Episode One - One Way Trip

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OOC: Yes, Jay; your wingmates with Dee (Poor you).. Click Pyramid Formation link to see what it is;

Orbit
1131 Zulu

Tom had always wondered what was the use of the wheels, when the F-302 was capable of STOL, and VTOL. But it was standard practice to pick up speed and take off from the bay; as the grey interior disappeared and went dark the stars appeared along with the planet below; it wasn’t that special to Tom. “Okay time to do some scanning” he said as he spun the craft so that the fighter ventral side was facing the planet. “Pyramid formation people, but keep spacing and watch out for your wingman, this should take several hours of boredom” he said as he waited from anything sarcastic from Brett. “Wolf Lead to Sun Tzu Actual; scan started, let you know if we find anything. Wolf One out” he said as he pushed the speed of his fighter.

< Tag >

OOC: Wow that was short, and boring…
Note: Pyramid formatio:

[Deleted]

Orbit
1131 Zulu

Staying close to his wing mate, an Australia flight lieutenant with the call sign 'Blaze', Kamarov shot out of the hanger bay of the Sun Tzu and formed up with the rest of his squadron. Following Hammer's orders, the 302's moved into a pyramid formation and turned belly up to begin their scan. Depending on how high up they were, Alek was concerned weather and atmospheric conditions would mean they won't be able to actually see anything with their eyes, though their sensors should be able to pick up anything of interest.

The fighters stuck together, no doubt for protection, though it would make their sweep of the planet much slower than if they'd spit up. Settling in for the long haul Alek tried to relax and keep his eyes peeled, well aware than a threat could swoop in at any minute. "Blaze, Mutt," he said into his mouth piece. "Anything on the scopes?"

< Tag Wolves >

[Deleted]

Orbit
1132 Zulu

Cira luckily knew the type of formation Hammer was referring to. All though she hadn't done many formation flying with the Harrier, she had however, participated in various demo's at Air shows around the globe, as well as seen them from the ground enough to know what he was talking about. "Wolf Two, moving in, will keep scanners peeled, Wolf Two." She replied after Mutt in her light Texan accent as she steadily inched towards her position to the left and slightly behind Hammer's craft in the front of the triangular formation, keeping him off to her right as precisely as she could manage.

"I doubt we look as spectacular as the Blue Angels, but hey, least we know what we're doing." Sadie commented as she watched the spacecraft group together. "Yeah huh." Cira replied in light amusement as she kept a scan going, looking out for any notable energy signatures as they began to keep a constant velocity around the planet. "Wonder how many patterns we'll have before anything interesting happens." she added.

<Tag: All>

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Orbit
1131 Zulu

Jimmy followed the rest of squadron out of the 302 bay and stared for a moment or two at the sight of the planet and at space. He shook off the constant amazement that he got from the initial take off in space. He heard the command and pulled into position and noticed that Angle, his wingmate, doing the same. He turned his fighter and started the scanning. "Lisa wake me when you find something" he said to her, recieving a slap on the helmat as he replied to Tom. "Owww. Bunyip Breath. Sorry Boss Man, Three in position and begining scan. Three Out" Jim then stared at the scan data rolling down the screens as he flew the craft in the formation.

<Tag all>

[raaf01]

Orbit
1131 Zulu

Dmitri allowed Zack to do the pre flight checks before he actually took of, he turned his PSP off and placed it back inside his pocket he’ll play it later right now he was about to fly but if it got too board the PSP makes a come back. Dmitri laughed at Cira’s reply back to him. “Remind me to buy you a drink when we get back.” Dmitri flirted back at Cira. Dmitri however shook his head at Tom when he heard his comment. Soon Dmitri took of, he flew close to his wing mate a Russian no less. Dmitri had dealt with Russians before and on several occasions they had tried to kill him even started a fight even though Tom had to step in. After everything that has happened Dmitri had never trusted the Russian people again so he would have to keep his eye on his wing mate. Dmitri heard Alek’s response and almost thought of ignoring it. “Nothing so far Mutt.” Dmitri replied back. “So Hammer how long do we have to bee out here for?” Dmitri asked Tom. “I wanna check your briefcase out.” Dmitri added. He knew Tom would get the message that he wanted to have a look at the pilot’s lounge. Dmitri kept on flying in formation.

(TAG)

[Deleted]

Orbit
1132 Zulu

It had only been two minutes, and he was now focusing on how great the lounge will look when he got back, he still had to set the bar up. Dmitri had the gaming rig ready after that; they should be set.. drinks, gaming, lounging around. Though no girls like the last one, but two stupid girls opened their mouth last time and all hell broke out. Plus, women nagged… “Why aren’t you flying? Take out the garbage? Why don’t you love me?” that’s why shed were built to escape, so in essence the Lounge was a true shed, without power tools. Well cept the ones they borrowed off maintenance. “See anything exciting?” he asked Brett; Brett sighed as usual; and replied. “Yes, we have Tie fighters.. coming in at 123 mark 4.”[/i] Brett replied; “That bored ey? Tom asked already knowing the answer. “Uh Huh”[/i] the reply came. “I can always do barrel rolls if you wish” Tom offered; “Hell no colonial, fly straight please.”[/i] Brett replied with a small sound of fear, he heard the replies from the others… S.S.D.D, was the word in his mind at the current moment. “Sorta wishing those Tie fighters appeared Brett” he heard Brett giggling behind him. “What?” Tom asked now curious. “Well Zack now has Tie fighters… lets see how Blaze likes that for teasing me, damn convict”[/i], Tom started laughing as well; anything to annoy Dee was worth the effort, especially now. He heard Dee complain and laughed even louder, it was worth annoying him. “Until we find something Dee” Tom replied sadly; “Okay this is taking for ever, screw this. Okay, Wolves break into flights.. Okay Dee take the Russian and Angel; you got latitude, Knight.. Dragon your with me.. we got longitude. Hopefully we’ll get somewhere, go full throttle and remember to share your data with the tech analysts on the Pol” he said as he broke formation and positioned his fighter for the long haul on longitude. He hated this type of boredom, which made him wonder why he was ever picked for commander position.. He was seriously thinking of resigning from the position.

1140

Eight minutes had passed and still nothing; Tom wondered if he feel asleep would anyone notice. He put it in cruise mode, which was let Brett fly. Brett liked staying still so no one would really notice what was happening. Tom closed his eyes for a well deserved nap.

< Tag >

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1141

Cira couldn't help but smirk at Dee's reply, but keeping things professional, she knew it was best to stay quiet from then on.

Pivoting sharply to the right as they changed flight paths and went on the nearest longitudinal path, Cira leveled out before flying upside down for a bit, keeping a respectable distance from the leading spacecraft. Hammer had fallen rather quiet, but she wasn't too worried about that for now. "Let's switch from Infrared to visual, maybe some energy signatures will save the day." Cira shook her head, she figured the others were scanning on various wavelengths, so infrared didn't hurt. "I don't get it, they said it was definitely here, why are we having so much trouble with it? Does it have some kind of energy shield or somethin'? Oh pretty mountains!" Cira immediately shifted her attention outside again as they flew inverted between Hammer and Dragon, a picture perfect view of an Aleutian-type mountain range.

"Looks like home to me," Sadie said as she looked 'up', not concerned about flying inverted for a while. She was just as bored as Hammer and it was quite apparent Cira was trying to find ways to kill time. "Hey, let's play 'name that song'!"

Sadie sighed, having a feeling their fun had yet to begin. Even on the infrared imagery, she wasn't getting many abnormal heat signatures, at least currently.

<Tags>

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Orbit
1141 Zulu

“Okay this is taking for ever, screw this. Okay, Wolves break into flights.. Okay Dee take the Russian and Angel; you got latitude, Knight.. Dragon your with me.. we got longitude. Hopefully we’ll get somewhere, go full throttle and remember to share your data with the tech analysts on the Pol”

Jimmy listened to Tom issue his orders then split the formation to follow him. He performed a small loop to add some intrest to the flying before joining up with Tom and started the scanning again. "Lisa see anything" he asked her. "Only that idiot Bretts Tie fighters on my scope. I am so going to get him back for this when we get back to the ship" she said in reply, Jimmy let out a laugh and opened up the general channel. "Hammer, tell brett that Lisa is hunting for him. Apparently we have Tie fighters fast approuching" he said with a small chuckle as Lisa added "Brett your mine, I'll get you just like last time" Jimmy raised an eyebrow to this. Last time both Tom and Jimmy were pulled into the RIO's little battle between each other. All Jimmy remembered of it was the mess of the pilot's lounge after the paint bomb exploded.

<Tag Pilots>

[Deleted]

Orbit
1141 Zulu

Even though he was in a new unit, Kamarov was thrown by his wing mate's response. "Nothing so far Mutt," Lieutenant Sawyer replied, as if trying to ignore the Russian. Alek shook his head. He'd flown with a number of squadrons in his time, and this was turning out to be one of the most unconventional. Trash talk between pilots was what one came to expect from the adrenaline junkies that filled these cockpits, but he'd never heard this much small talk during a combat mission. They were on the other side of the galaxy, potentially about to face off against alien adversaries, and yet all around him there was talk of video games, sci-fi movies, 'brief cases' and word games.

The Russian pilot simply shook his head.

Their squadron leader relayed orders from them to break off and cover more ground. Without a word Alek pulled back on his stick and fell in behind Sawyer, and headed toward the planet's North Pole. The flight was made in silence; if his wing mate didn't want to speak to him for whatever reason that was just fine with Kamarov. He preferred to keep his mind on the job anyway. From the seat behind him his French RIO continued to run the scans, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

[Deleted]

Orbit
1142 Zulu

Sitting in the cockpit, Brett’s flying made him not even notice what was happening, which was great when your craft is going Mach 5. “Lisa too now?” he mumbled as he heard various ramblings of the flight. Tom realised that command wasn’t for him; he decided this on day one that he wouldn’t be the same and now he realised it. He was different, no longer the fun loving playboy.. He was now a complete arse. Maybe that’s what command does to you, makes you’re a heartless bastard… He was completely woken by an incoming signal from Sun Tzu. "Wolves, this is Expedition Leader on Sun Tzu Actual. We have determined that our current sensor set-up is not equipped to detect the city. It seems to be cloaked but using a slightly different cloaking system to Atlantis. Unfortunately, now that we have administered the necessary changes, we have now detected two possible locations. I would like your squadron to regroup and land at one of the locations, I will beam down a team to the other. Sending co-ordinates through now..."[/i], sighing he heard Brett mutter, “Well that’s bloody brilliant work isn’t it?. Tom had to agree, it would have been better if some nerd on the ship worked this out before deploying the squadron. “Roger that Actual;” he replied wishing to ring any geeks neck for this stuff up. “Okay Wolves, form up at the position my RIO is sending you, Out” he said as he flew to the new waypoint which was closer to his group than Dmitri’s.

Over Waypoint Alpha
1222 Zulu

The three F-302s entered the area, not far behind was another group of F-302s. One F-302 could damage a Hive ship or a Goa’uld super ship, imagine what six could do. A few minutes later the rest appeared creating a lazy circle around the waypoint. All Tom could see was a jungle below, he couldn’t see anyway to land… “Why couldn’t they deploy a damn ground team here? Not like they ran out of personnel” Tom muttered before planning. “Okay, Kamarov your with me; this how were gonna do it; since making out own landing site will probably ruin our 302’s. We’re going to go close and jump out over the low clearing there, slave your controls to your RIO’s.” he said as he started to fly to where they were suppose to be. He gave the controls to Brett, and got out the survival backpack, which included everything they needed down there. He also got his MP7 and 5-7 as well and clipped the mag in and took off the straps that tied him to the chair. “Okay, Blaze take the rest of the kids. Your close air support, don’t rely on my or Ruskies birds to help you.. Hammer out” he said as they started to slow down. He opened the cockpit and looked down, it was maybe a few metres or so. “I’m thinking now this isn’t a good AHHHHHHHH-“ Brett had tipped the craft and Tom fell to the ground with a thump.

Ground.
1225 Zulu

“Ummmph” was the word that came out of Tom’s mouth as he hit the ground, which was actually softer than he thought. Brushing himself off, he saw the Russian had landed nearby without a scratch. “Guess in Russia they teach you fancy tricks to jump out of 302’s” he said as he waved the two fighters off which went away with a jet scream. Looking at the GPS, that was tied into the fighters nav systems he indicated the way. “Hi ho, hi ho.. its off to Meropis we go” Tom said as the two men walked off into the jungle.

< Tag >

[Deleted]

Orbit
1141 Zulu

In the nine minutes since breaking formation from the rest of the squadron, Kamarov and the two other 302's had covered almost 1,000km at their Mach 5 cruising speed. His RIO was running her sensor sweep of the planet below, and every so often Mutt would roll his fighter belly up for a visual inspection. So far their scans had come up negative, which was a worry. It would have been an intergalactic waste of time or money to come out her only to find Meropis no longer existed!

A radio call through from the squadron leader ordering them all to regroup was a surprise. When they'd first arrived they been told to stick together, the split up, and now they were being called back together. It was all a little hard to keep up with. Coordinates for 'Waypoint Alpha' was downloaded onto Alek's terminal from the ship above, and pulling back on the control yoke he swung his fighter around, following his wing mates toward their new target.

Waypoint Alpha
1225 Zulu

Setting the craft down on the ground, Alek grabbed out his survival bag and weapons and climbed down from the ship to join his squadron leader. Holstering the Five-seveN sidearm he'd been assigned, Kamarov swung his backpack into position and unfolded the stock of his PP-18. Unfamiliar with the MP7, he'd spoken to the expedition commander about bringing along the Bizon sub-machine gun. Though firing the less powerful 9mm round, it carried 64 rounds in its magazine, more than even the P90, and was only 1cm longer than the MP7. He planned to use it for the time being until he became used to the MP7.

Behind him his fighter took off, much to Mutt's surprise. All strike fighters he'd known on Earth were only single control, not duel control, and RIO's weren't even qualified to pilot aircraft alone. Must have been a Western thing.

Ready for their recon, he joined Captain McAllen at the clearings edge and moved into the jungle. "So what are we looking for?" he asked Hammer, still unsure what had brought about their change in orders.

< Tag Wolves >

[Plot Twist]

Waypoint Alpha
Meropis
1230 Zulu

The pilots had been plodding along at a decent pace, making progress toward where the co-ordinates said the energy signature was originating. The forest only seemed to be getting denser and denser. It was then that they noticed it. Kamarov heard it first, bushes being thrown aside, twigs snapping and heavy footsteps approaching at speed.

It was then that the creature burst through the foliage, rearing up on the two lone pilots. It looked like a bear but worse, it had jet black fur and large fangs. It let out a mighty roar and threw aside a small tree whilst it bore down on the two pilots. It was at least 12 feet tall, and it was angry.

<Tag Hammer & Mutt>

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Meropis
1230 Zulu

The other pilots had been ordered to remain in their fighters for close air support. Tex was cruising along at a steady speed in formation with the others, circling the dense wooded area where Hammer and Mutt were proceeding on foot.

It was huge. The creature angrily threw itself onto the canopy of Tex's fighter, making her scream. It looked like a giant dragonfly with a scorpion's tale. It was attempting to sting the two humans in the flying machine, causing vicious acidic dents on the left wing as it missed. It hissed and and flailed as the craft started to loose control.

<Tag Tex, Dmitri & Jimmy>

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Meropis
1232 zulu

Cira had just been on a final approach, no longer flying upside down now that they had a change of plans when suddenly the ugly scorpion-dragonfly thing attacked her F302 with fury. She felt the craft shudder as she failed at dodging the first few acidic strikes from the scropion.

As the F302 began to protest against her control input, Cira's shout turned into a yell, unable to make a call declaring a go-around. "GET AWAY FOO!" Cira fired a hard point Maverick missile from the left and right wings as she quickly nosed up to lock on the ugly alien with the machine guns before turning to gain some distance. "Hope my wings will hold out, that acid don't look good from here." she said to Sadie. "Now just ta be sure..." As the F302 wobbled slightly while turning around into her desired flight path again, once again 'charging' the dragonflies location, Cira fired the guns again, which was in better condition at the moment. "Blasted thing ain't getting away before I risk hittin' the ground."

"Wolf two making an emergency final approach due to wing damage, wolf two." Cira called as she ducked under the 'falling ashes and guts' of the dragon fly thing on final approach. It's blood and fire sprayed across the cockpit as she began to hit the100ish foot mark on the approach on the designated 'landing strip', not far from the others, her spacecraft wobbling stubbornly as she descended.

"Bugs, bleh." Sadie commented at the sight of their cockpit window's condition.

"I have a feeling there're more of them too, unfortunately." Cira replied with a sigh as the spacecraft touched down, the acid seeming to have stopped corroding the metal. Luckily, there were just some nasty holes in the wings near the top and leading edges.

[tag open]
(she probably over did it but oh well, she's trigger happy >.>)

[Deleted]

Meropis
1232 zulu

"Wolf two making an emergency final approach due to wing damage, wolf two."

Jimmy swerved his fighter dodging the alien dragonfly. "Dragon, it's still behind us" Lisa said as Jimmy started to do some evasive flying. "Crap, we just lost blaze too. We are sitting ducks out here" Jimmp said. Then Tex came across the radio. " Damn, wolf four to wolf two, hit your locator beacon and stay near the ship for retrieval. Wolf four to wolf leader, we have been hit hard by some native alien bug. Wolf two and three are down, I'm still airborne but I have one .... " Jimmy was interrupted by Lisa " Jimmy, we have another one. Bearing six o'clock" Jimmy cursed under his breath and continued his transmission " .... We have two, I repeat two alien bugs" Jimmy was cut off as a shudder in his fighter. " Jimmy we have been hit, minor damage to our port side engine" Jimmy let out a curse and scrunched up his face. " hold on Lisa " he said as he pulled a high g barrel roll and came up behind one of the creature. He pulled the cannon's trigger and after spraying one creature with shells the creature fell out of the sky screaming. But the second gave out a scream an another two rose out of the trees. " out of the frying pan ... " Jimmy said and was finished by Lisa saying " and into the fire "

<tag all>

[Deleted]

Waypoint Alpha
Meropis
1232 Zulu

"They've got a possible location for this 'lost city'?" Hammer replied, signalling for Alek to take lead. Sub-machine gun in hand, the Russian pilot moved carefully through the alien jungle, scanning back and forth with his eyes as they slowly made their way toward the co-ordinates they'd been assigned. Overhead he heard the remaining F-302 flying their cover pattern, with the occasional rail gun fire breaking out against the large alien bugs they'd spotted on their way down.

It was these loud noises overhead that distracted the Russian long enough for a large predator to launch its attack. From seemingly nowhere a 12 foot tall bear-like creature burst into the open with a roar, bearing down on the pilot. Yelling a warning to Hammer, Kamarov brought up his SMG and opened fire, targeting the creatures centre body mass. For a moment it continued to charge forward, and only when McAllen began firing as well did it pause for a moment before disappearing into the trees with a parting roar. While it had retreated, Alek could still hear the creature laying in wait just out of sight, waiting for the next moment to attack.

"We need back up," Kamarov exclaimed, activating his radio. "Knight, Hardy; Kamarov. We have encountered hostile alien life in jungle, your help is required." Standing back-to-back with McAllen the two men covered the thick forest with their weapons and waited for backup to arrive.

< Tag Knight & Hardy >