July 3rd, 2013 - 2:01 PM -
The war continues.
As the Knirians push past the Celnarian border defense, more and more CADF pilots are being called into action to repel the invaders, but the battle along the border which splits the continent of Helred straight down the center has been a stalemate. Unable to muster enough offensive might, the Knirian offensive has hung up around the famous snow-capped Harutan mountain range, seeking a well-protected path to attack one of Celnaria's most treasured cities, Fayran, from the north to disrupt their ability to muster troops along the border. The Celnarians, on the other hand, are fighting vigorously to protect their homeland despite being outnumbered and outgunned. While they have the advantage of terrain and thick anti-air defenses, the next Knirian air and ground offensive into the Hartuans, dubbed
Operation Pickaxe, could either guarantee success for the Knirian offensive should the brave RKAF succeed, or spell defeat for their major operations should the CADF repel their next attack.
RKAF: Skies West of Stone Point -
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
Second Lieutenant Talia Vermillion would find herself in the skies again. After going out on combat patrol, a small aerial refueling tanker had been summoned to her location and she now loitered behind it, carefully maneuvering into place to connect to the house. Wind blew across the cockpit of her F-4, which would be traveling at a steady cruising pace about 17,000 feet up in the air in the gray, overcast skies over the ice-bound Harutan mountain range. Her plane was fully burdened with general-purpose missiles and stocked with a secondary armament of unguided bombs. Solid for both air to ground and air to air missions, as her F-4 had been modernized to compete with newer planes.
She'd have received a message from Central Command informing her to standby after refueling for a mission update. Being fully armed and undamaged, there was no need for her to return to base for now. Something was about to happen.
She was flying alone right now, but not for long. Faced with a lack of manpower, the RKAF had received official authorization from the Knirian government to hire accredited and private mercenaries to bolster their numbers. Of those chosen to fly, Zane Hudson would be one of them.
Zane, after taking off from nearby sprawling Yerlan Air Base (a formerly CADF base captured by the RKAF to stage their offensives into the Harutan) he had been instructed to fly -- fully stocked with general purpose missiles and compliment of 4AAM's (a special weapon that fired four missiles simultaneously with incredible accuracy) -- westward to Oracle's position and hold by the refueling tanker for further updates. As it stood, he was now Katana 4 of the 119th Tactical Fighter Wing. Katana 1 being Talia and Katana 2 and 3 being...curiously absent. The two F-18's of the two expert Aces assigned to accompany Oracle into battle as her wingmen had received mechanical troubles and were having their planes fixed quickly back at Yerlan before they would fly out to meet the duo.
Zane (aka Shadow) was about 16,000 feet off the ground, flying at cruising speed west. Him, Oracle and Katana 2 and 3 now shared a radio frequency, allowing them to communicate.
CADF: Stone Point Air Strip -
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
Reiko sat in her bunk.
Her legs were sprawled lazily over the green bedding inside the small, one-floor barracks that housed the few pilots and crew tationed at Stone Point. In her hands, a small comic book sent to her by her younger brother to "keep her sane". It was a colorful graphic novel -- an adaptation of a book -- that right now seemed to center on a tiger-man fighting a shadowy, cloaked figure in a ruined castle. She put it down. The young pilot was tense. It'd been days since the last attack, but she had been called seemingly randomly to fly combat patrols, wary for the next round of Knirian planes.
As of yesterday, she was an accredited Ace of the eleventh order. She'd downed 3 Knirian F-18's, 2 Flankers and 1 F-4 the previous day fighting off a small raid on Stone Point. The air strip was the first line of defense against the Knirians, and not a very good one at that. It was nestled high in the mountains, carved so high into the stone that the air was thin. Outside the shuttered window, she could see the paltry, ice-slick airstrip jutting out from a space in between two large rocky mountains into the sky, illuminated with runway lights. On either side, one could see hangars, the control tower, auxiliary buildings and a pathetic 4 AA emplacements -- two small SAM's and two manned 37mm guns -- next to a radar assortment. It was snowing heavily outside and the overcast sky seemed blue. Visibility was poor. And as usual, it was cold. Hence why she had the heater on.
She pulled her socks on and looked up to the PA speaker in the corner of the small room, which was built to house six pilots. The thin carpet floor was green, 3 double-bed bunks were along the walls, and a small radio and television could be seen as well. In the center, a small coffee table and some chairs.
Reiko sat up, placing the graphic novel away, and pulled her socks on. The white camisole she'd been wearing was far more comfortable than her flightsuit, which was in her locker right now, but she knew she'd have to don the suit sooner or later.
She sat on the edge of her bed, picking up her helmet. It was futuristic looking and solid white in color, with a black and orange star painted on it. "Dagger" in small black lettering could be seen on the forehead.
She looked up at the other CADF pilots stationed here. There were but two others here right now. Greg Spade and Artemis Styx, the two other members of 225th Air Defense Wing, the "Dragons". Officially, Reiko was Dragon 1, Artemis was Dragon 2 and Greg was Dragon 3, but they'd always used their own individual callsigns to refer to each other.
She sighed and placed her helmet back down.
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:43 am