ShiningSector

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

@Haeo If I am not mistaken, looks like you're up.

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

"Right'o!" Rodriguez exclaimed in agreement.

With their brief interaction discussion concluded, each pilot made their way to their respective aircraft. Arriving back to his machine, he circled Pandora, inspecting it of any physical anomalies that could have incurred during the flight here. As expected, it was a smooth flight and the reinforced airframe was perfectly intact. Sparring no time and eager to get off the ground, Rodriguez climbed back into elevated canopy and sealed the access latch behind him.

He squeezed his way past the amassed instruments of his electronic warfare suite that made up much of the cockpit until and settled in and claimed his seat. It didn't take him line to fire up the aircraft's systems, only a few seconds after sliding the ignition into place, followed by an low awakening whine reverberating throughout the airframe. Rodriguez peered at the gauges and self-inspecting apparatuses of his control board. Everything appeared fully functional with the fuel meter having hardly dropped from the trip and still perfect to crossing several more states.

Reclaiming his flight mask and wrapping the intake loosely over his mouth, Rodriguez prompted Pandora's two turboprop engines to life. The dual-propellers of each engine slowly counter rotated in tandem with one another. Each few seconds, the props spun faster and faster, increase the pitch and loudness of the engines until the revolutions game to a consistent fast-spinning growl. His Super Savage was alive again.

Taxiing the runway took a few minutes to eventually complete. With no air traffic control to guide him through a series of holding patterns and awaiting the imminent return of landing aircraft, none to speak of in this case, taking off with only two other aircraft to note of was easier to manage. Once he was on the runway and clear of any obstacles, he applied the throttle and immediately felt the G-forces kick in as the initial growling of his turboprop engines become a duo or roars. The Pandora, pushed by the propellers cutting into the air and the exhaust acing as a mock jet-engine, streaked down the runway before Rodriguez pulled the flight stick inward, ascending the aircraft.

After several minutes climbing, Rodriguez put his machine meters away from Roland's left flank, merging into formation.

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

Travis couldn't hide back the quizzical look directed at the Magi, "Having a sample will certainly help uncovering this curse or whatever it really is, however, its not guaranteed to tell us the full story. Honestly it is going to take time to dissect this snippet before coming up with a, practical, solution."

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

Travis quietly observed Zuri as she accepted his apology. With all the time he had kept her waiting, he had anticipated her to be dismayed of the freak situation that had erupted through his collaborated spell. In actuality however, she didn't even appeared fazed if not utterly exhausted and promptly accepted his reparation without any hints of anger or sorrow. Eventually, her eyes closed and presumably succumbed to rest before Felix came from behind and pulled Travis to the nearby hallway.

Even after the few minutes that had passed by, it was oddly notable how much distress came through the Magi's voice as he explained to Travis what he had witnessed. Apparently through the ordeal as the Causality Scryer worked the curse over, Felix had caught a glimpse of some sort of seal that drew from Zuri's manawells. The new theory was that the entity that manifested seemed to be Zuri's true state and the curse they previously set out to dispel seemed to possess a function they hadn't anticipated, keeping this hostile force in check. Travis rubbed his eyes with the index finger and thumb of his left hand as he tried to take in this new information, confusing and stressing as it was.

While the guilt of bringing pain unto a friend still nagged at him, the reward however was valuable insight on the problem they current faced. Evidently, this meant that it was back to the drawing board. Almost forgetting about its existence Travis quickly realized that the memory case that contained the Causality Scryer was still in his right hand. However when he looked down upon it, the space the runic spell resided in had darkened with some sort of black swirling mass now occupying it.

Travis raised his hand and opened it, revealing his discovery to Felix, "While the spell had failed to bring us the results we were looking for, I suppose there is at least some silver lining to be had. The Causality Scryer's secondary task is documenting whatever it scans and pulls apart. What we have here, I think, is a small portion of that 'curse' it took."

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

Rodriguez's fact contorted to a concerned, almost worrisome expression upon seeing the condition the gas station was in, having now seen it up close. It was evident that the place had had been unkempt for quite some time with some of its wooden framework being degraded along with the stone and concrete heavily stained and falling apart. Surely the place was beyond repair by now and was hardly considered usable. But for now, it was better than sitting outside.

After taking one of the seats offered to him, Rodriguez eyed Roland has he gave his latest of reports. Apparently some bandits bearing a silver wolf, well-armed and equipped bandits for that matter, have caution quite a few problems for the Southeastern regions of the fractured States. While the information gave some notable details to go by, it unfortunately didn't paint a clear enough picture for I'm as far as what they were truly up against. Then again, that's why he and Jimmy, along with Roland, were here for; to fill in the gaps and find out who these goons really are. Fair enough.

Rodriguez pinched his chin as he gave their situation some thought, "Both places are decent options to start our search. However, getting into trouble with a dreadnaught should be the last thing on our to-do list with what we have now, regardless if one truly exists with these bandits of yours. I would put my money with checking out Atlanta first."

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

With the formal greetings out of the way, Rodriguez followed Roland, along with Jimmy to the nearby gas station. It wasn't hard for Rodriguez not to notice Roland glancing at their planes and suspected the man was inspecting the quality and history of each aircraft. It made sense, honestly. It as obvious judging by Roland's aged appearance that he had seen plenty of combat before and seemed natural for them man to take at least some interested in his to-be squadron-mates.

A moment later, Roland then queried him if he had seen any bandit activity on the way here, "Thankfully, no, sir. I typically try to go about my business unnoticed if I had the option. Had I spotted any of those war machines, I might have arrived late," Rodriguez replied.

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

@webboysurf My bad. Had to google search plenty of those aspects in order to, at best, detail how those processes would work. In one of the RPs here that delved with the same concept, I needed to take an hour just studying about an overhead recovery/approach and how it worked before putting it to post.

Sky Warriors: Birth Of An Army

Posting time was a bit longer than anticipate. I needed to get caught back up with technical lingo of running an aircraft (vaguely).

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.