Heroic biopics usually have a first draft written and a lead actor cast before the real event is even done. With the power of Disney+-x/ and the Writer's Guild of Sol, any timetable is possible.
1 minute, 16 seconds before the Tide Queen crash lands:
"Someone go clone Bruce Willis again, a Martian anti-piracy taskforce just prevented a pirate crew from stealing a shipment of cutting-edge Orbitals by crashing the cargo ship into Siberia! We'll call it "Descent into Heroism" or something equally tasteless!"
As funny as this is, The reentry event happened one to two years before the Pandora's launch... Movies take longer than that start to finish in modern times.
Gah, Hawthorne ninja'd me in the IC. I just gotta tweak my post a bit though. lucky lucky.
P.S. I'm stating this as fact for no other reason than it's funny: Adam's name and likeness were used in that action movie totally without his consent or knowledge, and he's 100% ignorant of its existence.
Mars making bank off it though.
P.P.S: the Red Atlas is the name of the military cruiser as well as the name of the anti-piracy taskforce based out of said ship. Because Mars wanted to make propaganda a cartoon out of it, and there was significant confusion about what was supposed to be what.
If no one else was around, Adam would have been bashing his head into the nearest wall. Of course a lot of the people here would have left behind actual lives. He would be in a minority of personnel that had very little tying them down. I had to open my big mouth. The Technician woman had a distracted look about her, fiddling with her empty MRE as if she wanted to focus on something, anything else. They'd flown into a minefield without even noticing.
"Damn... Must've been tough... surprised you didn't go back-- the Van-Winkle Laws would've provided for you for a long time." no no no no, shit don't take it there.
He shrugged as he wracked his brain for a response with less of his foot firmly planted in their collective mouth. I heard mention of beaches. joke about not bringing by bathing suit? No, that could come off as insensitive or indifferent, and with a thirty year gap no one's will have a home to go back to... Ask her about back home? No, I'd probably make her feel worse trying to be a shrink. He was out of time and he was drawing a blank.
"...Then again, I guess if you're on this mission, you're not in it for money, hm?" Perfect! Thank you Castle!
"Excited to be one of the first to set foot on the new planet?" He put on his best encouraging smile for her, and everyone else at the table to a lesser degree. "Think they'll name a region after you?" He tended to his MRE, propping the sleeve up and ripping open one of the snacks. He muttered under his breath. "A granola bar with coconut and dried pineapple? Who comes up with this shit? Stuck with MREs-" The fog cleared from his head and the thought that had been nagging at him slammed into his consciousness harder than a freighter hitting the Siberian tundra.
Adam's expression changed from jovial to guarded as he slowly swept his head from one side to the other, his eyes dancing over every individual in the mess hall. Everyone here is in a flight suit. Pilots. His eyes locked onto the empty kitchen area, unmanned and spotless. His hand constricted on reflex, keying an imaginary radio as he whispered a question to no one in particular. "Why did they only wake us up?" He didn't know why, but his heart was hammering in his chest. He turned back to the Technician, his smile reduced relaxed to a grin.
"I guess I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Adam Gilford, and it's nice to meet you."
Appearance: Adam is a mountain of a man, standing at 6'3", broad and heavily muscled, though he keeps a healthy supply of bodyfat on himself to support function over form or aesthetics of physique. Like many Martian men in his age bracket, his facial features are a generic "rugged handsome" as a result of fetal genetic tampering prevalent across mars some years ago. He keeps his dark brown hair, mustache and beard well-maintained but thick enough to conceal most of his gene-tailored features.
Personality: Out of combat, Adam is a calm and generally agreeable individual that often tries to avoid conflict amongst his comrades, less so among outsiders or people he is unfamiliar with. When he's not just idly hovering around his friends, he can come off as overly-cautious, curious and blunt, though he does have a small hot streak if he feels he's being mistreated. He can be surprisingly perceptive of his environment, though he always second-guesses himself when it comes to people.
On a deeper level, he struggles to reconcile his identity as a pilot with an intensifying anxiety while behind his controls. He knows the reputation following his Orbital, and it is beginning to affect him.
Backstory: A Martian born and raised, Adam's entire world was Mars through his entire childhood. Born to an Agri-tech and his Mining Foreman Wife, Adam lived in the same town from birth until he turned twenty when he joined the Martian Navy. The reasons why were numerous, but a falling out with his parents was a large contributor.
His time training to join the Navy is where things became something other than mundane. Showing the proper aptitudes to operate an Orbital, he was pushed into space to fill one of the many cockpits available thanks to a large Defense-spending budget and some interplanetary saber-rattling, all under the guise of "anti-piracy operations". There, Adam proved himself a capable pilot, and he found himself promoted into and onto the Red Atlas, Mars' "pride and joy", touted as Mars' "Front line against space-piracy". It was more or less a publicity project, used to earn political points and bankroll more defense spending than was really necessary.
Surprising everyone , the Red Atlas actually saw a substantial amount of combat and success both. Supported by the overperforming SFC-11, countless pirate crews were dragged in or shot down over the first few years of the project, to the joy of everyone but the pirates. Things grew intense after the UN forcefully dismantled a massive criminal empire spanning the entire solar system, and a power-vacuum was left in it's place. Things went quiet for a while before Piracy started again in earnest, waiting for the colonies to relax. With this new pirate threat emerging, Mars shelled out to upgrade it's numerous Orbitals, and it's armored forces further diversified. Adam eventually found himself behind the controls of one of the now-infamous SFC-11-G, hot off the line.
Late in In 247 SA, the Red Atlas was deployed to Earth to act as escort for a cargo ship in a rare "quiet" mission. Escord the Tide Queen cargo hauler from Earth to Mars. Everyone knew they were guarding something expensive, but exactly what was kept need-to-know. When the Tide Queen reported gunfire in the hold fifteen minutes after leaving space dock, no one expected Adam and his squad to be fighting for their lives.
An enterprising pirate crew had learned of what the Queen was moving and had stowed away by greasing palms and blackmail. When Adam and squad entered the hold, they were alarmed to see other Orbitals online and operational. The ensuing close-quarters conflict inside of the ship caused considerable damage, and after losing power to it's lower-rear thrust, began a sharp nose-down dive into Earth's gravity. The pirates, in a panic, breached the hull and escaped into space, and the Martian forces were forced to pursue.
Two opposing forces facing one another down in the middle of an unplanned reentry was a recipe for disaster. The Pirates, backed into a corner and unable to flee, chose to fight the anti-piracy squad in the Tide Queen's wake. After beating and/or crippling the pirates the only option for a survivable landing was a suicide burn. Adam, having covered his squad's escape and disabling the last enemy Orbital, launched at the last minute. Having launched lower in Earth's atmosphere, his landing was much less stable. Adam survived the crash heavily injured, but alive and unconscious in the Siberian tundra.
Months later, during his recovery, the Martian government sought to use Adam's notoriety as yet another publicity stunt. They wanted to send him off on the Pandora with a replacement Orbital and plenty of good press. Having very little tying him down, and with the opportunity to see an entirely different system, he accepted. From then to the launch, Adam finished his recovery and proceeded to train on his new Orbital and prepare for what could be a one-way-trip.
Skills & Flaws:
++Adam has been trained to survive maneuvers that would injure or kill most other pilots while maintaining control in combat, and he has an innate understanding of the physical dangers he and other pilots face.
++A sharp perception and intuition allow Adam to read the battlefield, so long as he can rely on his sensors and intel. It's easier for him to figure out roughly what his opponent is doing and plan ahead, and strange behaviors will inevitably draw his attention.
--Specialization has it's drawbacks, and Adam is no exception. While grounded, Adam is fully reliant on his allies for direction, and is prone to making poor choices of position. He knows where to fly, but he doesn't know where to stand.
--The physical and mental stresses of piloting are intense for Adam, and if battles are dragged out, he becomes more and more vulnerable to panic or slip-ups. This problem is exacerbated by his Orbital's limited capacity for carrying munitions, meaning the more he fights, the worse it will get.
Equipment:
Enhanced Flight-Suit: Necessary for safe operation of his Orbital. The suit is noticeably bulkier than standard suits out of necessity, as most suits are designed almost exclusively for forward acceleration. Martian Navy coloration of Black and Orange-Red.
Colonial Arms 20-30 MAW: Adam's Service Weapon from the Mars Navy, a Magnetic PDW. High stopping power. Physical mount present in Orbital Cockpit.
Model Number: MRI SFC-11-G(C) "Skyhammer"
Role: Air-Superiority / Hypermobility Interceptor
Appearance: The SFC-011-G series Orbitals all share the same physical appearance, barring the differing equipment of sub-series. All have the same core frame, standing shy of the average at 19m tall. The armor is wrapped tightly around the internals and heavily angled to keep wind resistance down, giving the limbs (and the torso to a lesser degree) a thin, gangly and mildly unnerving appearance. The head is heavily angular, opting for a more utilitarian and less humanoid appearance, mounting three slightly recessed optical modules stacked vertically, each housing it's own mono-optic and compound sensor array. The most notable part of the SFC-011-Gs are the myriad reversible thruster vents merged into the armor leaving numerous blocky directional vents all over the Orbital's armor.
Systems:
Bell-Isle Harborworks "Frontiersman" Movement Control System: An enhanced control program that smooths Orbital movements and maneuvers in an attempt to reduce physical stresses on the pilot via cockpit reorientation, thrust control and vitals tracking. Also possesses a limited combat-autopilot and a learning algorithm to self-improve according to pilot needs.
General Industries Centralized Capacitor Bank: In order to increase the flexibility of the Skyhammer's Oberth Reactor, a capacitor bank was installed in the center-rear of the torso to provide an energy buffer of sufficient size to remove the pilot's need to micromanage power consumption. An additional utility offered by this system is the retractable power cable spool located on the Orbital's lower back.
Bell-Isle Harborworks MCS-481 "Bullseye": Numerous anti-missile countermeasures installed and configured for the Skyhammer Orbitals, primarily consisting of High-Intensity Flares, Radar Decoys and nanochaff, though other modern countermeasures are included as well.
Weapons:
Isurugi Heavy Industries FOMAR-221 x1: A Magnetic Accelerator Rifle using twin barrels running off of a single overclocked feed system to achieve a high fire rate without sacrificing firepower. This one sports an optional drum-magazine filled with standard munitions. Only one spare magazine is carried, limiting capacity for alternative munitions.
Argive Industrial VI-LBS x2: A pair of light-weight beam-sabres, each mounted on a hip. Configurable between optimizing destructive potential and beam runtime.
Jawaid & Jawaid Industries SLM-41S x4: A quartet of small missiles that can be fired unguided, dumb-fired for use with a target designator, or use radar lock to function as short-range pursuit missiles. Each missile is housed in an ejectable single-use pod mounted on the Skyhammer's back. if ejected without firing, the pod can still be dumbfired.
General Resources AMB: A small beam-weapon mounted in the head configured for low power and fact cycle times. Primarily used as a CIWS turret for intercepting projectiles and small debris.
Manufacturing History: Martian Robotic Industries was tasked with adapting their mass-production "Standard Frontline Chassis Model 11" from a bog-standard frontline Orbital into several specialized roles on a limited production budget with the promise of an absurdly lucrative production contract by the Martian government. The "Skyhammer" Refit sought to remake the relatively plain Model 11 into an air-superiority powerhouse.
Statistically, the design was a success, utilizing a compact reversible thruster system and a slew of miniaturizations and weight-saving measures produced an Orbital boasting a greatly reduced weight and a very high thrust output. Combining it's resulting high acceleration with the total maneuverability afforded by it's dual-direction thrusters, the "Skyhammer" acheived hypermobility on a budget.
The 11-G turned out to be a victim of it's own success. Because of it's high performance and low manufacturing cost, it fell into more hands than other air-superiority Orbitals, and Mars' rush to fill cockpits reduced pilot standards for the design. The 11-G "Skyhammer" series quickly gained a reputation for killing pilots, and Mars demanded the model be modified for general use. Out of their depth, MRI sub-contracted Bell-Isle Harborworks to assist in further refining the 11-G.
The two iterations currently in service are the 11-G(A) and the 11-G(C). the A-variant utilized an enhanced flight-control program and new precision throttle-control to reduce the power drain and increase platform stability, making the 11-G(A) far more accessible. The C-variant took a different approach, seeking to better support well-trained pilots with an enhanced movement control system, better inerta-dampening cockpit systems and a more advanced flight-suit designed for the unusual acceleration patterns the pilots would inevitably face.
Weaknesses:
--Being as light as it is came with many costs, not the least of which was the overall reduction in armor density and effectiveness. the "Skyhammer" Orbital design's defenses are less than stellar, and while it can avoid standard munitions, it is more vulnerable to explosives and saturation-fire as a result.
--Pilot stress is important in combat, and this Orbital is more demanding than others. Protracted battles are likely to exhaust the pilot, and with the power behind the throttle, could very easily die from any resulting mistakes.
--Because of it's design focus, the Skyhammer has little capacity for stealth. While it could be equipped with an active ECM to cover for it's allies, the energy put out by it's thrusters make it impossible for the Orbital design to benefit from ECMs while fulfilling it's role.
--Payload restrictions are common on this Orbital, and it is incapable of properly utilizing weapons with excessive weight, energy or ammo consumption without compromising it's flight stability or maneuverability. Hard targets are almost fully outside this Orbital's purview.
Adam could hardly breathe, the cockpit was shaking violently and his Starstrike's optics were only showing the blue skies of Earth. as hard as he tried, he couldn't lift his arms, couldn't budge the controls even as he was deafened by the screaming of the wind's protest as his Orbital tore through the atmosphere. He couldn't see the smoke from the Queen any more, so he must have drifted away from it. he needed to move, but his body was limp, and the heat was bleeding into the cockpit pretty badly now. His skin felt like it was on fire.
-up Pull up? he was trying to! He was- in a cryo pod. Adam gasped as his brain shook off some of the cold. that single breath pushed him farther from his dream as the frigid air in the cryo bay granted him the wonderful sensation of inhaling razor-sharp blades of ice, stinging his parched throat. he pushed himself up and out of the angled cryo pod, only for every square inch of his body to protest hard enough to make him grit his teeth. Whatever parts of him that weren't experiencing that all-too-familiar pins-and-needles sensation were achingly, painfully cold. It was all he could do to keep from shivering-
"...proceed from cryostasis chambers to ready stations. Pandora will reach orbit in one hour. Follow the post-hibernation routine and proceed to your station by then. I repeat, This is your Captain speaking..." Routine. He could do that. The gears in his head were turning again, and training was still fresh in his mind- Wait, does it count as fresh if it's been frozen for fifteen years? He was already soaking in the warmth of the running water as he chuckled at his own stupid joke... The water felt good, washing away the grungy cryo film clinging to him like a soaked shirt. He couldn't just stand in the warmth forever though, and he quickly scrubbed himself down, the movement and warmth chasing away the numbness of a fifteen year freezer-nap. In moments he was clean again, though he had yet to shake the chill from his bones, he had to move on.
He trudged on through the open doorway and into the locker room. He was at the rear of the pack and a fair few lockers were left swinging open. he returned to his, nudged a locker door out of the way and opened his own. Inside there was just his flight suit. No pictures, no trinkets or memories. In the back of his mind he felt... sad? disappointed? He couldn't tell. As the flight suit went on, he shook off that indescribable feeling. He went through all the checks step by step. gloves, boots, legs, belt, sleeves. flex and look for slipping. nothing.
The thickness of the suit was already warming his body up when he entered the Mess. The faint smells of a dozen different mass-manufactured meals wafted about, and he absentmindedly pulled one out of the cardboard box nearest to him. A thought buzzed at the back of his mind, but more pressingly, there was a table with plenty of open seating still. And that one guy is even taller than I am. I won't stick out nearly as much! jackpot! He could pick out their voices over the low din of the rest of the mess if he tried-
"Morning. Haven't missed the party, have I?" Voice-to-Text? "...Just when were you frozen, miss?"
He quietly set his tray on the table and took his seat before opening his MRE, dumping the main course in it's sleeve and activating the thermal pack to get it heating. He poured the off-tasting cheese-sludge between the two overlarge cracker-sheets for something to gnaw on while he waited. He looked down the table to the only other person in a nonstandard pilot suit, a woman with purple hair. "Wait, you got the deepfreeze early? Are you part of the science crew?" asking never hurt.
A thought hovered at the back of his mind, nagging at him that something was off as he quietly munched on his substandard appetizer. MREs...
He's a bit of a boyscout, but every mech team needs their own y'know?
Also, you can view that "unplanned reentry" however you want, but it was absolutely more about having the right Orbital in that situation. It was just spun really hard with the heroics angle by Mars.
Also, a majority of the pilots at the table right now could handle an Interceptor, because it's just specialist training and equipment. It's just played up just like the Airforce is today to seem cooler than it is.
