the short trip until they had arrived at the mansion's living room. Gently, he lowered her into one of the sofas and insured her head was leveled upon one of the lying cushions. For a moment, Travis stared down at his friend with somber highlights painted unto his face. Regret and responsibility continuously jabbed at him as if subconscious was trying to tell him something; whatever that was, he eventually relented.

"I'm sorry," he spoke finally, "I wished that would have gone better than it did."

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis shot Felix a panicked and obviously stressed look, "now you tell me?!"

With Felix having been on the sideline the entire time observing the events as they came to be, finally hearing the Arch-Magi's desperate feedback was almost unwarranted to Travis, even after having gone so far in cutting out the curse deeply imbedded within Zuri's manawell. It was clear that the notion wasn't well received. Nevertheless, Travis frantically complied and attempted to have the Causality Scryer go a full hard stop; something he had not even performed and neither believed it to be a necessary resort. He turned his right hand in the spell control scheme, manipulating its directives to cease all actions. It was tight, but Travis managed to stop the cleaning circle within a meter of reaching Zuri and the entity before them. In procedure, the guiding beam, along with the scanning threads disengaged and vanished in response to Travis essentially throwing the spells kill switch.

Frustration and contempt manifested through his angered expression, initially throwing his exhausted gaze at the cursed being before glancing back to Felix and then to their original quarry. He breathed heavily having used both spells non-stop in over the course of a minute. While he still retained some mana left, the stress of running more than one spell lingered one but regardless of that, he still kept his left hand trained on the curse's physical profile, unsure and even doubtful if the being before them still held and volatile intent towards him.

"...well?" he loosely asked the cursed form, honestly not expecting a verbal answer though rather wanting it to disperse as he became more concerned with Zuri's condition as seconds pasted. With the entity still at play he rather not aggravate it any more by pulling anything further. Even trying to get any closer was out of the question.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Apparently, Zuri's hideous curse had not given up and surely was far from through with Travis. To the Untalent's horror, some kind of dark and twisted entity had grotesquely revealed itself, violently through Zuri's flesh and took a near sapient shape before him. Fear and dismay was painted on Travis' face. He quickly regretted his decision in putting forth this plan of his, now having seen first hand what this curse was capable and what awful effects it was inflict upon Zuri. Thoughts of stopping the Causality Scryer ricocheted through his mind, believing that by ending the aggravating process, perhaps he could end Zuri's suffering and calm the curse residing in her.

But then what was the point of going this far now? Travis however knew that there was no stopping the spell now as it was set on eliminating. Clearly, it was working if the curse was resorting to lash out in such a manner.

Travis swallowed hard and maintained his posture, sweat accumulating and running down his skin. A moment later, the curse fully manifested itself and came with it a set of armor that Zuri had worn previous while they had fought Rutger. Without warning, the cursed entity lunged out toward Travis whom was more or less ready for the attack. Travis would however admit that facing off against something like was not what he had planned for. Still, his was nevertheless ready for it.

He quickly raised his left hand again and casted a cryo rune. The rune projected rune glowed a light bluish hue before activating and vomiting a miniature blizzard into the path of the entity, surely slowing it down and preventing it from getting any closer to him. Travis gritted his teeth as he now had two spells firing at the same time. Even with the runes being mana-efficient, he could still feeling the fatiguing effects settling in as his small reservoir of mana was being drained away. For a brief moment, he wondered if he himself or Zuri would make it though this nightmare at the rate they were going.

It was then something had caught his attention. It was the Causality Scryer and one of its rings expanding in size just before it separated into three stylized and sectioned verses of the tune they made up, forming a figurative vertical that even dwarfed him and the entity. The new runic construct then emitted a thick but transparent field within its space and pushed toward Zuri and maybe inadvertently toward the entity as well. Soon the field lit up and pulsed every half second that passed and along with his cryogentic rune still at work, it was pushing the cursed form back. Upon close exception, Travis quickly noted that each pulse was eating away at the curse while the circle drew closer.

Travis finally understood what the spell was now doing; finalizing its purging efforts.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis observed the Causality Scryer's progress in purging Zuri's curse. For a moment, it appeared as though the process would be without incident. If that were the case, he would have had to give its architects far more credit than he had previously given. However, it was evidently a foolish appeal in the end. Travis watched as Zuri began to recoil, expressing clear tension and what appeared to be growing agony across her face. Travis bore his clenching teeth. This was what he was concerned from the get go; a potential side effect of the curse being aggressive and procedurally cut out.

Seconds later, he soon found that whatever was befalling Zuri was not simply pain. Travis watched as her right hand slow and unsteadily raise upward. The act and movement of Zuri's arm betrayed her painful reactions, almost as if it was moving on its own accord and yet there was apparent resistance or struggle in the motion. It soon became brutally clear to Travis that this wasn't a mere byproduct of the curse being remove, it was in-fact the curse quite literally fighting back. And Zuri was trying her best to keep it in check and stop it from taking notable aim at the spell's caster.

"Aw hell," Travis muttered, quickly concluding that curse was now taking extreme measures to stop its dispelling.

In the brief moments, if not seconds before Zuri's curse would pull something, Travis recalled their battle with Rutger and remembered how Zuri formulated her attacks. Crystals. Shards of dark palette variety capable of disrupting magic and the flow of a caster's mana. The thought of either being jabbed by a large crystal or being obstructed from maintaining the spell was unappealing put the Untalent into high alert.

Sure enough, Zuri's efforts were at the breaking point as he quickly caught the materialization of one such crystal in her hand. Travis noted the first time she has had lobbed one of these projectiles and identified the insane speed it flew. It was outstanding untraceable to the common eye and that put him at a serious disadvantage, resulting in very little time to respond effectively. He had only a few seconds to spare.

"Incoming!" Travis yelled, hoping to alert Felix to the impending danger that was about to befall them, namely the Untalent in this instance.

Timing was now everything as he had no way to evade with the juncture given to him and the spell essentially kept him in place anyway. If he was going to get out of this troubling event alive, Travis needed to make his reply head-on into the trajectory of Zuri's possessed attack. Gambling on an educated guess, Travis drew his left hand out and casted instinctively projected a repulsion spell. Seeing as Zuri's crystals would likely punch through any barrier he could produce; his one methodology was to instead alter the course of the inbound crystal. Honestly, a grazing hit was better than a direct hit in his book.

Sure enough, the attack came but as Travis predicted, he, at least physically, couldn't see it coming. However, with his response planned out with mere seconds ahead of time, he concluded in the split-second moment that the crystal thrown at him was no longer in Zuri's palm and thankfully neither was it stuck into him. He however dared not draw his eyes anywhere else other than to Zuri and whatever her curse has in store. Presumably if that one stroke of defiance was the curse's last hurrah. Anticipating any more trouble, Travis began conjuring up another spell to better his defense just in case.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Travis stared quizzically at Zuri. He honestly hadn't thought about how the curse would react, especially to its host, when it responds to being dispelled. Briefly, he began to have doubts if it was proper to carry on with his live trial with the Causality Scryer, after having been informed how the spell displayed a forceful tenacity while surgically unraveling problematic designs and incantations. Then, he was reassured, if not convinced, that this was probably the best chance of breaking Zuri's unidentifiable curse, regardless of the risks.

"I expect some discomfort, however I can't say how painful it will be, if at all. These are unknown waters we're treading here," Travis explained as he took the memory case containing the sell from the work table, "it'll only take a moment for the spell to warm up. Go ahead and stand in the center of the room and hold there. Hopefully this doesn't take to long."

With that, he began pouring mana into the crystal and the rune within began to glow. Seconds passed, and he raised his hand toward Zuri and within it, the spell ignited. The Causality Scryer run projected itself into reality and surrounding its notable small profile spun several runic rings, each rotating at a different and a directional vector. In retrospect, it resembled a armillary sphere moving on its own accord. A moment later, a ray of light shot forth from the eye of the rune into Zuri's center mass. The beam itself was harmless and merely acted as a guideline, prompting the spinning rings to unhinge from their spherical patter and aligned in the space between the rune and Zuri.

Eight seconds after the spell's casting, the lager of the ring that hovered before Zuri emitted a low and rune resonated with the other rings. From her perspective, it would be gazing into an glowing artificial tunnel where the heart of the rune stood at the other side, gazing back towards her. The rings immediately spun faster and hummed louder than before while additional threads of lighted casted from each of the articulated bands onto Zuri. Like a laser pointer, the smaller beams scoured all over her frontal profile. This was the phase Travis had been described to by the spell's developers as the scanning phase. The spell was now looking into Zuri; into the curse and compiling its make up and complexity before eventually dispelling it.

Twenty seconds in and the humming momentarily quieted down but not before the tinier lines of light conjoined their points to the main guiding beam. The rings themselves soon became even more lively and louder while the center design of the rune suddenly commenced a rapidly flashing its illumination. Travis then knew that the spell had the curse pinpointed and it was on the attack.

A second later, a surging bulbous pulse of shot down the guiding beam's trajectory and quickly leading into the mass of Zuri. The moment it would impact, the spell would then be fully committed in its purging phase. And it would not stop until its target was cleansed.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"Actually," Travis began in response to Felix's query, "there is one other thing I'd want to address. Apart from our research pertaining to your predicament, I had on the side began researching how to undo Zuri's unusual curse. To make a long story short, I believe I have a solution for unraveling her curse and properly dispelling it."

He paused only briefly, giving a reassuring glance at Zuri before continuing, "with your permission, I would like to test the spell out before we depart."