The three, who were amicably conversing, turn in your general direction.
There's two men and one women.
The first one to speak is a man who echoes your own cockiness, though he seems only a bit older than you. He has the look of someone who grew up in a place similar to yours-all bushy brown hair, with rough, sun toughened skin.
"Eager to get that first blood, huh? Good for you, Son. The Empire needs 'em spry and lively." He says dismissively, settling back into his chair.
The other man waves at him impatiently-he's the oldest of the three, passably handsome in his 50's, with a patch of steadily greying hair.
"Don't mind Clem." He says in an educated seeming voice.
"He's apt to go head to head with you or anyone at a moments notice, like it or not. My name is Tash, Callsign Lord-I run Green Wing. Clem over here runs Black Wing, and he goes by Scoop..."The woman speaks last-she is almost as old as Tash and her hair is a greying rich brown, but her own beauty seems tempered by grief. Her blue eyes radiate an immense calm, and a ritual religious symbol of some sort can be seen hanging around her neck.
"...And I am Adi Fulgrave, Callsign Prophet. Blue Wing is my own.
Since you have made your point abundantly clear, I will make mine as well. Blue Wing will accompany you and yours on this mission. Clem is a bit of a hot head, and Tash is far more capable of keeping him in line than I."Clem meets this with a snort.
Adi doesn't seem to notice it.
"Time is short, so I suggest the following. Your full wing will be accompanied by two of my own, my best pilots. They will keep an eye on you.
I will take my remaining four ships and scout each contact point in turn-you will follow behind, repairing or assisting each station in turn-though depending on the exact circumstance, we may need to improvise. I will avoid engagement if possible, preferring a tactical retreat to your own position-where you will be ready, in case they pursue. This way, we will not all be caught unaware if it turns out to be a trap-better we set one of our own.
If something happens after I have cleared a point, you will have more than enough ships to deal with the threat. In theory.
Also, since I believe our communications are no doubt vulnerable, I suggest we work on a timer system just in case. We will need exact coordination.
I volunteer to be the bait, and you the steel teeth of the trap. Does this sound to your liking? The plan is as much yours as mine." She finishes, folding her hands and arching her head slightly sideways.
"understood ma'am" Said Auron before turning from Jaxo and speaking to scott "im going to go check up on my fighter and make sure my old buddies havent knocked the weaponry out of alignment, call me on my comms when youve organised our assignment." then with a curt nod to scott and the other wing members Auron heads for the launch bay.
head to launch bay, inspect vessel in great detail, determine ships offensive capabilities as well as cargo capacity, top speed and maneuvering ability
That you do, heading to launch bay four via the grav-tram.
There are in fact, 12 vessels lined up in each of the catapult docks that are used to launch them-less than half of full capacity-there are eight Blackweave Fighter/Bombers, three Thunderchilds and only one Typhoon-which looks pretty banged up at that. The hanger itself seems disused, messy and unorganized-littered with scrap and spare parts. Pools of congealed fluid stain the floor, completing the scene.
You are not quite impressed.
The Blackweave craft is nearly ancient, if dependable and heavily armored. Thunderchilds are the stock fighter of the Empire, and what you grew up hearing Imperial Heroes rode back in the Klendathwui wars. Only the Typhoon is a relatively new design, a quick and dangerous interceptor craft that looks a bit fragile.
One of the Thunderchilds is yours and-surprise, surprise-someone has knocked your guns out of alignment trying to fix them to Imperial Marksmanship Standards.
It takes you a few minutes to fix them right again. You think upon the specs of the vessel as you work..
An aging warhorse, the Thunderchild has served the Empire for almost 100 years of continuous service-developed at the height of the wars against the Kleendathwui, it is almost perfectly balanced in the realms of offense and defense-it's familiar bullet shaped nose and dagger like wings a sight known and respected throughout it's territories. What it lacks in high tech, modern sophistication, it makes up for in numbers and ease of piloting. Even now, the bulk of the Empires fleets rely on this ship-even now, that its age has finally begun to catch up to it.
Stats:
Piloting/+2
Marksmanship/+0
Reflexes/+0
Defense/+2
Guns/4xImperial Arms Energy Repeaters (1d6x2 damage)
Ex/1xImperial Arms Shredder Missile (4d4 damage)
Spec/Thunderchilds are almost always available, reliable and durable. They are always repaired between missions fully and suffer no mechanical faults. If a critical hit would destroy your vessel, once a mission that result it rerolled.
You nod. The guns are at least clean-Imperial Repeaters, standard issue. They tend to hit whats aimed it, though at extremely close range all bets are off. You don't like to get in knife fighting range with those dogs.
The dull looking missile with the gunmetal grey finish underneath the nose occupies your attention next. While it's tracking is mostly good, the Shredder doesn't do much damage-and is nearly useless against a well shielded craft.
The Engines are also in passing condition, though you make sure to empty out the coolant jugs just to be safe. Thunderchilds have excellent speed, but lose out when forced into tight turns and acrobatics. Something to think about.
And, just when you think you might find the engineer sleeping in the cargo bay, it's empty and clean-enough room for at least a towed escape pod or a single repair drone. Most Imperial designs use the same pick up and storage specifications on all their ships.
Running your hand over the armor-pitted and scarred and repair and blasted all over again for how every many years shes been in service-you are at least thankful this is a tough bird to kill.
Author
Topic: Heavenly Shades of Nightfall/Mission 1: Cold Hearth/Turn 1.3 Missing something (Read 7677 times)