ic Flying Into the Storm (IC)

[The Sailor]

August 8, 2015
10:00hrs Eastern Daylight Time
Freedom City, Trainor Field.

It was a warm but seasonal day for a coastal summer, partly cloudy, the rains of the early morning had subsided. Although the humidity sort of annoyed a certain blonde-haired pilot sitting on her trainer plane, or what she called her trainer. While not anything a superheroine could call a proper super-plane, it looked high performance none the less. She liked to fly it at airshows recently when not working the streets or her day job, and it made some good side money. After all, it's not every day you see an elf be a pilot.

She straightened out her orange-colored flight-coveralls, she decided to ditch her usual super suit and flight pack, there needed to be some maintenance anyways. She zipped up her red flight vest, checking to make sure all her usual kit was in the proper pockets. If she could pull out a chart or a flare gun on reflex, that was helpful. She decided not to have the velcro patch of her tie to Archetech on this flight today... not company business.

But she was also waiting for her trainee... She knew Grimalkin wanted to sharpen her skill in flying aircraft of this world. And she didn't mind it. She loved flying this aerobatic wonder, even if it was a little fiddly.

Naomi starts making pre-flight checks waiting for Grimalkin to probably walk over at any moment.

(Note that our aircraft is a stripped to the bone non-military version of this aircraft except for the ejection seats, and navy blue in color with the aircraft code: N42099-X on the tail.)

Edited September 1, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

Lynn Epstein didn't make it out to North Bay very often, and she'd never been as far out as Trainor Airport; it seemed sort of silly to fly to a flying lesson, but that's the sort of world you lived in when you were a cape. It was certainly a nice looking airfield from the air; how different would it look from the cockpit of a plane? She alighted in pixie form around the corner from the main gate, then resumed her normal size and chosen outfit: comfy jeans, comfy cowboy boots, a warm flannel shirt and a classic brown leather bomber jacket. The only thing she wasn't able to glamour up herself were a swanky pair of Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses that she pulled out of an inside pocket that reached all the way into her extra-dimensional vault. With a gym bag casually tossed over one shoulder, she was soon directed out onto the tarmac, where Naomi waited with a truly magnificent looking aircraft.

 

"Hi Naomi! Oh my God, she's beautiful! Who makes her? It looks like a modern take on a Spitfire!" The short trainee eagerly trotted up to run a hand along the sleek fuselage. "So pretty!"

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Naomi's larger ears drooped slightly subconciously from her inner pilot being annoyed at Grim's choice of clothing, but after a quick look over... "Looks like the boots can be taken off quick if need be." Naomi said. "Should have let you know you'd be sittin' in a ejection seat." She said with a grin. "Then again we're big damn heroes who fight big bad things on a daily basis. We can afford t'be a little wreckless."

She smiled, her ears returning to a normal position. "So... yes, this is actually not my plane, it's a plane that belongs to Archetech, but it's become a sort of demonstrator plane. I fly it at air shows and I occasionally help the Coast Guard when needed." She said, pointing to a couple of bomb-looking orange pods attached to a couple wing hard-points, that and the big secondary fuel tank on the bottom. "She's a Super Tucano. Originally a counter-insurgence plane popular in South America in the Drug-Wars. The US Navy likes these for ground targets when a A-10 isn't a option."

"This one is a de-taloned version, Archetech originally picked it up to test some new avionics, but after the testing was done we put in some spare avionics and turned her into a demo plane." She said, patting the blue with white pinstripe airframe, the Archetech Aeronautics logo emblazoned on the tail with the navigation number "N42099-X", it had "Experimental Aircraft" emblazoned in orange under the windscreen on the body, and with how the single engine and the prop looked... it definately looked like she had performance. "We won't be doing any hard turns or anything so I don't think you'll need a G-suit today. Why I'm not wearin' my usual either."

"Due to flight routes today, we'll be flying over or near open water, I got someone bringin' a spare survival vest for ya before we take off. Liabilities and stuff, ya know. You're in a company plane. I got a personal effects hatch in the tail area you can stuff your jacket into."

"You've done preflight before?"

Edited August 3, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

Lynn looked both embarrassed and crestfallen. "Oh, sorry, most of my piloting experience was sorta...'in the bush', you might say." She looked down at her boots and shrugged. "I mean, technically the boots can vanish in a puff of logic if need be, so that shouldn't really be a problem." Then the changeling grinned impishly, and suddenly she was holding a cigar as she did a bit of a Groucho impression. "Along with everything else I'm wearing, if you know what I mean. Not that I advocate nude flying! Safely first, and all that." She flicked the cigar away and it was vapor before it hit the tarmac.

 

The eager pupil once again turned her full attention to the aircraft as Naomi went over its technical specs. "Cool, so it really is a dogfighter; that's awesome! And yeah, I'm fine flying over water..." Then she stopped and looked a bit unhappy. "Wait, do I have to wear the vest? I can fly and I don't even need to breathe! I once spent an entire week as a chair, fer crissake!"

 

The mention of preflight checks also seemed to make her pause. "Uh, yeah, sorta; I mean, I've never flown a plane plane before, y'know? My late husband handled most of the tech side of things." She pointed at the canopy. "Maybe if I have a look at the controls first?"

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

"Not my call, I'd lose my job if I didn't play it safe with a currently a learner civvie in the back seat cape or not. The lawyers would have a field day!" Naomi said with a sigh, scratching behind her ear. "Don't worry about it, at the very least you'd have a lot of pockets to carry any smart phones or what-not. I mean, I don't need all my kit either, but I prefer havin' it so I don't have to be resurrectin' myself. Dyin's painful." She said, patting Lynn's shoulder. "That and I look sorta like a bad..." a plane flew overhead so her expletive couldn't be made out. "...pilot. I like lookin' the part of the dangerous, reckless test pilot, myself."

"I'll guide ya through the pre-flight. Seems you need some polishin'"

As they went along going over everything, she grinned. "Not like what you've messed with in the past, eh? And totally not on Mars even." She looked at how Grimalkin was going over things. "No worries after the first few times this'll come to you without even looking at the list. Although it helps keep track of what you're doing and keeps a record if something malfunctions."

"And yeah, this bird could dogfight... would need some gun-pods as it has no internal weapon port, and some heat-seekers... then again we're not military and could tear a Jet in half and let the pilot eject. we've... got much more finesse, no doubt." She said, patting the airframe. "So... you are somewhat familiar with Aerodynamics enough to know of things like lift and stalling and stuff, right?"

One of the airfield workers brings over a orange vest with the Archetech logo emblazoned on the right breast that seemed pretty well engineered, not to mention sat out of the way. It had some basics loaded into a few pockets, but had enough empty pockets for anything Lynn wanted to take along without stuffing it into the back. "Thanks... and while accepted the passenger is logging a official protest." The worker scratched his head. "I'm kiddin, James. Get the test plane for tomorrow's engine shakedown ready for flyin' while I take Lynn up for a training flight."

James grinned. "Sure thing, just mind the turbulence at about 2000 feet. It's been choppy up there since the storms passed through. A bunch of civilian aircraft had to fly out on a lower flight path today."

As he walked off Naomi looked to Lynn. "So... let's get you situated."

Didn't take long to get Lynn's personal effects arranged as Naomi wheeled the ladder up to get to the cockpit. Bit tight quarters, but didn't look too bad. Lynn noticed two orange crates in the storage compartment... they looked airtight, one was unlabled, but the other had Naomi's name on it.

[Heritage]

Lynn did NOT look happy putting on the safety vest; she kept squirming and adjusting it like a kid in a car seat or trying a new scratchy sweater grandma made you for Chanukah. There were also a lot of muttered curses as well. As she put her gear away, she indicated the two crates with a nod. "What are those?"

 

Once everything was stowed away, Lynn had a chance to climb into the cockpit and glance over the controls. "Okay, cool, so most of this looks familiar; time for 'A Good Chat'!" She reached out and touched each piece of equipment in turn as she murmured a mnemonic Bill once taught her a lifetime ago.

 

"Altimeter...gas gauge...oil temp...oil pressure, uh...distress beacon over...here. Lessee, what's left. Compass...harness." Here she clutched at her seat belt. "Airspeed indicator, aaaaand tachometer! That's all of them!" She turned to look back over her shoulder at Naomi. "How'd I do, coach?"

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Naomi grinned. "Nailed it. Also...Those crates?"

"Ah! More like cases, and one of them has my suit and flight pack, the other... not sure. Oh! I put in some extra stuff in the second box in case we need it. Or if we don't we have some picnic and beach stuff. I know of a long, flat stretch near the ocean north of us where we can land and have lunch. I got permission from the owner to make a landing there. I used it a lot to practice emergency landings. It's a good simulation. Guy's nice too, owns a nice little diner in Wharton."

She grinned as she buckled in. "You use mnemonics eh?" She said, going over her dashboard like a pro. "With me I have a mental map. I know everything I'm supposed to be looking over, and I have the dashboard pretty much of every plane I fly in my head. I just remember each plane like how some people use Mind Palaces... just I can fly mine."

"Now mind that yellow-striped handle between your legs. That's your escape plan if things go south. Make sure you sit straight and keep your head back when you pull it. Pretty much there really isn't training for such a thing... just close your eyes, pull the handle and grit your teeth. Don't yank it unless you mean it either as I'll pop out a half second after you automatically."

"Enough about that... I'll let you do the honors for take-off, and then I'll give ya your flight plan I set up today."

"And remember our contact number?"

It's N42099-X, I use it in SL for the roleplay-heavy airports there.

[Heritage]

Lynn nodded when Naomi mentioned the unconventional landing she'd planned for them; she didn't have the heart to mention that she didn't eat anymore, but hopefully there'd be wine or coffee or something nice to drink at least.

 

"Okay, don't touch the eject handle unless we're actually going down; got it."

 

The trainee got herself all strapped in and her headset on; it took a few seconds for her to figure out exactly where the ignition was, but soon the turboprop was roaring to life. Over the com she stated, "Uh, we're...NX-42099? No wait, N42099-X! That's it."

 

She contacted the control tower and waited to find out which runway they were cleared to use, then dug out a very old picture of her family back on Otherworld to stick on the control panel. She kissed her fingers, tapped her husband's and three kids' faces and grinned as her eyes got a little moist. "That's right, Momma's back behind the stick; Lord have mercy!"

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Naomi quirked an eyebrow as the tower cleared them to their runway, it was quiet at Trainor for outbounds as the storm that passed through was causing traffic to re-route south or north of Freedom City, or land at the larger airport to the south that wasn't socked in my the weather. "42099-X, you are cleared for takeoff..."

As Naomi and Lynn's plane lined up, Naomi smiled, leaning back in her seat. She remembered this part back when she was young. In moments Lynn took off, although she was a bit slow on the throttle. Was expected though as this bird did seem to want to go from 0 to "I wanna dogfight" rather easily if you didn't pay attention. Once they were at about 5000 feet, Naomi nodded. "Might be a good time to put the oxygen mask on if we wanna go higher than 10,000... our flight plan was to do that for a short time. Thought I'd show off some of the extras to this plane... there was some milspec stuff I didn't want gone." Naomi said with a smile. "Once we're at a good high altitude I'll let you fly about. There's a free-flight zone out over the Atlantic past those barrier islands ahead. At about 50% fuel we'll head to that beach landing spot I told ya about."

"Whatcha think of her? Starting to get spoiled?"

Edited August 12, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

Lynn sighed as she reached over to pull on the mask. "Okay, but can we maybe set this at like the lowest setting possible? I feel bad wasting perfectly good oxygen like this."

 

It took her a while to respond to Naomi's question, because to be honest she was a little bit overwhelmed right now, but in a good way. It had been several years since she was in a cockpit, and this Super Tucano was simply amazing. The controls were so sensitive, the sky so wonderfully blue; she felt like a kid again.

 

"Dude, you have no idea how hard it is to resist the urge to just start pulling crazy-ass stunts; nothing life-threatening, but I want to do an Immelmann so bad I could scream!" The changeling shook her head. "I mean, I fly all the time when I'm shrunk down and tiny, but to be full size and have this great thrumming power at my fingertips?" She did a little dip, just enough to give you butterflies in the tummy. "This is intoxicating!"

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Naomi grinned... "Don't worry about the O2... the boss' put in some weird life support doohickey in here so there isn't a time limit... something with air-scrubbers and duct tape or summat... we got a supply, trust me. Then again if you don't need it, I have discovered a nice boost of O2 helps to think anyways... bit jealous if that's the case as I sorta need the stuff. Also... If you can handle the G's... well... we're at a proper height..."

Suddenly even Naomi wanted to see what Lynn could do. "Here's the deal... I'm gonna let you cut loose. We got plenty of fuel and time, so let's see what you can do."

She flips a couple switches. "I've unlocked the limiters on the engine and the other flight systems. You got full milspec performance. Don't go below 2000, and don't stall. Ya got 10 minutes."

As she says that she noticed the clouds are getting thicker. "Hmm... odd..."

Check the OOC for some rolls to do...

[Heritage]

"Yes, ma'am!" Lynn began to take the aircraft up into a steep climb, nearly stalling out before applying full rudder, causing the plane to yaw into a perfect classic Immelmann, during which she whooped like a kid on a roller coaster. As the Super Tucano dropped, she then pulled into a tight barrel roll, very nicely executed. After that, she leveled off and seemed to be content with a few more restrained stunts; she did, however, begin to sing in a loud voice what could only be a battle hymn from another dimension.

 

"We're the Martian Air Defense
Even though that makes no sense
There's barely any atmosphere to flyyyyyy!

 

So we plummet when we dive
Yet somehow we still survive
And the bastards back on Earth they don't know whyyyyy!

 

Like the sand, our blood is red
And over half of us are dead
But that just means there's less of us to cryyyy!

 

We are Brothers of the Wing
With our Sisters now we sing
And we'll fight for a Free Mars until we dieeeee!"

 

Then she pumped her fist in the air and cried out, "Greetings from Olympus Mons! Fifty-four days!"

 

Her moment of Martian patriotism now passed, Lynn suddenly sat up in the seat and jerked her head towards the horizon. "Hey, do you see that at two o' clock? That doesn't look right."

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

Naomi was amused. She knew Lynn's been in some other dimension. One where apparently being on Mars is a thing. Feeling the Gs of the maneuvers and what-not made her realize it might have been a good idea to wear G-leggings today... But the maneuvering was excellent. "Ever thought you're in the wrong career? Could use a good test pilot..."

Then there was what Lynn spotted. "Yeah..." Naomi said, rubbing her hand on the windscreen and trying to screen out reflections as the source. "That... isn't normal."

[The Sailor]

GM

The odd shimmer began moving wildly... before it suddenly jumped ahead of the plane, then it seemed to come at the aircraft, and soon the aircraft is surrounded by a odd, greenish blue light for a moment before it dashed up into the sky... The dial that Miss Americana added on to monitor electromagnetic fields spiked. As the plane moved along it seemed the radar and GPS went dead, leaving the two Aviatrixes to use the dials and the compass on their dashboards. The other electronics... at least those that didn't require a connection to the outside world were functioning, except for the radio which was spookily silent. As if there wasn't any radio channels working and nothing but silence...

But the biggest thing of what happened, was the odd fact that the sky was now night, and outside of still a little greenish blue glow where that odd shimmer disappeared off to, there was nothing below but sea, and nothing above but stars.

[Heritage]

It took a few seconds for the changeling's eyes to adapt to the darkness, more due to shock than anything else; her head jerked around this way and that as she tried to get her bearings.

 

"Oh crap. Oooooooh crap! I think we flew through a portal thingie."

 

Then she craned her head to look down.

 

"Also I don't see any land, anywhere. How much fuel to we have in the tanks?"

 

She worked radio for a few seconds.

 

"I've got nothing on radio, either. S###!"

 

The she peered into the distance.

 

"And you're sure we don't have any weapons onboard? Because we might just get into that dogfight I was so eager about a few minutes ago."

Edited March 23, 2017 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

GM

Lynn sees they're still at about 80% fuel, no where near bingo yet, but the fact it was night fall and the stars just didn't look right for the latitude stuck out... they would fit in for being on a spot in the equator... and it was feeling a little warmer where they were...

--- On the mysterious ship ---

A captain pulls himself up on a console on the bridge of a beleagured aircraft carrier... flames on deck from planes destroyed on deck. "S... Status report!"

A woman wearing a blue sailor's uniform staggers from her spot at navigation. "Multiple decks reporting casualties... we're not taking on water, but a fire team is trying to push back a fire from our munitions stores. Whoever hit us is on the run back. They were probably at the limit of their fuel."

"I'd bet it was the British again..."

"I wouldn't doubt it, sir, they've been off the coast of California for a week. wouldn't put it below them to use pirate aviators."

The captain shook his head, wiping blood from his brow. An Asian man in his late 60's... a man forced into his role commanding his ship. "I'm getting too old for this. Since the Japanese Republic allied with the Americans against British Imperial expansion, things haven't been good, particularly with their allies with the Czar."

A radio operator puts back on his headphones. "One of our scout wings just spotted an unknown aircraft... white body, blue trim."

"Answering hails?"

"Negative. the scouts are reporting it's armed... possibly with small torpedoes."

"Shoot it down."

The person on the radio nodded and reported to the scout wing. "They got enough fuel to chase that plane for a minute, then they gotta return."

"We'll clear the deck, there's a crew on it now, sir."

--- Back on the plane ---

"No we're not armed... and right now we don't got..."

The sound of something smashing through the cockpit, hitting Naomi in the head causing her to slump forward and go silent is heard... there's some sparks in the cockpit where she is, but the plane feels like it's maneuverability wasn't lost at all. Alarms to avoid gunfire start ringing everywhere... Then the form of 3 planes fly by, with visible tracers that somehow missed on that first strafe. Other than the fact that one bullet struck Naomi.

Then they pass for another run and the sound of bullets hitting the airframe is heard and the fuel gauge starts to fall.

 

Roll me an initiative in the OOC. And a Pilot roll. If there is any other actions you wish to take, use the OOC to state them first. Oh, and you got +1 Hero Point... You are in sorta deep ATM.

Edited August 25, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

"Oh s###! Oh s###! Naomi, are you okay?!" Lynn tried to turn around in her harness to check on the much-more experienced pilot, but she couldn't see her; however the cockpit now reeked and hot metal which told her a lot. She frantically tried to work the radio, but it was either damaged or she was too stupid to work the damn thing-

Stop. Take a breath. Lock it down.

And then just like that, the changeling's brain went into battle mode and the world slowed down, filling her brain with an eerie calm. Naomi was either alive or she was dead; either way, it was now up to Lynn to keep this whole thing together. She imagined Bill by her side, his unshakeable faith in her surging through her like cool fire.

Ya got this, hon; ya got it.

As she'd once mentioned to the Welsh test pilot, she actually had more experience with ground effect vehicles than proper planes; it meant she was a lot more comfortable flying low than most pilots. True, that was usually over the desert and not open ocean, but still...

The fae pilot let the nose drop; if she were lucky, they might think she was actually going down. She let them get within twenty feet of the waves before leveling off, then made a beeline for the burning ship, hoping to be lost in the glare of the blaze.

But not too close now; you're losing fuel, kid.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

GM

The first lead aircraft dived down with a second next to him, as the stricken aircraft made it's way past the ship the two pilots assumed it was a torpedo run and opened fire. The first one only nicked the paint job but the other nailed the tail controls, causing them to get sluggish. As you checked on Naomi, you noticed she was indeed dead... while the bullet itself didn't hit her in the head (which would have made things a far less pretty sight) Some shrapnel did get through her helmet. But then you remembered something Naomi said before... Naomi's come back from far, far worse. But she will be out... for almost a half hour from what you remember.

Being immortal has it's privileges, but the time delay is... going to be a problem here.

But fate sometimes can throw a bone, even to the most desperate of pilots.

The third aircraft flies by, matching your speed...

=== On Defense Plane #3 ===

She looked at the cockpit of Lynn's aircraft and saw the slumped over Naomi. Her visual abilities were helped by the light of the damaged aircraft carrier.

Why would a torpedo plane have orange bomb-like things... those are totally not any torpedoes I know... wait... that's a corporate looking logo, not a enemy mercenary... That's a civilian craft!

"CALL OFF THE ATTACK! THAT'S A CIVILIAN!"

=== Back on the ship ===

The Captain wheeled his head to the radio operator. "Put me on!"

The radio operator nodded and handed him the headset. "Can you verify, Peregrine?"

"Aye... I'll bet my career on it..."

"Can you make contact with the pilot?"

"She's struggling with the radio, and the other pilot looks dead, but I'm picking up on the potential that pilot might be a regenerator."

The captain nodded. "Call off the attack. Make psychic contact with the other pilot. Hopefully they aren't in bad shape..."

=== Back on Lynn's plane ===

You notice that the stick is now stuck as the plane is now heading out to open water past the aircraft carrier, and the plane is now losing fuel even faster. But the third aircraft is matching your speed, as the pilot puts her hand on the window...

"Okay... I am so... so sorry, ma'am... sir... can't tell just yet. My eyes are good, but it takes time to look and I'm trying to fly my plane. What is your status? The captain of the carrier called off the attack. They're clearing the deck but your plane doesn't look like it can make a landing... looks like you're missing landing gear. I'm just about out of fuel too, but I've gotta stick with you to keep contact."

She sighed. "And what means do you have for bailing out? I gotta get to 800 feet to safely bail... I've been through a meat grinder before you showed... can you at least climb?"

All of that was in your mind not the radio... and her plane indeed looked like a dead bird flying as well... there was smoke starting to come out the back, and it too was leaking fuel. Looking at her plane you could figure she had to bail out the hard way and jumping out at 20 feet would be a death wish. But Lynn's plane felt like it could climb.

Edited August 28, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

Lynn tested the controls; yeah, this was not good. The telepathic communication startled her, but at least it was non-hostile.

"Yeah, okay, hi! Uh, my status? Well, you guys shot my flight instructor; nice job, geniuses! She's dead, but she'll get better. Rudder's trashed and stick's messed up pretty bad, but I think if I pull up and work the throttle, I can get enough altitude to deploy our chutes. Wish me luck!"

And with that, the changeling pulled back on the stick and gave her a littke juice, painfully aware of their dwindling fuel supply. As she watched the altimeter climb, she closed her eyes and willed her gear back in storage to melt back into vapor; otherwise If the plane lit up, the feedback would be excruciating. Grabbing the photo of her family, she tucked it back into her interdimensional vault for safe keeping.

"Alright, Naomi! I don't know if you can hear me, but If you can...sorry about your pretty plane!"

And with that, she reached down between her legs, firmly gripped the yellow handle and yanked.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Heritage

[The Sailor]

GM

Lynn made her choice as the aircraft trailing them opened it's windscreen and the pilot jumped out just as Lynn's seat fired off into the night, a heart-beat later the straps on Naomi's ejection seat tightened, pulling her slumping body into position and sending her limp body into the night secured as best as it can. Things happened quickly from that decision... In a moment Lynn and Naomi were away, the feeling of 16 G's of force slamming into her tailbone... although in her life she's experienced far worse, and Naomi wasn't in any condition to care. Closing her eyes during the ejection was all Lynn could do.

The nice thing about a Zero-Zero ejection seat was as soon as the seat came away from Lynn the parachute comes out, and she was under canope in no-time. She could see that Naomi had a clean open, her seat's emergency kit under her as well as a raft that was slowly filling with air. As the plane flew forward on momentum, the rescue pods that weren't damaged as well as the two crates in the back of the tail and the personal effects locker all ejected from the dying aircraft. some deploying floats, and the rescue pods popping out descent chutes, popping out some rather decent life rafts at a point.

But something was off.

The pilot that talked to Lynn in her head had her chute tangled. It wasn't open proper... What's worse, a chute strap was choking the pilot. Lynn could even hear her distress in her head. She couldn't get to the cut-away, and there just wasn't enough time for the spare to open if she could anyways...

One thing though... Lynn was only 100 feet from her...

[Heritage]

In a flash, there was a sudden in-rush of air, and Lynn Epstein was gone, leaving her empty flight harness and vest danging from her chute; however, Grimalkin's pixie form was very much in evidence! She darted towards the struggling pilot, and quickly judged her speed and direction of descent; zipping ahead of her, she traced a large circle in the air, forming a portal into her faerie vault. Then she flew back up, flicked out her tiny, razor-sharp claws, and slashed the strap that was twisted around her neck. Hopefully the thick bed of pine needles lining her burrow would cushion the impact of her telepathic advocate.

"Bombs away!"

[The Sailor]

GM

=== The Fairy Vault... ===

Peregrine's landing was indeed nice, lit up by dappled sunlight, the beleaguered pilot catches her breath, looking about. She looks at a few of the collected pine-needles and scratches her head. "This isn't the Astral Citadel, so I'm not a psychic entity... still alive."

She gets up, brushing off her overalls and breathing a sigh of relief. "But was that... a fairy?"

She looks around, without moving from her spot. "I don't think she's going to just leave me here."

She pulls the toggle on her life preserver if she gets unceremoniously dumped into the water. "Better play it safe..." She said, looking at the cut to her straps. "...at least she was quick."

=== Back in the real world. ===

Lynn sees the fouled chute drift and flutter away to the ocean, as beacons start lighting up where the two emergency rafts the plane dropped were. Although one looked like it was now losing air... probably from battle damage. Naomi was also in the water, the distress beacon on her activated vest blinking as she floated by it, her single-person raft dutifully floating near her, could be useful as a stretcher. Lynn's stuff was floating in the water, not that she needed it, but it did draw her attention to the two bright orange cases with yellow floats deployed as well as the personal effects containers. All floating in a triangular configuration.

The extent of Naomi's fatal injury was becoming obvious... head wound.. and she didn't look like what was inside her head was in one piece. Not by the bloody nose she had...

It looked like the people on the carrier had a similar crisis, pushing off planes just in time to get the other two aircraft in the air back. It seemed the last thing on their mind at the moment was mounting a rescue. At least this was a calm spot in whatever ocean you were looking at... nothing seemed to be drifting.

Edited August 30, 2015 by The Osprey

[The Sailor]

Seahawk

=== Somewhere between here and the afterlife... ===

"Ugh..."

Naomi gets up, still wearing her flight gear in a place she called "The Waiting Room." A place her kind ends up in while waiting for their bodies to knit themselves together.

"Okay... the fading headache in my head tells me... I got killed by something."

There was a little girl, holding her leg. She was wearing a black dress. "What the... not the usual self-analysis I usually go through in here... Wait..."

She kneeled down and saw it was a much younger her.

"She's been looking for you, you know."

A much rougher looking version of Naomi... dressed in military fatigues walks over, missing an eye, and looking like a mercenary off of some far-flung desert. "Seems we're roommates."

"Eh?"

"Think... something scrambled your brains when you died. How ya think your thoughts at this moment would look? This is a psychic construct after all."

Naomi looked around, and many other versions of herself were there, sitting, wondering just what happened. "Every fantasy, every daydream, heck, might meet when you were thinkin' you could be an astronaut... all here."

"I... Is this bad?"

A Naomi in a lab coat walks over. "No... your core personality is intact, but it'll get quieter in here as your cerebrum regenerates."

Naomi massages her head. "Lovely. Me, Myself, and I..."

"So who is the little girl?"

Mercenary Naomi takes a drag from her cigar. "Your darkest memory."

The little girl looks up crying, and Naomi remembered. She picks the little girl up in her arms. For her, it was nothing. Smoothing the hair out seeing her human ears again on the little girl made her cry a little.

"Always hard remembering a loss." The Scientist Naomi said. "You're going to run into stuff like this. You got 20 minutes and inside here that could feel..."

"A lifetime." Naomi said. "20 minutes to sort yourself out."

"Actually about 18 minutes." The scientist said, adjusting her glasses.

"Well, little Naomi... wanna find the astronaut? At least before we start like... fusing back together?"

"Will I see mommy again?"

Naomi smiled. "Actually, sooner than you think." Naomi said with a smile. She just hoped that she could get back home to do so... she had an lunch date with her in a few days!

Edited August 30, 2015 by The Osprey

[Heritage]

The pixie landed in the raft by Naomi and returned to normal size, wearing a flight suit in black and midnight blue in a nod to her identity as Grimalkin; with a bit of effort, she hauled the...corpse(?) into the boat and rested her comfortably propped up so she would flop overboard. Then she traced a circle in the air, about two feet wide on its side so she could poke her head into her little pocket of Faerie and check on her guest; looked like she was awake and unhurt - yay!

"You okay in there, miss?" She offered a hopeful smile, then pulled her head back out and peered over at the burning mass of the ship. "I take it you're based on the carrier? Looks like you guys could really use some help; I don't have much naval experience, but I've helped put out a fire or two in my time. I can give you a lift back and offer my services."

[The Sailor]

GM

Peregrine looked a bit woozy from her experience, enough to turn around and throw up over the side of the large rubber raft. It took a few moments before she could catch her breath and respond. "I... I'm good. Name's Sally... Peregrine's my callsign. Might be a... good idea to stay out of the way to let them get set up."

She saw Naomi laying against the side of the raft and she slides over, taking Seahawk's helmet off. Placing her hands on Naomi's head she closed her eyes. "Seems your friend is in the midst of a regeneration cycle... a distressing one. Seems that shot that hit her has messed up her brain and as it's weaving itself back together, she's dealing with several different fascets of her personality as she puts herself back together."

"I can't hasten the process, but I can ease it." She said, her hands glowing white.

"I'm... sorry you ended up in this situation... we were attacked by mercenaries under the employ of the British Empire. You suddenly appeared out of that electromagnetic distortion we picked up out here in the Pacific, and at first we thought you were a straggling torpedo plane. We're about 100 miles north of the Equator trying to find out movements of the British Forces coming from their naval holdings in Hawaii, thing is we hadn't been able to get close. Most of the supersonic assets the Pacific Alliance has are defending Tokyo or San Fransisco. In fact... most of the alliance is on the defensive at the moment. With Czarist Russia staying neutral and the restored Chinese Empire simply focussed on taking their own holdings and bolstering their defenses, we're living off of the industrial base of the German Republic and the US."

She adjusted her modernized flightsuit and kit... it looked like someone took ideas from WWII gear and upgraded it for the modern era. "Our carrier isn't big, and it only carries COIN aircraft... nothing like those fancy stealth jobs fighting over Germany or Korea..."

She looked about on the water, seeing all the floating boxes. "That stuff yours?"  She said, using her psychic power to pull the boxes of kit that belonged to Naomi and Lynn over to the main raft.

As she said that her miniature radio chirped. "Peregrine? You okay? Status!"

"Yeah, I'm okay and so is one of the pilots of the downed aircraft. The other... she's in disposed and regenerating."

"We can't send someone for about... 4 hours. With the chaos on deck I recommend you shelter where you are, and make sure everyone is okay before you try to help yourselves."

"Roger that, Captain."

She looked over to Lynn. "How about we wait until your friend recovers. I managed to knit her brain together in a way that'll make things easier as they come together. As she's technically dead... there isn't much more I can do than just make her look good for a open casket. Although I don't think that'll be necessary for her soon, I'd wager?"

In fact Naomi looked uninjured now... dead to the world, but uninjured. "You know how long it takes before Sleeping Beauty wakes up?"