Haha he was just a passing comment to tie this story's lore into the new one. Its totally up to you old friend! Only join if you feel you can commit to it!
Ah! I gotcha :). I'll think about it brutha, I'll think about it. It's tempting but I wanna be able to fully commit if circumstances allow :).
@King Tai maybe Reggie can come in as a guest wingman for one mission or something, like Kat or Bill did in Lylay wars. But not as a fully committed member of the team as he has his duties in georgia.
@Dynamo Frokane CS now ready for review, when you have time of course.
PILOT Name: Ryan Lungfirst Age: 38(15-65) Height: 5’10” Weight: 148 lbs Pilot Class: Sky Warrior Nationality: “Alaskan” Appearance: Brown eyes so dark as to seem almost black stare piercingly from beneath red eyebrows speckled with white. Beneath them squats a wide nose atop a mustache and beard that make the mouth all but invisible, for all that the beard stops only an inch below the chin. Above it all is a high, and slightly receding, hairline with a slightly golden sheen breaking up its dusky blonde. This is the face of Ryan Lungfirst, pilot of the “Long-Dive” and skilled evader of major trouble.
His body isn’t that impressive though, a little thin but muscled with a farmer’s tan. His fingers and toes are a little long and he stands at a modest 5’10”. Fashion isn’t his strong suit and he is rarely seen in anything other than either a black or gray flight suit and dusty brown work boots, unless he broke out his mechanic’s coveralls.
Bio: Lungfirst was born to a farming family in southern Illinois. However, the town was raided and most of the residents were sold as slave labor, his family included. While most of his family were sold to settlements in various states throughout the Northwestern states, he was still small enough that onen of them wanted him. Eventually, he was sold to a bandit gang in southern Alaska in exchange for a few small boxes of cheap ammo. After a few years, he earned full membership by shooting a spy from a rival gang. Unknown to him at the time, the leader of his gang was watching when he pulled the trigger.
The spy died slowly from the gunshot wound to a lung as the young Ryan felt no need to waste additional bullets on a dying enemy. The gang leader gave him the name Lungfirst and full membership in recognition of his instinctive ruthlessness. He began to learn quickly, everything that he could learn as a full member. That gang survived for several more years before they suffered a series of catastrophic failed raids.
As Lungfirst was talented and efficient with maintenance and repair work he was too valuable to risk on raids. This was how he survived. As time went on, he was passed from one bandit squadron to another as they were killed in the continual infighting that ravaged the Alaskan wilderness. He loaded and maintained the bush planes that saw most of the tiny skirmishes over the interior of Alaska. Kept alive by virtue of his skills, he moved from one area to another with whoever he served. It didn’t hurt his survival odds that he wasn’t loyal to any one boss, they all understood that he was out to survive. But eventually, after dodging death most of his life and getting through puberty without giving girls much thought, he found himself besotted with an engineer working with a local military wing based out of an old Air Force Base. He waited until the right moment, when his current boss was going to die in another ill-conceived raid, and joined the military for the most cliché of reasons.
She was smart and driven. She also couldn’t care one bit about the up and coming recruit of questionable loyalty. Still, she needed a test pilot for their latest tech resurrection program who could actually understand what was being tested. That was how Test Pilot Lungfirst ended up behind the stick of quite a few exotic and experimental planes. He played a part in stabilizing the interior of Alaska by using his rapidly developing piloting skill and well-honed mechanical insight to perfect the planes that decided many fights and annihilated numerous bandit gangs. Unfortunately, the higher ranking officers decided that he knew too much and had become too important. They planned an accidental retirement for him, post-mortem medals included.
The plan involved the engineering girl of his dreams finally showing him some interest and leading him right into the trap. But, a boy raised by bandits is no stranger to betrayal. The change in his crush’s behavior was too much to be believed. When that test flight started he went up with a full load instead of the minimal supplies that were scheduled. After sticking around at low altitude long enough to test the alternate console arrangement that was the subject of the test and remove the bomb that was under his seat and drop it out the side of the canopy, he climbed up to his plane’s maximum safe altitude, picked a direction and kept going.
A couple lucky engagements and some mercenary and courier work kept him flying and allowed him to cross vast stretches of sky with only a few close calls. After all, there were very few planes that could even get to his altitude, never mind being able to fight or dodge once there. It helped his odds that he was able to maintain and upgrade his plane as he went, though he was careful not to return to Alaska. The plane that he fled with was far from cutting edge, though the line models being produced back there were heavier with either scanning equipment or heavy bomb loads. Neither could get within ten thousand feet of the altitude that Lungfirst prefers without dropping all their gear unless they wanted to stall.
After almost a decade of this roving life he finally developed a reputation for getting jobs done, consistently and safely. It was a rare kind of reputation for anyone who flew the turbulent skies. This rare reputation was likely the only reason why he received a job offer from a legendary ace. Ryan almost rejected the offer. The prospect of working with a dogfighter added an element of risk to the job that was usually past his go-no go threshold. But, the prestige he would gain by working with this particular man could prove to be well worth the danger. Besides, stability was good for business and war wasn’t.
Theme Song: (optional)
PLANE:
Name: XB-35-M4 “Long-Dive” Description: This model was designed for testing various sets of modular equipment and extended flight initially. Lungfirst's subsequent modifications include numerous features including targeting sensors in the fuselage that allow the acquisition of missile locks at significant range without altering the Long-Dive's orientation or costing it altitude. Plane Type: Prop Flying Wing Extra Aircraft Notes: Designed for extreme altitude, efficiency, and precision, this plane can hold its altitude for 38 hours and is equipped for mid-air refueling. However, its armor is concentrated on its belly, tail, and nose with the upper fuselage left more vulnerable. Long-Dive typically holds an altitude where the thinness of the atmosphere makes dogfighting all but impossible, even for the planes that can reach it without stalling.
Weapons Descriptions: -One Nose mounted Minigun -20 Unguided rockets divided between two launchers, one beneath the Minigun and one in the rear center fuselage. -4 Air-Ground missile launchers in the wings. -2 Ammo Pods on the upper fuselage loaded with replacement missiles for his launchers. -2 Air-Air missile launchers that fire half-sized twin-detonation homing missiles. Each missile is either EM or Heat Seeking, fired alternately. (If the target breaks off and achieves a relative position that approximately flanks the missile then it fires a ring dispersal shower of bomblets. If the target remains ahead of it then the missile will attempt to collide with the target, detonating a shaped charge with high armor piercing capability. If the missile suffers damage it will align with its target and detonate both systems simultaneously.)
Weaknesses: unarmored upper fuselage and very limited agility Past Encounter: (Optional, give a description of a note-worthy mission/battle/adventure that this Frame has been on)
@ShiningSector Indeed, I am. And I'm mostly done. Not too much to this intro but it's hard to make a long and elaborate entrance without getting within a more reasonable distance.
