Dragon-Moths [40k Only War] IC

[Jyssika]

Aboard the Implacable

https://ndcblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/hms-cassandra.jpg

As you walk through the shoulder width corridors of the, now military serving, ex-oil refinary ship crew bustle past at an alarming rate.
This is the end of the Cot Fel night cycle and the dawn of the Day Cycle and as such hundreds of menials and navy personal are swapping posts with their more well rested counterparts.
Almost every single man and women to pass you in the corridor presses themselves into the pipe and valve covered walls to allow you passage, a look of deepest respect and friendly smiles on their faces. It is said that in the bar's and food courts the menials have begun refering to the Implacable as the Moths-Nest since your recent arrival and moral is through the roof.

As you reach the pilot's strategium [the rear observatory deck on the above picture] you see some of your own counterparts filing out; each a legendary Dragon-Moth in their own right returning from a combat mission to seek well deserved rest and recuperation. You are the last lot to arrive, expectedly by everyone but yourselves, the sheer amount of fame you carry causing the corridors on your journey to the pilot's strategium to be even more crowded than others. Within a small amphitheater three other squadrons of Moths sit in the higher echelon seats only their Squad Leaders [sergeants] sitting on the front rows, the seats your squad usually take on the second row are free and a seat for Apollo next to the other two Squad Leaders on the front row.

At the center, waiting patiently and idly chatting with the present Squad Leaders is Huck McBrave, your Wing Commander. A veteran of the Navy McBrace is the only off worlder any of you know; he retired on Cot Fel, after serving fifty years in the Navy, with the easy job of leading the Cot Fel mining and survey operations of-course with the Ork invasion all that has come to an end and he is once again back in the saddle serving as your Wing Commander. At the venerable age of seventy five and without the rank to be administered juvnants there is no doubt as to why he earned the nickname Dragon. Each and everyone of you know without the training and guidance of him; there would be no Dragon-Moths.

"Come on kids; stop lollygagging and take to your seats."
As you each take your seats you notice a cup pre-placed in their drink receptacle; a cup of Calgaff. A form of re-caff made from Cot Fel algae, an acquired taste but one Cot Fellians tend to prefer to off-world Recaff. McBrave steps back from the front row and taps a holodisplay unit displaying a map over a large inland sea in which the Implacable is based. The south east and the channel towards the ocean is marked as green whilst the north west is red with green auspex icons marking Imperial Guard units.
A very large A, B and C can be seen over three different regions within the red area.
"Its a good morning to be from Cot Fel! Gui, San and Trachanalor's squads didn't lose a single bird last night and dropped enough frakking ordinance you could see the fires from Emperor's Landing. You lot get the honor of providing air cover as our off-world friends in the guard push forward to clear whats left."
He presses another button, zooming in the map over the A, B and C sections. A is a beach landing area a collection of icons show a cruiser anchored off shore and a number of guard units in a defensive line a few miles from the coast but not yet into the dense forests; their task this morning will be advancing as a line into the forest on foot. Adjacent to it is a section of hills designated B on which icons show a large Imperial artillery regiment with a smaller scout regiment and some Col Fet PDF; B is an island between A & C and whilst A & C advance to meet each other B forces are tasked with scouting and providing precise artillery fire from their elevated position. Finally C shows a area of dense forest with a transport highway cut through it force C contains a number of infantry and armored regiments [Including the 48th Mobile Column] and their objective is to advance up the highway into an area of forest previously used as a logging camp. Another cruiser is also anchored at the coastal termination of the road.
"We think the orks in this region are hold up in the Fifth Logging camp at the end of that road; A are sweeping the forests and setting up a perimeter whilst C blow open the front door and B provide fire support. Squad leaders, you are free to decide who gets to support which element of the ground forces."

All eyes in the room fall on Apollo, everyone has gotten used to his squad getting mission priority.
"Oh and any questions?"

[Johel]

A lot of words were burning on the lips of Thalis.
Among those were "Details on expected hostiles?", "Weather conditions ?", "What surface-to-air defense to expect ?" and "Any priority targets ?".

But the old man knew better than to cut hierarchical protocol. Also, so far, intelligence had been patchy at best and dead wrong at worst, with the Dragon-Moths usually being the one dying in those later case, while not even a “sorry” would come from Intel. So relying on it might set you up for disappointment. He could guess most of the true answers, anyway.

As a rule, for the past week, greenskin attempts at contesting the sky had been scarce and half-hearted (if one such thing could be seen of any of those xenos when battle was concerned…) and without numerical superiority, these brutes didn’t stand a chance against the well-oiled imperial war machine. But maybe that had been the calm before the storm? You never knew with them…

Weather, if he was to trust his bones, was nothing to be afraid of.

Ground-based anti-air defenses wasn’t usually a problem, what with the orks being unable to fire accurately. But sometime, the sheer volume of firepower had been a real threat, forcing the Moths to fly higher and loose much of their own accuracy, which wasn’t good news when their mission was CAS.

So there was only the last one really : was there something HQ wanted to see blown first ?
Thalis Curn waited silently for Captain Apollo Vest to speak.

[RandomLunatic]

Jack sat in his seat, and sipped his caf in an attempt to stimulate his mind into something resembling wakefulness. He was turning over the briefing in his head, trying to come up with the answers without having to ask and make himself look like an idiot.

(([roll0] TN 46
[roll1] TN 46
Both are for things like "What opposition can we expect?" or any other things that would be good to know about the missions.))

[Jyssika]

[Jack thinks of previous similar missions against the orks in which other pilots asked for more specific information about the Ork forces and remembers Dragon say:
"Its very difficult when it comes to orks son, anything with enough bullets can bring down a plane, just depends if the Ork choose to fire it at the sky or not. Hell with no standard unit configurations or armour models our scouts and guard cant even give god prior intel. I am sure you will find out soon enough how much AA fire they have when you drop your first bombs."]

[Everyone realizes this is a wide front (think DD landing at Normandy), with already an setup artillery regiment and two cruisers the job of air is as much spotting and calling targets as it is shooting the enemy. As with any big push, specific information is lost in the tide of the enemy and with very little scouting specifically done over the target area most of the plan is "identify it then kill it". It might be pertinent to ask how much was fired back at the night squad who were doing high altitude bombing though.]

[Also you are all sat towards the front because you usually ask the most questions; McBrave is used to his first squad generally being very forward and whilst your Squad Leader holds the official voice of your squad he holds a fairly relaxed strategium.]

[DrK]

McCudden

James sat at the back of the room doodling pictures of fighters dog fighting ramshackle ork fighter bomberz as he waited for his squad leader to start asking questions. He didn't care really which one they assaulted. At some point the shell with his name on it was going to come slamming into the thunderbolt and send it smashing down to the ground like so many others that have fallen in the Cot Fel war.

He looks up catching the squad leader's eyes. "You know us boss. Just send us in where the fire is hottest. Then we can kill 'em till we're bing guns and head back to Mother." he sits back letting the others doing the talking as hie eyes range over the overhead photos looking for any dips or folds of the land where he can loiter to go air to mud and light up any of the orc trukks or troops.

The only question he looks up to ask, "if we are down in the mud is any flying CAP up over us?"

[Jyssika]

Huck takes a sideways glance at their Squad Leader, waiting to see if he would speak on his pilots wishes.
His gaze returning to James as he addressed a question to him; a smile on his face at the young pilots use of aerial jargon.

"That would be the squad in support of A or B contingent."
He points to the map with a long wooden cane drawing long arching lines from each of the sections.
First a line from C up the per-existing logging track, then one from A around the back meeting at the rear of the logging camp with C and finally one from B up and over the top of the logging camp.
"C is attacking from the front whilst A wraps around the back, B is providing ranged support. As the air support for each contingent you will thus arrive in the same order as your ground forces.
With B arriving last to assist whichever targets need the extra air power."

[Johel]

Clearing his throat, Thalis dropped his own comment, addressed at Apollo.

Thalis Curn :
If it's all the same for you, Capt, C might do it.
I mean, I'm no gloryhog and oh Throne !! Does it smells like a death trap alright !! What with flying far behind enemy lines and having to circle over them until the pincer is closed on the ground.
But I'm with McCudden on that one.
The other crews got their share of fun yesterday soooo... our turn, now ?

Brief pause as he looks at his comrades, assessing their reaction.

Thalis Curn :
Also, the 48th MC is down there. And I kinda own them me skin.

[RandomLunatic]

Jack raised his hand. "Did the night bomber raids run into any concentrations of flak we should know about?

And are they finally going to get us some bombs, or are we going up there guns-only again?"

[Simsimillia]

Sabine had taken a seat besides McCudden and while he was using his pencil to doodle away on his memo, the young woman took notes and marked certain things on her own, smaller version on the map. Not to look it up later, but writing stuff down helped her to memorize she found, ever since she had actually learned to write. She had come a long way since the day her parents died. 14 year old her would have laughed if somebody told her that she'd one day be serving as an Ace in the most prestigious fighter squadron Cot Fel had to offer. Especially in the beginning her upbringing had showed. She'd been a bit troublesome, but this had calmed down a bit ever since she had earned her wings.

She leaned over to McCudden when he asked about the CAP: "Don't you worry McCudden, I'll cover your tail, my Lightning ain't much use in an attack run anyway."

Then she raised her voice to field her own question to the Wing Commander. "Any word on the weather forecast Sir?"

[Jyssika]

Members of the other teams begin other discussions; assuming now that their first squad comrade would be taking C.
You hear one of the younger and more popular pilots giggling to herself.
"Looks like we will get read guard again; coming in late to take the fire off who ever gets hit the hardest, suits me!"

McBrave shoots a withering look at jacks bomb remark; almost like a vet might give a dog that has done its business on his operating table.
"The reports from Night Squad said that there was very very little return fire, as they were simply flying protection duty for the higher altitude bombers and the sight was under shelling from both the coastal and ground landed artillery."

He zooms in the map a little to show more clearly the target settlement, a football stadium sized building walled and roofed.
A large dome sits in the middle and a few other smaller ones around the perimeter.

"Scouts report these to be large gyroscopic mounted weapons, they were our intended targets for the night bombings and if the Emperor Blessed us they have been neutralized, we believe a whole war host of vehicles and orks to be within the structure and perhaps some low altitude fliers but nothing worthy of calling a plane."
He zooms out again, this time much further and gestures to a nearby island off the northern coast.
"We believe this to be the nearest ork base with a working runway, a few fighters were scrambled last night in an attempt to stop our bombings but with the best will in the world we cannot estimate whether ork planes will show or in what numbers."

McBrave laughed loudly at what may or may not have been the young pilots joke:
"The weather is as it always is on your lovely planet, overcast, mild showers."

[I forgot to mention this; Cot Fel is basically an entirely equatorial planet it rains, everyday, almost all day, on the equator there is a hurricane belt for a few weeks a year [600 days] there are horrible storms but the rest of the time its just boring old rain, lots of it.]

[DrK]

McCudden looks up at Sabine, aghist of his smile. "Your old lightning's are a special kind eh Sabine?". At the rest of the briefing he drinks his algea-caf from the reprocessed promethium weed and winces slightly at the taste. It was true,once you tried ReCaf you couldn't go back.

"Sir, when do we saddle up? I'm keen to be up and at 'em". Even as he speaks he stares at the map imagining hanging low over the area igniting ork vehicles with his twin lascannon.

[Jyssika]

"You have just under an hour to grab some food; C,A,B dust off order and a five minute flight time to HZ, [Hot Zone] as usual link up with the guard commander on transit, but don't clutter their frakking vox channels."

He looks at Jeromy and the giggling girl at the back when saying this.

[Checkmate-Pony]

Apollo vest had resumed his thousand yard stare, looking at the map, or perhaps not at it at all, lost in his memories, one could wonder if he was even present. Sitting stiffly with hands on his lap, in his parade uniform with collar buttoned up to highest altitude. He would mumble something inaudible whilst the others asked their questions, so he tried again a little louder

"I think we should take B, I think" he would say very low, and attempt a 3rd time when all the giggling and banter had a pause.

"I think B, I mean we should give air support to element B" He'd pause, before giving an explanation

"It says in the Tactica Imperialis; a proverb: 'Guns win firefights, Tanks win battles, Artillery win wars'" he said with no hint of arrogance, but with hopeful conviction in his gentle voice

"If B is tasked with clearing a site for deployment of long range fire support, then it's crucial for both beach landings that B succeeds in their mission. It's foolish to think we can stand up to the Orks on the ground, on their terms, we must have the advantage of Artillery"

he took his eyes off the map to look around terrified at all the eyes on him, but mustered the courage to make a closing statement

"If we can make certain A and C is provided with Artillery support, We can save a lot of lives"


his expression would lock up in an almost death glare as he waited for a reaction or possible protests, for some reason he expected the worst from those around him at all times, or rather... he was worried about having missed a detail.

[Simsimillia]

Sabine grinned at the CAG in response. It gotten a bit of a habit of her to ask for the weather report. It was a bit like a good luck charm.

"The one day I won't ask, is the one day we'll get hit by the storm of the century", she said and then listened to Apollo, their Squad Leader.

Everyone had expected the first Squadron to lead the air assault in the first wave. Some may see his proposal as cowardice, but his reasoning was sound to keep the most skilled pilots in reserve keeping watch over the most vulnerable part of the force while being able to support whatever elements struggled the most.

[Johel]

Well... He would have tried, at least. So much for the 48th. But it wasn't like they wouldn't get any support. Just not from Thalis. Unless things went South and 1st Squadron had to get dirty to save everyone's hide.
Keeping rear guard wouldn't be so bad, after all.

The old man could disagree with his much younger CO. In fact, he often did. But never in front of "outsiders". They were the 1st Squadron and they were one, all fingers of the same hand. And it was thanks to Apollo that this hand could be clench into a tight fist to hit the Emperor's foes. Efficiently. Ruthlessly. And without losing lives needlessly.

And so, with a silent agreement, Thalis nodded to Apollo's decision, looking at the holodisplay to get as much details as possible before the briefing's end.

[Checkmate-Pony]

Apollo suddenly stood up, but it took a second for his back to straighten fully, and when he spoke it was with great effort and shudder at first before coming out naturally and surprisingly powerful by the end

"w-with r-respect, I-I realize my 'opinion' of the approach is, not very f-flashy, nor glorious, it might even been seen as cowardly. But... I am not Saint Solar" he'd lower his gaze "nor do I command a great crusade. I have what I work with and I must use it methodically if I am to win, glory be damned if it can save lives. Because the lives of those men on the ground are going to be the real heroes of this war"


For a moment it sounded like he was going to add more, but he didn't want to imply the Dragon-Moths wouldn't be heroes themselves, that might offend someone. He kept silent and maintained a respectable posture trying his best to not show any emotion least they would see his passionate side.

[Johel]

That was... awkward.
Thalis produced a small copy of the Uplifting Primer, one he had picked up during his time with the 48th, and opened it.

Thalis Curn :
"If your life is given in service to the Emperor, your death shall not be in vain.
Macharius 6:10

Every servant has his place, no matter how lowly or modest. To know it is his greatest comfort, to excel within it is his greatest solace, and the Emperor's contentment is his greatest reward.
Malcador 2:4

Captain's right : it's just a job. Let's do it well. Glory take a back seat to Duty."

[Jyssika]

Dragon waves a hand nonchalantly,
"Alright Apollo-Thalis no need to go all chapter and verse on us, First is sitting in the skies."

Before he could even finish his sentence the young giggling pilot calls from the back.
"Second calls dibs on C!"
"Sure, why not, we will take C."
Soon follows as the clean shaven bald squad leader of C follows the whims of his most vocal squad member.

"Okay, First-B, Second-C, Third-A. Go get some food pronto, wheels up in 45 mins. Good luck and may the Emperor protect you."

[DrK]

McCudden rechecks the sand tables as Apollo chooses the suppression mission. There would be a lot of air to mud coming do best prepare. He jogged down to the commissary and grabbed a couple of algae bars - the compressed seaweed technically able to sustain life but with a consistency and taste more Iike pulped sand. Then he headed down to the cavernous hangar and began rigourously checking his flight gear. His own flight jacket with the names of his parents and brother stitched nearly around the dragon moth patch. Comfortable in the worn, patched and sweat smelling flight suit he waddled over to the Thundebolt to join the crew chief. "Hey chief. How's she running? You fixed the alignment on the cannons? " He pattedthe snub nose of the ugly craft and ran hand over the 16 orc skulls emblazoned by the canopy.

He then spent some time completing pre flight checks until it was time to take the elevator up to the flight deck.

[RandomLunatic]

Jack silently stewed in the disappointment of going in last, but finally concluded, "At least they won't have anywhere to run to on an island, will they?" Satisfied, he rose an went to the mess. Helping himself to a couple of biscuits, he quickly devoured them en route to his next destination, the chapel. In actuality, it was of course one of several throughout the vessel, but it's convenient location meant that as far as the Implacable's pilots were concerned, it was the chapel. Time permitting, he always liked to offer some quick veneration of Him before going up. It couldn't hurt.

Prayers completed, it was time to go. By now, donning his well-used flight suit felt like slipping into a second skin. On the hangar deck, he did his walkaround, then supervised the servitor as it pulled all the pins from the Thunderbolt's frame. When it finished, he counted. All 13 in hand. Gently stroking the barrel of #3 autocannon, he mounted the ladder and ascended to the cockpit. After that, all that was left was pre-flight, and listening to the vox chatter as second and then third squadrons taxied, launched, mustered, and flew out. At least the nature of the enemy was such that there was no danger of running out of them before first squadron could get there.

[Johel]

As Thalis walked through the corridors, metal echoing under his feet, the memory of Jack’s words brought a small smile to his lips. Whatever the young lad had meant, it had put in light another advantage to covering the point B : if any of the Moths crashed on the island, they would be in friendly lines, with nothing to worry about from the orks except maybe a stray artillery shot or a few fighters doing strafing runs. This made a quick rescue fare more likely and safe. Worst case, the whole operation would fail and the imperial guard would be pushed back on the beaches. But even so, the odds of the Imperium loosing that island the same day were low.

This also meant that, for most of the sortie, the Moths would only have to care about aerial threats, what with the channel of water separating B from the ork positions. This more and more looked like a piece-set battle, text book example of what couldn’t fail. And 1st Squadron would be above one of the safest position. Even if they had to leave it to assist 2nd and 3rd Squadrons, this wouldn’t be a jump in the unknown. This also means there was hope that, if the situation really went FUBAR, the brasses wouldn’t order the 1st to lead a suicide assault on point C.

Of course, no plan survived the contact with the enemy but Thalis had a good feeling about today…

Still munching on a gum, he jumped in his thunderbolt, starting the preflight check. It was barely finished when the last plane of 3rd Squadron started to take off. Using the now-tasteless paste in his mouth, he stick to the panel a picture of his old home, the Calypso, hoping to one day get back to the day-long boring survey missions he used to do for a living.

[Jyssika]

As the last of Third Squad lift majestically into the air and form a wing towards their destination the first of First Squad taxi onto the runway.
Each in turn are given the all clear by the control tower and each in turn take off. The sky was a light shade of Emerald; almost blue for once and very few clouds in the sky.
In the distance towards the coast you can see a bank of clouds rolling towards you, high altitude and probably the reason almost no anti-air fire was seen the night before.

Today's flight will be at much lower altitudes however and that area of sky hangs almost void of any obstructions.
On the coast of the beach you can just make out two grey blocks, the coastal cruisers acting as bouys to mark your intended combat zone and the large hilly mass rising in the middle.

The sun gently twinkles in the early morning, rising behind you as you take off towards your destination. It is common knowledge that the sun behind you is a good sign in a dog fight and you ponder as to whether that is intended by the Wing Commander and Captain or just a happy coincidence.

Right lets use this as practice to make sure everyoen has a solid grasp of the combat rules. I will make a post in OOC shortly explaining and giving an example, cookies for anyone who can beat me to it!

[RandomLunatic]

As the shore hove into view, Jack didn't waste a lot of time admiring the scenery. He flipped the safeties off his weapons and split his attention between scanning the airspace outside his canopy and the radar screen in front of him.

(([roll0] TN 40, 70 for aerial targets))

[Jyssika]

[You find each of the other Squads on your radar and put them on the squads auspex; cant see anything else at the moment.]

(Superior Radar should give +10 to ground targets, Radar doesn't, will update rules!)

[Simsimillia]

The matter was settled, First Squadron would fly watching eye over the artillery. Their squadleader was certainly not known for his bravado, but that was something he had pilots like her for. Sabine left the strategium, not without touching the fotograph besides the entrance for good luck, and got herself another Calgaff (the one from the meeting had long been emptied) together with some processed algae bars. They said that the green paste contained everything the human body needed, except taste.

Still chewing on an algae bar and a steaming cup of sweatened Calgaff in the other hand Sabine appeared on the maintenance deck of the Implacable, casually strolling to her Lightning, her girl, her Black Queen. She had flown the fighter since she joined the PDF and they had gone through a lot together. A servitor and a woman with fiery red hair were already prepairing the light fighter. The woman, known as Kylee Rain, was the engineer responsible for the Black Queen and as Sabine approached she called out to her.

"Kylee, how's my girl this morning?"

The woman closed shut a heavy hatch, Sabine knew was hiding the life support systems, and turned around, "Your girl? Your girl?", the woman started with played agitation, "if anything she's my girl! You're mistreating her, you're luky I let you fly the Queen at all!"

"What can I say, she's a bad girl, likes it rough", Sabine answered with a wink, getting a feisty grin from the mechanic, before her face turned more serious again.

"Look, I repaired the life support systems you somehow managed to screw up on your last flight. So if you wanna pack up and make a short trip to the void or you know, just need a quick getaway, you're all set. Rest is still broken, I still can't comprehend how you lost that wing pylon without ripping the entire wing off."

"Thanks, Kylee. About that wing pylon, well you know the story..."

"Everyone knows the story", Kylee interrupted her abrupt but still smiling, "you only told it like five million times, now get your ass in that cockpit and let's start preflight don't want to have the greenskin waiting to long."

Sabine complined with a grinned and flushed down the last bits of the algae bar with a few hearty chugs from her Calgaff, then she climbed up into the cockpit and settled herself in before going through the preflight check.

-----

Preflight was done, everything was as in order and Sabine sat in her Lightning on the second runway, ready to be launched into the air.

"***Flight Control for Sabre, you're cleared for takeoff on two, initiate start sequence****", her vox cracked. Sabine looked towards the brightly colored deck personel on the runway who signaled her the all clear.

"***Sabre for Flight Control, all systems green, start sequenze initiated***", she reported back to the flight control tower while flipping a few levers and putting full throttle on the engines. She could hear them roar as they struggled to get airplane free which was still locked in place.

"***Flight Control for Sabre, prepare for release and good hunting***", she heard over the vox and in the next moment the locks were disengaged and the Black Queen raced down the runway and was launched into air by the ramp at the end of it. Sabine, pressed into her seat by the sudden acceleration, pulled th control stick towards her forcing the light fighter to rapidly ascent into the air. Once she reached their operation altitude she went into horizontal flight and took her position in the squadron.

[DrK]

Mcudden

James sat in the cockpit looking at his brother's dogtags hanging over the throttles and rubbed them superstitiously. A muttered "payback's a bitch" as he focused his thoughts on the combat mission to come. Looking over the bird he saw the shining new steel patches where the bullet holes had been patched and waved to the chief. "Alright chief, get me up on deck. These greenskins ain't going to kill themselves. "

He slid the cockpit shut checking the locks and took a couple of deep breaths of the respirator to make sure it was working. Patching into the deck gang radio he nodded. " Preflight check. My board is green. " Getting confirmation he felt the soft jerk as the little buggy towed him onto the elevator. He winced slightly at the watery light breaking through Cot Fel's ever present rain clouds before looking around the bustling flight deck. Clipping into catapault 2 he waited for the nod and clearance from the tower before being hurled skywards afterburners on the dual jet engines roaring as he felt free. Rolling out he levelled out in formation forming up on Sabine's wing admiring the sleek lines of the lightning compared to the tough boxy design on the T-bolt. " Moth-3 is airborne. On your wing Sabine, nice to see the Queen managed to get her pylons back ".

He scanned the cockpit, eyes lingering on the primitive auger scope

[roll0] TN 55

[Checkmate-Pony]

"Kaduceus Kaninus here" Apollo said over the vox calmly as if trying to make his presence known without bothering anything too much, none of the others had seen him take off, nor take something to eat aboard the ship, he was simply there in the sky, first to take off.

But any admiration such eagerness earned him would be washed away quickly as he at all times made sure he was never in front of the formation, nor on any exposed flanks, he'd always check the positions of his allies and especially what was above him, he even had a mirror on the dash to look up and behind. He knew the fastest way to die was to be the first to engage, and to have the lowest altitude.

Those that made first contact would either die, or they would dive to gain enough speed to escape.

Apollo didn't want to be 'that' fighter, the one to make first contact and having to back down.

"They say on a clear night you can see the Emperor's Wrath with a telescope, I hope the weather stays clear till then... I hope" he lamented with a fleeting passion

[Johel]

Thalis Curn :
"-Kaduceus Kaninus, this is Moth-4. Airborne, keeping on your seven and waiting for orders."

[Jyssika]

As First Squad closes on the shore line the offensive begins in earnest, at first the sounds of battle are few and almost seem to travel through the air as shockwaves rather than actual noises.
The massive caliber cannons of the naval cruisers and earthshakers lobbing shells into the air whistling as they fall with a soft thump on detonation. Little vox traffic makes it onto your squad network with the scouts and artillery teams choosing to relay their coordinates via private channels.

Finally as your auspex icon makes it to the shore line a gruff sergeants voice announces itself on the squad comms.
"Angel [a default guard codename when talking to air support], this is Scout Sergeant Folk, as I understand it you are with us."
He gives a moment for the squad sergeant to reply before continuing.
"Alright; we have spent most of the night trying to assess their assets. The Groth Artillery boys are currently shelling the gun nests on either side of the road and the cruisers are lobbing shells at targets called by the other two sections [A and C]. We are hoping you boys can deal with any air support that shows up or targets out of the artillery's range band."

He pauses a moment;
"We would also appreciate any reconnaissance you guys can do; we spotted most of the main defense barriers around the road and foot of the mountain but we have almost no idea what the building itself has in terms of defense, apart from a few turret fixes on the roof."
A man screaming in the background cuts him off and he cuts the vox link as lasgun fire erupts in the background.

An auspex icon on the Squads Auspex shows his position to be towards the very top of B almost at the boarder where A, B and C.
Other auspex icons of note are a number of Leman Russ's pushing slowly up the length of the road and a swarm of infantry icons taking the forests to the west.

Of your fellow squads not much can be determined from the Auspex due to their relative speed except for a lightning from both squad A and C that appear to be hovering over the very edge of B and providing long range fire support with their lascannons.

[Checkmate-Pony]

"yes I suppose" he whispered

He'd look at a small sticky note of the names of his squad and their respected aircraft type, although only Sabine Wu had a lightning, (an aircraft he despised) he always had an idea the lightning was superior in agility and speed, but mechanical specs meant little in an actual fight. He opened up the vox link

"This is Apollo" he quickly learned the name of his craft was not short enough for vox chatter, and he was hoping the name would catch on: Apollo

"I want Sabre to climb and be higher than us all, James will be my wing-man as I take point, and the rest will keep distance behind ready to counter-attack if me and James have to dive out" he commanded, his voice was always calm and light, like a poetic narration, surely the day he started shouting his orders would be a day of snickering.


"Otherwise we approach the island as ordered; 3000m... and then we see what happens next"

-------

He noted the sergeant with his presences and listened to his rundown, sitting with a worried look thinking it over and looking at the auspex, thinking of the battlefield as a grid rather than what he saw with his eyes

"Squad, I would like to skirt the Ork defences on the ground, see what I can with my eyes, James can follow me at a distance, the rest remain at altitude and safe from the flakk. maybe I can get a look at this mountain base" he knew it was rather hasty and dangerous, but ground defense didn't scare him as much as another aircraft did, when the sky was full of ork tracers, and none of them hit you, you feel invincible.

[RandomLunatic]

"Roger that," Jack said, easing off the throttle and pulling back on the stick, putting his T-bolt into an easy climb out over the sea. Then he switched up frequencies. "Hey [Callsign of squadron 2's Lightning], this is Haggert. Whatcha doing poaching in our AO*?"

((*AO=Area of Operations))

[DrK]

James McCudden

James shifted slightly forming up on the bosses wing, rocking the T-bolt gently from side to side as he begins to jink slightly - no harm in starting the evasion early he thought! "On your wing boss man, heading down to 3000m, eyes open for anything green with a gun..."

Pushing forward on the yoke he dives down to 3000m alongside the boss, the green island leaping towards him as he begins scanning to area with eyes and radar, watching the ground carefully to see where the fire was landing.



Awareness [roll0] TN35, 55 w/radar
Pilot operate [roll1] TN 30Ag, -20 default, +10 handle, +10 MIU, +20 skill = 50
Pilot Evade TN 50Ag, -20 default, +10 handle, +10 MIU, +20 skill = 70

[Jyssika]

Duck (The loudmouth female pilot from Second Squad) replies to Jack.
"Your AO? First Squad are playing doorstop on this one."

A stream of super-heated energy screams from her twin-linked lascannons, and for the shortest of moments a distant bass of an exploding vehicle can be heard before it is consumed by the orchestra of war.
"The akking greenskins are trying to setup a minefield! The guard tanks can't shoot past the orks to hit the trucks so asked me nicely if I would deal with it.."

[RandomLunatic]

Jack scowled behind his oxygen mask. Don't remind me.

"We thought it was sporting to give you a chance to catch up. Haggert out." He flipped back over to his own squadron's channel. "Apollo, Haggert. Ducky says the tankers have called in an airstrike on an Ork mining job in our AO. I'd like to take at least a pair and do some passes before the Dragon starts wondering if we're sleeping on the job."

[Johel]

Thalis Curn :
Curn for Apollo. Permission to assist on Haggart’s request?

[Checkmate-Pony]

Apollo leaned back and closed his eyes, slipping away, then started counting with his fingers despite having closed his eyes

"Yes, you have my permission" he felt a serve of power having to give permission to anyone, and immediately felt guilty for his arrogance

"Follow me James, I will fly lower"

[Jyssika]

As Jack and Curn fire engines on an intercept course towards Second Squads AO Ducky voxes them into Second's Squad Vox.

"Duck, adding First Cee and Dee [C&D are your numbers 1C & 1D] to Vox."
Chief [Second Squads Leader] immediately replies as-though cut off from what he was previously saying but not bothered by the interruption.
"Lads, care on your approach, vicious gun-line running perpendicular to the road, most of them focused on the guard but orks never stay focused for long."
You see a the blurred streaks of their Thunderbolts strafing the ork lines, two jinking and bucking evasively whilst the two behind follow in perfect strafe runs.

"Ducks! When you are done with those mine trucks find try what popped the treads on our leading Russ and put a hole in it. Sergeant of the 48th Mobile Column is not happy we are using the armour pen on trucks."

Sooo from you two I would like a general description of your flight path. Whether its horizontal to or perpendicular to the gun line. Whether you are going together, one after the other and who is going first and two pilot rolls (Operation and Evasion roll) then a BS roll in the OOC (I will give you some modifiers). Lets presume you are at a range of 500m and the target is +30.

---

James and Apollo fly over the carnage Second Squad and now two of First are making at 1000m but only stray shots intended for their lower counterparts whistle gently past. For all intents and purposes the orks seem to be ignoring you until you make it closer to the former logging building.

Only then does all hell break loose.

Lets roll some base Agi evasion tests (no modifying your pool since you didn't mention attempting to fly extra evasively) also make some awareness tests! (+10 if you have advanced radar)

[RandomLunatic]

Jack toggled his avionics over to ground attack. After examining the radar screen a moment, he broadcast, "Curn, on my wing. We'll make our pass along the road."

((Basically, together and perpendicular.

Moving 11 points to Evasion
[roll0] TN 71
[roll1] TN 93

Going to riddle with semi-auto autocannon.
[roll2] TN 93
All damage rolls assume a vehicular target.
[roll3]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll4]
[roll5]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll6]
[roll7]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll8]
[roll9]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll10]
[roll11]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll12]
[roll13]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll14]
[roll15]+8 DoS replacement 25 I, Pen 10. [roll16]
[roll17]+8 I, Pen 10. [roll18]))

[Simsimillia]

"***Aye, aye, Apollo***", Sabine confirmed when she got the order to climb above the rest and wait in an overwatch position. Pulling the flight stick back and pushing the throttle forwards she got the lightning into another quick high G climb until the rest of her squadron had shrunken to the size of little birds below her and then stabilized her flight path again, circling above like a hungry vulture.

"***Overwatch position taken, keeping my eyes open and awaiting further instructions.***"

Circling high above the battlefield, she switched through the comm-frequences, listening in here and there for a bit to get a feel for how the battle was progressing or if an element was in trouble, while also watching out for the others.

[DrK]

McCudden

Swooping down low James begins to scan the ground for any trouble when the treeline below erupted in fire, tracer streaking past his sing as he yanked on the stick to slip right. "Moth-3, taking fire, I say again taking fire. Permission to engage?" The request followed by hard stare looking for the source of the AA.

[Checkmate-Pony]

the cute little voice awnsers James "You don't need my permission, I'm right behind you, lead the way"

[Johel]

Thalis Curn :
Roger that, Jack !! I'm on your five.

Thalis followed on Jack, staying a few hundred meters behind him.
The old pilot positioned himself slightly on the right of his wingman, so as to not collide with him if Jack had to slow down to manoeuver.
He also put himself slightly above Jack, so as not to be both pinned near the ground, should potential hostile aircrafts arrive. This would sacrifice accuracy on his ground attack but Thalis was confident that the pair couldn't do much in the first pass anyway. So better not hit anything than being caught from above by potential flying hostiles.

[Jyssika]

Jack and Thalis hit the gun line hard, flying perpendicular they take the least fire possible from the sporadic gun line of clambering orks.
Jack approaching first and aiming for one of the monstrously large battle-wagons takes the brunt of the attention as the pintle ork gunner throws fire at its assailant,
the gunner explodes into orky chunks and large gouges are torn into the top armour of the battle wagon.
Thalis scores an equal number of hits but instead targeting a large section of ork boys, what happens to them is not easily described in words, but suffice it to say firing quadlinked anti tank rifles into a mob of lightly armoured orks has a dramatic effect on their numbers.

Meanwhile a few hundred meters above the scouting party of Apollo and James excite the gunners of the former lumber mill.
A massive turret armed with a dozen shooters spins into action along side two smaller versions and a crazy mechanical device that fires huge arks of zaap lightning.

Jack and Thalis's attack run may have drawn the least fire from the orks (although they were mildly preoccupied with the Guard) but on the turn around they flew close enough to the ex-lumber mill to draw the ire of the now alert gunners. A screaming pair of lightning arks crack deafeningly as they impact with Thalis's thunderbolt. The other weapons systems are more focused on the scouts but despite a multitude of hits on James only a single bullet seems to break through the thunderbolts mighty armor, it twangs and clacks as it gets caught in his jet engines turbines but despite a lot of noise it doesn't seem to do much damage.

[DrK]

McCudden

McCudden swears as flak and tracer rounds rip past his Thunderbolt. "Number 3 taking fire, taking fire." He hears the twang of rounds bouncing off the armour and a warning light flashes briefly on the HuD before stopping. "Heading back up boss, flaks too thick. Get those boys to suppress that turret!"

Yanking back on the yoke he sends the Thunderbolt upwards spiralling and twisting to get out of range.


Fly up a little further to get out range (gain altitude)

[RandomLunatic]

"Emperor's bowels!" Jack exclaimed as his wingman was hit. He kicked in the afterburner to extend away and only once out of range did he ease off and let Thalis pull ahead so he could examine the damage. After a moment he delivered the verdict. "That beam took a good chunk out of your tail, but all the important bits are there and you're not leaking or burning. How's the stick feel?"

[Checkmate-Pony]

Apollo had nothing to say, he would suck in his cheeks, he would always do that when in desperate concentration, he would shut up completely when feeling fear.

He saw the others attempt to climb, and he thought to himself: "No, you fools, that's a death climb, a text book death climb"

A death climb was a term used to describe a beginners mistake, of trying to ascend to avoid taking fire, but what always would happen was the climber would loose speed and just hang there for anyone to shoot them down.

It would almost be smarter to dive down further, but worse things could be down in the trees and when giving it an extra thought there were few other options

The So called "Death Climb" perhaps didn't apply to ground defenses, as they had a harder time judging distance.

All of these considerations and theoreticals happened within his mind in but a second, and he made the decision: to follow his comrades into the death climb, it felt right. He hated that feeling when doing something stupid.

------

ag41x2=82

Operation:24+10(MIU)+10(Operate)+5(loaded craft)=49 target
Evasion: 58+10(MIU)+10(Operate)+5(loaded craft)=83 target

Operation: [roll0]
Evasion: [roll1]

------

In the heat of the moment he wanted to report what they were encountering as a matter of protocol, and he actually forgot who he was suppose to be addressing. Scout Sergeant Folk had asked for recon and it was who he should tell.

He tuned his Vox to the Sergeant, hoping he could relay his message before getting shot down

"We're taking fire" he started out, realizing mid sentence it was not very specific he quickly added
"A Lumber mill within woods, now held by Orks, retaliating against us"

He hoped the scout Sergeant would know which lumber mill he was talking about from his own briefing of the site, for surely Apollo had no time to try and give coordinates.

[Simsimillia]

"Throne! What are you guys doing down there?", Sabine asked herself as she listened to the com-chatter of her unit. Sounded like they were in trouble and the young pilot was tempted to dive down there with some crazy maneuver and play the hero to save the day. Her job was a different one though. She had to look out for other threats and intercept if necessary. And as bad as it sounded via com, where you were unable to do anything, it didn't seem like the others couldn't handle what they had to deal with. Well at least nobody got shot down, yet.

***Moth 9 to Moth Leader, still in position. Sky still clear***