Skythikon

Across Broken Skies [Ace Combat inspired RP]

Will get a post up soon-ish. Had an issue with my GPU for a few weeks ><''

Task Force Lima (COMPLETED)

"Friendly person, your captain." Medved-One said in an amused tone as Zhenya walked past him. The rest of the Russian squad trailed behind Lima, content with letting them take the lead. The two squads needed to work together like a well-oiled machine if they wanted everything to go off without a hitch and if that meant Medved taking a back seat, then that was what they were going to do. After all, there was not much for them to do apart from just pointing out the correct targets and generally steering Lima away from enemy strongpoints or areas that were to be assaulted by the VDV during their attack.

"RPD, Derzhavin?" One of the Spetsnaz operators asked in an amused voice. Zhenya looked back over his shoulder and saw a soldier following close behind him, an RPK-74 loaded with a custom-made seventy-five round drum magazine. His face was covered by a balaclava, and a pair of darkened ballistic goggles covered his eyes. "You are feeling nostalgic today?"

"My base had no Pechenegs, the PKMs were not fit for any use and the RPKs lacked the firepower my squad would need." Zhenya replied bluntly. "An RPD seemed like the better choice. The armourer did a good job of making it more modern."

"An American, I suppose. They always seem to like taking our Kalashnikovs and making them more...How do they say it? Tactical." The Spetsnaz machine-gunner said, the smirk evident in his voice.

Suddenly, Medved-One stopped in his tracks. "Yes?" He asked into his microphone. "You cannot be serious." He said exasperatedly after a few seconds of silence.

"What is going on?" Zhenya asked.

"The VDV brigade were moving their assault units into position while withdrawing those which had sustained significant casualties in enemy raids. I guess whoever is in charge of the TIAF's northern frontier is a twitchy bastard because he fucking launched an attack." Medved-One said, making sure that he was transmitting to both his squad and Lima so all would be aware of the unexpected development. "To keep things short, the VDV's assault has, as of five minutes ago, begun. They are right now focusing their efforts on blunting the TIAF offensive, but I would say that we have thirty minutes, an hour at most, before the brigade starts to advance into Armenia in force."

Across Broken Skies [Ace Combat inspired RP]

"None taken, Colonel." Zola said with a chuckle. She had been expecting that reaction for quite some time, and almost thought that Excalibur squadron was going to disappoint her. After all, if most of her previous employers had been hesitant at best to accept a mercenary pilot, she felt more than certain that a UN experimental squadron would be even more so. "We get that a lot, but it makes sense for us mercenary pilots to be more level-headed. You wouldn't want a wildcard deciding where to drop a payload of bombs and missiles. I know I sure as hell wouldn't."

She took a few bites from her meal before continuing, "Decisive Solutions, the company I worked for, liked us to be professional. Made for better public relations. People like Everett were preferred, the constant professionals, but they were always far and few in-between. They were often sent for the jobs that paid the most. I was part of the majority of the DS fleet - your standard flygirl, if you want to call me that." She paused for a moment, recalling some of the nicer moments of her mercenary career with a small, almost unnoticeable smile. "Good times, but its all in hindsight, eh?"

Having said her piece, she turned her attention back to her meal and cleaned up her plate in a matter of minutes, just in time for the Colonel to inform them that they only had roughly forty minutes of free time before the next briefing and that they were to check on their aircraft. That sounded like a good idea to Zola; she wondered how the Su-24 was holding up, seeing as how it had never been designed for seaborne operations. "I'll take my leave then, Colonel." Zola said with a nod and stood up. Hoping that she could navigate the vessel using only whatever signs there were, she left the cafeteria.

Thankfully for her, she managed to find her way to the hangar within forty minutes. The Ghost of the Strait, being the second to land, was not too far from the entrance to the hangar; Zola could clearly see it as she entered the large, spacious room - not exactly the kind of words you would associate with a submarine at all. Much to her pleasant surprise, she saw a familiar face standing in front of the aircraft, looking up at the nose. "Oi, Evie!" Zola shouted out with a grin as she approached the aircraft and her pilot, immediately drawing the attention of most of the people in the hangar to her, not that she cared much about it. "Tore yourself away from the tablet long enough to leave the bunk, eh?"

"It's Everett." Everett said, though it was more to the snickering maintenance personnel beside him than to Zola. "And I was about to join you," He continued, looking back to his WSO. "Looks like that would have to wait. What is going on?"

Zola shrugged. "Hell if I know. The CO just told us to meet back in the barracks in forty minutes for a briefing."

"Looks like we'll be in the air again soon." Everett said and turned to face the various missiles around the Fencer, just waiting to be loaded onto a pylon. There were a lot more missiles than pylons, that much Zola knew, and the missiles ranged from air-to-air to the large, long-range anti-radiation missiles. She recognized the layout as something most Decisive Solutions pilots were accustomed to, herself included. It took up no small amount of space, but it did allow for the aircraft to be quickly loaded no matter the mission. When you were getting paid by the mission, it was imperative that your aircraft was always ready to take on any sort of mission that cropped up.

Zola walked over to the right side of the nose of the Fencer and looked up at the name stenciled on the side. Ghost of the Strait. She liked the name, but part of her wished that she had been there when Everett was deciding on the name. She could have at the very least added something of hers to make the aircraft a truly shared aircraft. "When we get another aircraft, I'm calling dibs to name it." Zola said, her eyes still looking at the name.

"As if we'll just be issued a new aircraft out-of-the-blue." Everett said and scoffed.

"I'm serious." Zola said and turned back to look at him. "It's not fair that I didn't get a chance to offer any input to the Ghost's name."

Everett rolled his eyes. "Fine," He said, but beneath his breath, he added, "If it would shut you up."

Zola chuckled as she walked past Everett. "I heard that, but I'll still hold you to your word." She said and tilted her head towards the entrance to the hangar. "We should probably start trekking back to the barracks. Wouldn't want to be late for the briefing, eh?"

Everett nodded. "It would leave a poor impression." He said and followed behind Zola as they walked back towards the barracks. It felt oddly refreshing to Zola to be walking in front of Everett, like she was leading him rather than the other way round in the cockpit. She offered herself a little grin for that thought, but wiped it off her face just before they walked back into the barracks. "Hello," Everett greeted politely and walked back to his bunk, picking up the tablet and lying back on the bed to scroll through it some more. Watching him almost made Zola want to look through her tablet - she refused to believe that there was anything so interesting that would capture Everett's attention to such an extent.

However, she just sat on the edge of Everett's bed, deciding to attempt a conversation. "So, what have you learned about this ship?" She asked.

"Not as much as I would like, but I suppose I can only know so much before I get visits from people in suits." Everett replied dryly. Just then, the Colonel gave a warning about the ship's 'supercavitation drive'. For a moment, Zola wondered just how bad the acceleration could be. After all, she had survived the rigors of air-to-air combat and came out none the worse for wear. However, when the siren sounded three times, followed by a vocal warning, and then the lights taking on an ominous red hue, Zola decided not to play around and quickly climbed into her bunk and braced for the acceleration. The entire ship vibrated, and Zola felt herself suddenly feeling quite fearful that the ship was going to destroy itself, but then came the familiar sensation of a rapid acceleration.

Almost as soon as she no longer felt herself being forced into the bed, Zola jumped down from her bunk. That was unlike any other ship propulsion system she had ever experienced, and she could not say that she wanted to experience it again, though she knew that she had little choice in the matter. She sat back down on the edge of Everett's bunk and took in a deep breath to calm herself.

"Are you alright?" Everett asked.

Zola nodded several times vigorously. "Absolutely. Just the nerves, is all."

"If you say so," Everett said and left it at that.

Across Broken Skies [Ace Combat inspired RP]

Zola let out a low whistle as she saw, and smelled, the food available at the mess hall. She could certainly get used to this; it was not five-star dining, of course, but it was certainly a whole lot better than what Zola was used to, or had expected, for that matter. Still, she showed restraint; this was pretty much the first off-duty meeting of the squadron, after all, and she wanted to make a good impression. She took a few slices of ham, a fried egg and a cup of coffee before heading over to the table where Miyoshi had taken her seat. "Don't mind me," Zola said as she sat down opposite her.

"As much as I would like to, I can't take credit for the flying," Zola said with a grin as she heard Miyoshi's compliments. She took a sip from her coffee, immediately feeling revitalized, though whether it was from the caffeine or heat, she was not sure. Letting out a relaxed and satisfied sigh, Zola continued, "But I'll pass it on to Everett if he doesn't show up. I'm almost certain he would appreciate it."

Her stomach rumbled, as if reminding her that she had her food to attend to, and Zola happily complied, every now and then glancing down the table. A new pilot had earlier joined them and Zola had yet to introduce herself to him. There would be enough time for that, she supposed, but for now she just wanted to sate her hunger. She swallowed down the last bit of a slice of ham just as the woman opposite her raised her next questions. "The Bears were easy pickings, and we managed to score ourselves two Sukhois, if I'm not wrong." Zola said and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Su-27s," She clarified. "I've spent enough time in Africa running from them to know how they look from a glance. Feels great to be able to finally turn the tables on them."

She paused for a moment, then realized that everyone at the table was a pilot except for her. Maybe they had caught on to the fact that she was only a WSO, but just for clarification - and to make conversation - Zola said, "I flew in a ground-attack aircraft as a mercenary. Damn thing was about as maneuverable as a brick but struck as hard as one." With a chuckle, she added, "Imagine my surprise when I came to Avalon and they introduced me to the Ghost. The Su-24's a damn fine aircraft, but I'm still getting used to Everett's flying. He's one aggressive and determined son-of-a-bitch, I know that much."

Task Force Lima (COMPLETED)

I considered the PKM, Pecheneg or RPK, but they were either too heavy for the job (PKM), too hard to explain where it came from (Pecheneg), or too little in terms of magazine size (RPK). Besides, always thought the RPD was a cool gun. XD

Lords, Ladies and Lies of the Court

Ah... I'll be out of the country for the next week, so I probably can only get a post up when I get back. ><"

Task Force Lima (COMPLETED)

Having another person in an RP is always good, especially since right now it's down to just four of us.

Across Broken Skies [Ace Combat inspired RP]

"Sounds like a plan," Zola said in response to Ariella's suggestion. With the dogfight and ensuing landing on the submarine carrier having previously occupied her mind, Zola had completely forgotten about her hunger. The last thing she had eaten was the breakfast offered at RAF Lossiemouth, and that had hardly been filling. She just hoped that whatever food that was on offer in the canteen was not too freeze-dried. A few days of eating those kind of foods, she could handle, but she could not imagine having to live on them for weeks or even months.

Just then, another pilot spoke up. Zola did not recognize him, but he seemed polite and friendly enough. "Sure!" She said with a nod. "More the merrier, yeah?"

Figuring that it would be more useful for Everett to know the other pilots, seeing as how he was the one flying the plane, Zola excused herself and walked back to her bunk. Her pilot was still reading through the tablet as if it were some best-selling novel and that simply was not going to do. She knew that if he had his way, that would be all that he did until he had finished reading through every scrap of information on the tablet, or at least until their next mission. Zola plucked the tablet from Everett's hands with a mischievous grin. "Oi, we're going to the canteen to get some food. You should join us." She said.

"I'll be the one to decide that," Everett replied with a scowl and snatched his tablet back. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up with you later. I want to know this carrier as well as I can."

"You can do that later," Zola said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "We should get to know our squadron first."

"I said I'll join you all later, not that I won't join you at all." Everett said and looked up above the tablet. "We don't have to do everything together, we're not symbiotically linked."

Zola let out a huff and placed her hands on her hips. "Fine, but I'm coming back to drag you out if I don't see you there in half-an-hour." She said, as if she were disciplining a child.

"You do that," Everett replied in a mumble, his attention already shifted back to the tablet.

***

There was another member of the squadron who had spoken up earlier, asking about news of the world. That was the pilot Everett had been most keen on getting to know; as far as he knew, they were the only two who came from the South-East Asian region. Singapore and Indonesia had their differences in the past, but right now, Everett was just happy for there to be someone from the same region as he was. He reached into the storage compartment, pulled out his bag and rummaged around the inside, eventually pulling out a yellowed and crumpled newspaper from months ago.

"Hey, Indonesian," He called out. "I got sent this a few months back. My family knew some people who could get mail across the frontlines." Everett did not know about the other frontline regions, but he knew that there smuggling was a booming industry along the UNWO-UN lines between Russia and China. It was expensive, risky and sometimes even deadly, but for the right price, you could find someone willing to take whatever you wanted anywhere in the world. The newspaper had cost his family almost a month's worth of wages, and it was no surprise that it was the first and last of its kind Everett received. "Singaporean paper, but there's some things about Indonesia in it. Months old news, but its something, eh?"

Everett passed the paper to the Indonesian pilot with as friendly a look on his face as he could muster. "Everett Yang." He introduced himself.

Task Force Lima (COMPLETED)

Zhenya was not happy about leaving behind his AN-94, but the squad needed a light machine gunner. It had been difficult for him to find a suitable weapon, most of the light machine guns he was used to were simply too heavy for the mission, such as the PKM or Pecheneg. The best candidate would have been the RPK-74, but he doubted the squad would have felt comfortable with the 45-round magazine after having operated alongside conventional machine guns firing from 100-round belts. He had briefly considered using a western weapon, but had decided against it as it would take too long for him to get acquainted with the weapon.

His solution was thus a rather unconventional one. He procured a captured insurgent RPD from the camp armoury and had proceeded to modernize it as much as he could. It still fired the 7.62X39 round, but at the very least Zhenya managed to get the handguard and stock changed for lighter plastic ones, as well as sticking on some weaver rail strips for limited customization. A rubberized pad at the end of the stock was used as a makeshift recoil dampener. It was an improvised weapon and looked the part, but it would suffice for the mission. It was not like the quartermaster had needed to specifically acquire the bullets for the RPD; a quick walk around the arms and munitions captured from the insurgents gave Zhenya enough ammo for nearly six drums.

That was how he found himself sitting in a helicopter zipping across the Armenian landscape, his almost WWII-era weapon sticking out among the modern weaponry fielded by the rest of his squad. Fitted with an four-times magnification ACOG scope with a backup red dot sight, foregrip and AN/PEQ-16, however, Zhenya was certain that the RPD would function just as well as anyone else's weapon. He scanned the ground below the helicopter, though he highly doubted he could pick out a single enemy given their speed and the dense tree cover.

Suddenly, his headset burst to life. "Derzhavin, are you there?" Came a voice in Russian, one which Zhenya recognized well. He had been expecting to see the squad which had gone by the callsign of 'Medved' back in Turkey.

"Switch frequencies, we are using the same one as before." Zhenya replied, then said a short warning to his squad off the mic. "I have Medved squad on the comms. They will be patching through to our frequency soon."

Almost instantly after that, there was another burst of static in Zhenya's headset as the same voice spoke again, this time in English. "Ah, Lima." He said. "I believe we spoke before in Turkey. Medved-One speaking. My squad has been tasked with assisting yours with the mission, as well as coordinating artillery and air support alongside your friend Derzhavin. The TIAF are beaten, but they are far from broken. You will find them fighting like a cornered animal. Vicious and willing to do anything to win. The VDV brigade has already lost men to enemy raids and their assault will begin in earnest once it is 0800."

There was a brief pause as Medved-One issued orders to other members of his squad. "Anyway, we have secured your landing zone. No hostiles in the region, but I would avoid enemy anti-air sites if I were you. Intelligence tells us that they have been increasing protection and organizing quick reaction teams for each site after they heard that they were to be assaulted by a VDV unit."

Across Broken Skies [Ace Combat inspired RP]

Just a heads up, I'll be gone for most of next week. Heading off to Scotland for my sister's wedding.