Spearhead Squadron - In Character

[SilverwindBlade]

(OOC can be found here)

Spearhead Squadron

May 23rd
2012
U-Tapao Airbase,
Thailand
04:00 Hours

Scott 'Romeo' Valentine leaned back against the front landing gear of his large, powerful and, to his eyes at least, beautiful B-1R LanceR 'bomber', although the term was a misnomer, as the plane was more than capable of launching air-to-air missiles and a vast array of other weapons. So much so, that that had been part of the reason he'd ended up here, along with his co-pilot, Jennifer, who was up in the planes' cabin now, finishing the last pre-flight checks.
This morning was due to be a true test of their abilities, and of his own. Following a terse and rapidly delivered briefing by his CO, General Wilder, he'd been informed that after all the training and prep he'd received to take command of Spearhead Squadron, they were about to be thrown into battle. He hadn't had time to meet the men properly yet, to place faces to names, or gauge personalities and behaviour: just a list of names and aircraft, with printouts of their service records. He'd studied it on the flight here from Dyess, Texas, and had a feel for them - especially Nicolas, the Russian who would be second in command.

But that was all he'd had to go on, before being presented the mission brief: The Chinese forces were, according to imagery gathered by a U-2 overflight, gathering their forces for a long-range aerial assault on the US and Coalition forces based in South Korea, driving them back in order to allow North Korean forces to engage in a ground assault.
The forces appeared to include many of the new types of aircraft that had been a linchpin in operations so far, as well as more familiar craft, armed with unfamiliar weapons. The mission, then, was twofold; delay, if not destroy, the offensive - preferably on the ground - and gather performance data on the new aircraft and their weapon systems.
Scott grimaced - while it was a straightforward ojective, it was far too much like bearding the lion in its' den. As good and as advanced as the Spearhead Squadron was, throwing oneself into harms' way was never something to be done lightly.
All the same - they had maps, they had timetables, and they had support. An E-3C Sentry was taking off shortly to provide them with control and a battlefield overview; CSAR units were ready and poised should the worst occur, and the tankers would be waiting on their return trip to make sure everyone got home safe.
He checked his watch, and scanned the flight line, looking at the unfamiliar shapes, all a ghostly grey in the pre-dawn glow. Everything was almost still, almost unearthly - the last moment of nights' grasp before the sun split the skies.
Levering himself off of the nose-gear support, he made one last walkaround of the B-1R as he waited for the others to arrive, and gave a smile as the shrieking whine of APU's cut the air, the maintenance crews beginning the warm up for the line of jets.
Time was running quickly. They were on a schedule, and there was a mission waiting.

[DemonicalTerror]

Nicolas ''Demon'' Richko was inside his Fighter, looking at the paper with names and aircrafts. His Names standing at the Secound in Commad line, where all 2IC's where if on paper. A man named Scott Valentine, Callsign: Romeo, was his commanding officer, He thought to himself that this man hade a strange taste in aircraft, so he thought to himself again that hed have to Fly escort for him, He thought as he laughed out. Thinking of his own aircraft however it was all to fast for the enemy, going at a max speed of mach 2.3 +
He then opened his cockpit and climbed down the ladder located at bothsides of the cockpit. Nicolas then walked over to Scott and awaited everyone else.

[Mobius1]

Holden walked around his aircraft carefully checking every surface of the craft. He carefully scanned the aircraft, making a mental note of every scratch on the planes surface. He checked hydraulic line, engine mounts and anything else that could cause problems during flight. After finishing his walk around, Holden let out a quiet sigh. There was a buzz in the air, everyone moved quickly and purposely. Something big was about to happen, Holden could feel it. That feeling in the air was the same one he had felt many times before, the buzz that happens just before battle. They hadn’t had much of a briefing. All the pilots were just told to get their planes ready for launch. Holden had already checked his instruments and controls. Everything seemed to be functioning normally. Holden had decided to do one final walk around while he had the chance. Holden walked in front of the plane and put his hand up on the underside of the nose. He gave the sharks mouth painted on the front a pat. Holden hadn’t really seen much of his squadron mates. Holden looked over at the B1 belonging to his squadron leader. He could see Nicholas and Scott waiting by the plane. Holden decided to go over and see what was going on. Scott hadn’t had a chance to address the unit in person. Maybe now was the opportunity to see what he had to say.

[SilverwindBlade]

Scott finished his walkaround, noting, with no small glee, the twelve AIM-120 AMRAAMs mounted on the four external hardpoints of the big bomber, the racks of AGM-154 JSOWs mounted on a rotary launcher in the forward bomb bay, and a host of CBU-87 Cluster Bombs in the middle one. Rather than more ordnance, the rearmost bay held an auxiliary fuel tank.
With the AMRAAM's on the forward pylons, the planes' stealth characteristics were shot, but the priority was the mission this time - the other aircraft of the squadron could provide enough cover, and the plan was to destroy radars or defences before they got close enough to be an issue.
As he arrived back by the front landing gear strut and the ladder up into the inside of the sleek warplane, he was greeted first by his new second-in-command, and then another of the squadron - Holden, he realised.
"Gents," he said with a tight nervous smile, and a nod. "Good morning. Shame we can't be meeting under less stressful circumstances, but you all know how it is."
He put a hand out to each of them, holding Nicolas' hand a little longer.
"Demon, I look forward to working with you. Your record is very impressive; I'm glad we'll be working together, now, tovarich."
He nodded to Holden as well and grinned. "And it's always good to have another player from the home team along too. Now, I think we're still missin' a couple of people before we can leave, and go see what the Chinese are up to this time, and crash their party".

[Dragonbeard]

"Kusou! Looks like I overdid it again. How could the roads be this crowded at this time at this time of night!" Ryoji was weaving through traffic, pissing off plenty of other roadfarers. Two near-misses, one kick into the drivers door of a taxi van, 7 red lights and a gas station stop later he finally managed to haul his caffeine-riddled body to U-Tapao Airfield.
His J-12 was shipped in for the mission and waiting on the tarmac right outside one of the hangars. Leaving his bike in the middle of the walkway towards the entrance, he scurried to the locker room, 90 seconds later emerging onto the strip. One sleeve of his navy blue flightsuit dangled behind him while he struggled to carry all of his gear.
"Sorry I'm late sir!" he apologised to officer Valentine, "Jetlag... you know how it is right. Anywho, it seems like your loadout has been finished and I haven't managed to get through the mission briefing docs as of yet." He spotted a 5-man crew waiting next to his jet with 4 carts full of ammunition. "What'll the payload be for me sir? Am I flying puuuuuuuuw-BOSH", he gestured a downward arc with his right arm, nearly hitting the second in command in the face with his helmet, "or am I shooting psshhhhhhh-BOOM" he spoke loudly with his arm extending towards the PAK FA stationed on the runway, this time casque flying in that direction. He jumped after it, gathered the now scratched black helmet and the rest of his gear that went flying, cursing under his breath and leaving everyone else dumbfounded.

[DemonicalTerror]

'' Приветствия ( greetings ) Scott, My name is Nicolas Richko. спасибо ( thank you. ) for looking at my flight record, you have a xорошая запись себе ( good record yourself. ) '' His Russian english showing off more then enough of his english grammar skills however the speaking was not which made him an ace, his Record is what made him what he is, A groundbraking 50 confirmed destroyed aircraft, Making him one of the USSR's Favorite and most skilled pilots. however apon hearing this new ' ace ' he became shocked, he looked slightly towards Scott with a ' what the hell? ' look apon his face then he looked back towards this new person as he allmost got hit in the face by the new ones helmet. Nicolas own helmet was a next generation fighter helmet it looked unique and only russias best would test try it, and what other good opertunity then to test it on the battlefield? so he got the helmet and 3 others if they would break.

[FoxSVK]

Nikolai walked around his plane, with a strange feeling taking over him. He was clear with the objective of their next mission, but it could not clear away all the questions he had in his mind. He knew it was important to stop the Chinese forces from mounting a full-scale assault, but what he did not like was how will they proceed. It was like, storming the Lion´s den. Sure, they had lots of intelligence gathered in preparations for the upcoming attack, but this was war. He knew that situations in war could change from second to second ... one second, you might have the upper hand, the very next second you might be afraid about your very own survival.

With these thoughts, he continued his walk around his Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet. They main objective was to hit the Chinese hard, fast, before they can react to them. But they also had to protect the squadron leader´s plane, Romeo´s Rockwell B-1. It packed a really heavy punch, but still needed some assistance from more anti air duty oriented fighters, and that was what he signed up for. He noted the other pilots in his squadron as well, and was glad that the " Demon ", Nicolas Richko was among them. One of the most famed and feared pilots of the USSR, he looked forward to serve under his command. Also, there was an american pilot there, Holden, that was his name. He really looked forward to meeting and actually seeing some action with him as well. And also, there was Ryoji, one of the youngest members of the squad. He looked forward to see him in action as well, curious about his youthful passion for flying.

With that, he finished the walk around of his craft, being satisfied with it´s state ... except the constant aerial bombardment of the local birds, whom took a particular liking in his plane, as he only noticed his plane being pooped on. He checked his ordnance, mostly air - to - air ordnance. From twelve slots at his disposal, eight of them were occupied by AA missiles, from medium to long range ones. The remaining four pods were occupied by S-8 rocket pods to wreak havoc upon ground targets. Also, his trustworthy GSh-30 was fully loaded, with 150 rounds. Not too much, but he was a patient pilot, he always waited for a perfect show before firing his precious munition. He would complete his pre-flight check before taking off, as he always did, to the annoyance of most of his comrades. With that in his mind, he walked around the nose of his craft, patting the Red Fox on the nose of his plane. He headed to the B-1 where the pilots were gathering. Upon reaching it, he spoke up to Romeo, and the others.

" I am sorry for the delay, Romeo ... I mean, commander, De ... I mean, captain Richko. The Red Fox is reporting for duty! " he finished, his speech distorted by his heavy russian accent. And now his head was full of thoughts about what are his superiors thinking about him.

[SilverwindBlade]

Scott was both amused and alarmed as Ryoji made his... 'theatrical' entrance, his ebulliant personality coming through loud and clear as he spoke and moved with exaggerated, excited gestures. In reply to his question, Scott repeated the motions and sounds the Polish-Japanese had used for ground attack.
"You'll be responsible for hitting the Radar Installations on the way in, along with my man Snake here," he gestured to the fellow American pilot. "Then switch over to CAP and take out any fighters that get into the air. Though they'll be mostly the job of our trusty 2IC-" he gestured to Demon, "-and, our other illustrious member"
He gestured as Nikolai introduced himself and nodded in reply.
"We've got AWACS support and a Tanker waiting en route so we'll be well topped off for the misson. The plan is to try and catch 'em mostly on the ground, and take out any that get into the air. Not too complicated, but some of their hi-tech stuff will be on the mission, and we're also out to get as much of a look at that as we can too." He shrugged. "Not anythin' else much to it. All we gotta do is get in the air, and get on our way. Time's-a-wastin, people!"
The Texan gestured to the others, and then turned on his heel, giving a thumbs up to the ground crew, who began removing the hoses, and closing panels on the big B-1R, while he scaled the ladder to the crew cabin.

As he slid into the pilots seat, he exchanged a fist-bump with Jennifer, who grinned widely at him.
"I was beginnin' to wonder if you were coming," she said with a grin as she hit a few controls, and the cockpit lights dimmed in response to the imminent sunrise. "Thought I'd have to fly the mission on my own".
"Nah," replied Scott as he finished the last of his own checklists, and settled his helmet into place, and jacked into the radio and life-support connections. "You would'a got lonely without me."
The B-1 switched over to internal power as the APU started the engines, the four Pratt and Whitney turbofans roaring to life with a demons' own howl. The last panels and pins cleared, the ground crew chief held them up in view of the cockpit, so that Scott and Jennifer could see the plane was cleared. Both gave him a thumbs up, and Jennifer powered the bay doors closed. With the last lists checked, Scott fed power into the four engines, and the jet eased forward with a rumble, heading for the taxiway.

[DemonicalTerror]

As Scott gestured towards him he just nodded softly as he looked around slightly as the briefing was complete he ran towards his jet as he took large and fast steps up the stair leading to the cockpit, as he was inside his loved aircraft the crew of the airfield started to remove the clamps from his wheels. He went through his checklist and everything seemed ok since he fixed every problem before the briefing. He armed the flares readied the missiles that hade been choosed for this assault, mostly air to air but several Air to ground missiles aswell, allso the most common thing of the aircraft, the Machine gun. it was loaded with enough bullets for enough dogfights, to himself the machine gun was a last resort more then anything. He started the engines as they slowly but steadily started to enter into a roar louder then even the B-1R's. As Romeo and Voodo proceeded to the taxiway he followed about 200 meters after them. He pushed on the Radio and went into an all around squad radio. '' Счастливой охоты, товарищ '' ( Happy Hunting comrades. )

[FoxSVK]

Nikolai pulled of a salute before leaving for his Sukhoi SU-35, which was prepared and waiting even before the briefing. As he approached the ladder and started climbing it, he turned his head to see everybody on the base moving. It was chaos, but organized chaos. Everybody was moving with purpose. He had his own purpose, too. He nodded at his maintenance crew that was just finishing the fueling of his plane, hurrying to detach the fuel intake and remove the pins used to keep his plane from moving. As he sat in the cockpit, he put on his helmet, connected the visor and the other systems to the plane´s mainframe, as well as his suits attachments. Making a quick work with his check list, he soon got all instruments prepared for the mission. With that, he fired up the engines on his plane. He always enjoyed this part. The vibrations that gently shook the plane as the two Luylka engines in the back of his craft roared to life, slowly producing a deafening noise to anyone without the proper protection to his ears. With that noise, he closed the cockpit and started to roll towards the runway, greatly anticipating the chance to fight with the best pilots in the world. He rolled about 150 - 200 meters behind his comrade and smiled at the words of the Demon.

" Счастливой охоты, товарищ '' ( Happy Hunting comrades. )