Book Two, Chapter One: Unfinished Mission

[albatross]

Ionic has the most trouble with the incoming missiles, and Tiger concentrates her jamming efforts on his side, leaving more of the missiles for Jeckle and Shroud to shoot at. Dante manages to detonate a missile as well.


When the plane flips into its dive at the top of its climb, Shroud sees a few missiles still arcing after them - turning back to get a lock on the plane, but a few bursts and a quick launch of three chaff-decoy flares by Tiger and all that is behind them is a series of explosions.

During the dive, everyone has ample targets except Shroud, who can see the big empty sky. Strongbow controls the bow turret when she isn't trying to follow Tiger's directions. The plane slashes close enough to a helicopter for Dante to seize control, and although he misses shooting down another helicopter he does make it dodge.

Tiger's shouted directions can just barely be heard over the rumble of the engines and the rail cannon fire, directing Strongbow through the middle of the planes. The strategy pays off when a heat seeker meant for the Catalina nails a helicopter instead. "Splash one." Tiger relays. After that the helicopters switch to guns and the Catalina arcs back up into the fray in order to stay too close for missile range.

Guns only works just fine for the team, as Shroud finds a chopper trying to get on their tail - the plane has guns facing all directions, while the choppers guns are fixed forward.

[tag: any and all, state any called shots, etc at the remaining seven choppers]

[dakota]

Khris didn't hesitate. As soon as he had a target lock, he unleashed fire on the helicopter in short controlled bursts. All the while, he continued humming to himself

[shiivster]

*Jeckle seems to lead the helicopter and then fires of a small burst from time to time. its kinda uncanny actually. a trial run and then a series of 3 rounds fire off after the first one sparks from the impact.

*its more like she's chasing them away from her section as opposed to actually firing to kill.

fired shots to hit are as follows - unmodified
single - 14
triple - 11, 13, 19

[tag]

[Dome]

Dante uses his control of the one helicopter to turns its weapons on its nearest compatriot. He uses the choppers targeting computer to lock on to a "friendly" and has it open fire with all guns ablaze for a 5 second burst.

(roll to strike 15,)

[shiivster]

* Jeckle's eyes narrow as the choppers close in and the deep sigh of regret is heard moments before she changes the target .. and chooses instead to take out the tail rotor [called shot]

* her thinking is simple .. if the helicopter is in the ocean, the pilot and gunners have a chance at life, and she didn't outright 'kill them'. unlike her brother, she isn't cutthroat-like

*she fires until she sees smoke trailing the chopper, then moves the barrel of the gun towards another target

[hits - 5+3 - 10+3 - 17+3 - 11+3 - 8+3 ]

[albatross]

The sound of raindrops can be heard striking the side of the plane, except that everyone knows the "raindrops" are actually bullets striking the armored hull. The armor holds and Strongbow rolls the plane wildly to escape the enemy fire.

Shroud and Dante both down a chopper, and Jeckle damages one but hers doesn't go down - it does retreat however.

After four of the choppers are shot down, the remaining choppers turn tail and break for it, scattering in four directions. Tiger has been jamming their communications, so they leave haphazardly.

"Climb," Tiger orders Strongbow as soon as they have cleared the fray. Tiger checks the fuel, "Should we go after them, or let them go? We've got enough fuel to run down one or two, but not nearly enough to get all four and they may have other resources available once they get out of communication jamming range."

[Dome]

"Releasing his hold on the chopper so that it can flee Dante slowly opens his eyes and says, "we lived? Thank goodness."

With a sigh of relief Dante grabs a bottle of water and chugs it down.

"I say let them go. Lets just get to where we are supposed to go, and get there quick."

[dakota]

" Dante's right. Let's just get out of here for now." Khris agreed as he watched down his barrel in case the copters turned back. " At least this took Jeckle's mind off her fear of flying."

[shiivster]

* Jeckle wonders if her lack of 'killing' the helicopter will come back and haunt her. then as she hears Shroud's comments she lets go of the gun and looks at her hands.

' .. if i was meant to fly .. i woulda been born with wings. its not fear of flying .. more one of not controlling where my body goes. has to do with the accident that nearly burned me alive. thanks for the vote of confidence'

*she moves back to the seat she was originally sitting in and straps up and closes the eyes as her face goes paler until she's calmer again. she simply comments 'guess this explains why i'm NOT the sniper. i can't deliberately take a life and not feel bad afterwards. that might be a liability. must be the accident ... '

[tag]

[dakota]

" Dinna say anything about not having faith in you, " Khris said without turning his attention," so stop being so defensive. Besides, I told you before. Leave the killing to me, I know how to deal with the emotional fallout."

[albatross]

"Killing isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person, " Tiger mumbles. Then she sweeps off her headset and comes forward to take over for Strongbow at the controls.

She returns the plane to its former heading. In less than two hours, unless there are more interruptions, the team will make it to the island. The trans-pacific flight, with a mid-air refueling instead of a landing, feels even longer once the adrenaline of the dogfight dies down.

"We'll be there soon, so make any last minute preparations you may have." Tiger says.

[shiivster]

*Jeckle just opens her eyes and blinks. remembering now to strap in. she then makes sure her things are secure on and about her. as the sounds of the plane starts its landing process kicks in, Jeckle starts mumbling the periodic table elements one by one. its a clear distraction so she won't have to hear, see or feel the plane landing

[albatross]

The landing on the island is fairly smooth with Tiger at the controls. When the plane is down, she checks her uniform to make sure everything is in place. She even takes off her guns for now.

"We'll pay a courtesy call to the base commander so we aren't bothered later. We can unload afterwards." Tiger says.

[dakota]

" you can breathe now, we're down." Khris teased to Jeckle as he was out of his seat first. He looked at Tiger being unarmed and smirked, " I guess I'm the backup plan if something goes wrong."

[Dome]

Seeing Tiger leave her guns, Dante leaves his swords and dons his long trench coat. He follows her out of the plane and towards the base commander.