...I'm always waiting to see our familiar FMP! chars, but hey, you're
the author Tsush Surprised you haven't taken a chance to insert
Ren in there
FYI, Fox-1 usual denotes a radar-missile shot, Fox-2 an IR-missile
shot. Fox-3's was reserved for Phoenix missile shots, or a gunkill...
Fox-4, if I remember, is if you do the dreaded controlled flight into terrain
Once again the skies had decided on water. It seemed like the skies were mourning for something, something missing. Business went on as usual; it would not halt or slow down for weather. The bustling streets of Tokyo once again became an umbrella sea.
Thursday, September 12, 2002
Lotus Apartment Complex
Ota-ku, Tokyo-to
“Wake up Kana-chan!! Wa-” Kaname knocked the alarm clock off of her nightstand before it could continue any further. She hated mornings, she hated waking up, and she certainly didn’t want to go to school today. The field trip to Narita had been cancelled and no reason had been given. Many students who had been looking forward to seeing the air show took their complaints to the class representative, and the class representative just happened to be her. Kaname wondered how many disgruntled students would come to her today as she buried herself back into her sheets. She couldn’t afford to be late, but she let herself sleep just a bit more before preparing for school. She indulged in the peacefulness and drifted away.
Chrysanthemum Apartments
Kenji bolted into a sitting position in his bed and glanced at the glowing green LED numbers beside his bed. After finally processing what time it was, he let himself have a few more minutes to nap. While trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep, his ears picked up some activity. Something was sizzling. ‘What the hell is that damn Takato doing?’ After attempting to snooze some more, Kenji threw off his bed sheets and decided to have a shower. He stumbled about his room searching for his bath robe. The bedroom was neat and tidy, and not all that small compared to what he used to live in. Kenji felt as if he had forgotten something these past few days as his eyes continued their search for his bathrobe. He shrugged off the feeling and looked under his bed.
Outside in the kitchen Nanase Takato was putting the finishing touches on the two egg crescents she had fried. Nanase was an early riser and very much a morning person. Unlike her new roommate, Nanase did not mind living with Kenji. Whether they got along well was beside the point. They were on an assignment and she would not let Kenji bring her down. The aforementioned roommate walked out of his room and towards the bathroom yawning and scratching his unkempt dark blue hair.
Several minutes later
They were both seated at the small dinner table in complete silence. Kenji was clad in his black school clothing while Nanase dressed casually in the very same clothes she had on yesterday: a white drawstring blouse and a red plaid skirt along with a black hair band. Kenji eyed his egg crescent dubiously and poked at it with his fork. His perception of eggs had drastically changed ever since he ate his “last meal” omelette not very long ago; apparently his stomach’s had changed as well because he was starting to feel queasy. “Itadakimasu,” Nanase whispered softly before cutting off a piece and bringing the roll to her mouth.
Kenji decided to follow suit after studying Nanase’s facial expressions. If the food was sub par she was controlling her muscles perfectly, or perhaps she was used to eating anything. A very thin smirk displayed on his face for only a moment as he thought about that possibility. In those moments, any outsider would have immediately assumed they were a couple. To Kenji Kayashi, that outwards appearance was false.
Shocked. His eyes widened as his body and mind travelled into a vortex ‘What is this???’ It couldn’t be this delectable; in Kenji’s mind there was no way an ordinary egg roll crescent could taste like this. Kenji’s eyes darted from his plate to Nanase’s, then to Nanase herself. She was absorbed in her own meal, paying no attention to her roommate and team member’s reaction. ‘How can her face be so serene when she’s eating something like this??’ Kenji reached for his hair and started to pull, ‘Bakana! Sonna BAKANA!!’
Nanase paused in the middle of cutting another piece off of her meal when she took notice of Kenji’s strange behaviour. “Kayashi? What’s wrong?”
“Eh? Nothing, just-”
“Is it your migraines again?”
“Iie, it’s no-”
Before he could finish Nanase already had a cool, damp cloth on his forehead. Kayashi blinked several times, attempting to process what had just happened. Within 5 seconds the bombing specialist had dropped her fork and knife and was now on one knee beside him pressing a cloth to his forehead. “Feeling better? Maybe you shouldn’t go to school today,” she suggested in a maternal tone.
“Eh? How am I supposed to do my job then?” Kenji retaliated while almost getting out of his seat.
“Kayashi, you shouldn’t even be on this assignment. In fact I’m surprised you were assigned, you should be on sick leave!”
Kayashi moved her hand away from his head and dropped the cloth to the floor. “Lieutenant, I was ordered to take on this assignment; my condition is not serious enough to put me on the fully inactive list.”
“You’re not piloting because you would be a hazard to yourself and others, what makes protecting some girl any different? Did you even ask yourself what the hell Captain Testarossa was thinking? Did you ever think about refusing? Is the Administrative Division so damn cheap to send out a sick man to work?” The volume of her voice rose with every question she posed.
Kenji was incensed, “Then what the hell are we going to do?”
“Yesterday I set up a monitoring method for her,” she started, now cool and calm, “I replaced her cell phone with a surveillance model. Every hour she is required to enter an OK code. If that code does not arrive, I get alerted. Is that good enough for now?”
Kenji clenched both of his fists and felt like slamming them into something. She always had her based covered. She always won arguments; it was always like this. Kenji Kayashi felt outclassed in every way and was developing an inferiority complex.
Instead of saying a word Kenji left his seat, carefully arranging his facial expression to become blank and unreadable. He was out the door several moments later, forgetting all about his breakfast, his lunch, his umbrella. While he had to rid himself of Kenji Kayashi for now, he couldn’t get rid of the burning emotion that he felt. Kazuya Nakajima set off for school against the advice of his “partner.” While he didn’t bring an umbrella he had donned a heavy black raincoat. The bitter weather matched his mood perfectly; perhaps he would always find empathy with the cold storm.
8:20
Lotus Apartment Complex
“GAAAH, SHIMATTA!!!” Kaname had overslept. What she had planned for was a 10 minute snooze; however that number had been multiplied by 10. She was scurrying about, gathering pieces of her school uniform, her homework, and then remembering something important. “SHOWER!!” But she could not waste time showering; on the other hand she could not let herself go to school without bathing. The blue-haired class representative was torn, finally decided.
Ota-ku
It was around 8:40 am. He was already late for school by ten minutes. It didn’t matter to him in the least whether or not he was on time, as long as he was able to fulfill his assignment. His orders were to keep an eye on the Whispered girl but not to shadow her everywhere. In his mind that meant relaxed observation. Technically all he had to do was be sure she was home at the end of each day. It indeed was a cakewalk. Kenji Kayashi paused for a while and thought it over in his mind. ‘Why did I make a big deal about having to be at school then?’ Was it perhaps Kenji’s conditioned reaction to oppose whatever Lieutenant Takato had to say? Kenji sighed and looked up into the face of the sky. Heavy raindrops assaulted his unguarded head as he stared aimlessly at the grey visage above him. Was he just an idiot for blowing up? Kenji compared his relationships with Lieutenants Alundres and Takato. Alundres was bright and friendly and optimistic, and practically pestered Kenji into friendship. She certainly took the aggressive approach. While she was very upbeat she also had a mature side. If Alundres was upbeat then Takato was just as downbeat. As far as Kayashi knew, Takato did not have many friends in the Mithril Air Force. She was very pragmatic and slightly introverted; that did not stop her from expressing her views and opinions with little tact. While he was practically best friends with Lorraine, the opposite could be said about Nanase, and now she was living in the same apartment as him! He couldn’t believe it. ‘Why couldn’t they have assigned Oogami with me dammit?’ Lieutenant Sei Oogami a colleague that Kenji could get along with. Kenji, Lorraine, Nanase and Sei were the four primary pilots for the XVF Project. Sei's piloting skills were inversely proportional to his skills at communicating, especially when it came to romance. Supposedly Oogami had a girlfriend back in Japan; however Kenji had never dared to ask him personally.
Kenji had realized he had just been gazing at the grey clouds while reminiscing for 10 minutes now. Surely people passing by had giving him curious looks. He could decipher soft splashes caused by footsteps in amongst the rain crashing into the concrete. “Kazuya-san?” Kenji glanced over his shoulder to see the very girl he was supposed to be protecting standing at a distance with an umbrella overhead.
“Aren’t you a little late for school Chidori-san?” came a semi-sarcastic question.
“What’s with this ‘Chidori-san’? You don’t have to be so formal Kazuya-san, or would you prefer Nakajima-san instead?” she asked instead.
“Iie, you can call me whatever you want… Chidori, but you never answered my question.”
“You never answered my first question!”
“I’m in a bad mood!”
“I-I slept in…”
“Sou…”
--------------------------------
And the epic *cough* continues. How will Kenji react when Kaname is murdered in cold blood?
How will he cope when he discovers Alundres drowned at sea?
Who will fall in love with Sousuke next?
Will Kurz ever win Tessa's heart? Find out next time on--
Wait a minute, wrong preview... Heh. I bet you were going WTF?
Well, that's all for now, let's see if I can get out of my creative rut.
Last edited by Tsushima Masaki on Sat Apr 30, 2005 5:47 am, edited 3 times in total.
What am I up to? I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm still trying to figure out a nice hook, an nice, gripping, passionate, dramatic, storyline. I'm already three pages into part 12, and basically there's a flashback to September 6th.
Hm... I need to integrate the characters and make them interact more simultaneously. Right now I think I've been focusing too much on a particular set.
This is kind of sad... I'm at part 12 and there's still no clear site of wtf is going on. Maybe I'll implement some dark, cold conspiracy in the midst of Mithril... :-D
Well if I look at it in the way of pages... I think I've only written 30 pages, so this could still be the... prologue, the opening. I hope it's not TOO boring. Let me know if I should actually make shit happen. Let me know if you want character _________ to have more time in the next instalment. Let me know if you think a character is a bit OOC. Oh... and could you guys hook me up with some good biographical information on Kaname, and maybe some of the other chars?
Last edited by Tsushima Masaki on Sun Dec 12, 2004 6:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
She had watched him exit silently and was unable to anything, unable to say anything. In truth she was genuinely worried about Kenji Kayashi; she had always been worried about the aerial combat specialist who went by Vapour 9. She had taken the wrong approach again, and the ever-present rift between the two increased in size. Kayashi likely saw her only as a pilot from a rival squadron. While the AEF-07 Ozone Squadron piloted modified XB-70 for the most part, they were still well versed in dogfight situations. In the friendly dogfights between Ozone and Vapour, Kayashi was a hot target. Even in practice he pushed his machine and undoubtedly his body to the limits.
Nanase recalled the trial sessions in the two-seat XVF-01 Vireo with a bitter smile. The Vireo had been the first operational variable fighter developed by Mithril. The goal of the XVF Project was to manufacture and then test the capabilities of fighter that could transform into an arm slave. Before the Vireo was the XVF-00 Cygnus, merely an airframe that would become the basis for the Vireo and the 4 other hybrid aircraft. Nanase had been the pilot of XVF-03 Widow. The Widow was all about attacking the ground. Although its main role was high altitude bombardment, a main design goal was to have every model maintain a level of multi-role functionality. The testing phase had been going smoothly until the XVF-05 Phoenix’s yet-to-be-explained engine failure. As a safety issue the entire project was halted and a full investigation was conducted on every XVF prototype.
She reached back into her memory of that day, the day that felt like it was so far away when it was merely several days prior.
Six days ago
September 6th
“Albion 2, Lieutenant Takato, you have permission,” came the call over the communication system as she was going over the final pre-flight checks on the Widow with the chief mechanic. It was a sleek black fighter with the ability to sweep its wings from a delta position to an almost 90 degree position. Takato would pilot this prototype again today. She had been informed that Lieutenants Alundres and Kayashi had already commenced their test flights for the day. Lieutenant Oogami was scheduled to fly later in the day. There was still more time before the sun cleared the horizon to begin its ascent into the clear sky. The splashing of the waves and the sounds of the birds were the most prominent; underneath that layer of sound were the voices of the technicians. She had been chosen out her squadron to represent them in this project. Nanase Takato was an excellent bomber and could perform well even under long flights. She was here to prove that she could handle an experimental aircraft and bring it to its full potential. The lieutenant secretly admired the pilot of the fifth model Phoenix. She had heard that two years ago he had been the final pilot for the ZF-02 Somnius and had gotten some outstanding results with that aircraft. His squadron now used the Somnius on a regular basis for practice and the occasional sortie. He had been chosen to test an experimental aircraft once again, mainly because the Phoenix was similar to the Somnius from the aircraft design perspective. The ZF-02 was the first of its kind to employ a folding out wing design. The wings were swept back to 30 degrees but when at subsonic speeds internal wing extensions would fold out of the original wing to emulate a swept forward geometry.
The chief mechanic gave her a thumbs up signalling that the external checks had been completed. Takato climbed up the cockpit ladder holding her helmet and gloves in her left hand. After she settled into the relatively spacious cockpit she immediately began a systems check. ‘All screens operational, check gauges, test control surface…’ she told herself internally, making sure everything, and absolutely everything was green, and that meant initializing over fifty different onboard systems. When she was satisfied she returned a thumbs up signal to the ground crew and initialized the engines. Suddenly the ocean’s voice became inaudible and the roar of the main turbine engine overtook everything else. Nanase donned her helmet with integrated mounted display and calibrated its settings accordingly. “Aquila Control, alert 2, ready to proceed.”
“Copy that Albion 2, begin takeoff at your discretion.” The ground crew scurried back to the covered area before the Widow commenced its journey to the runway 1. Takeoff for the XVF-03 Widow occurred at 3:27 am. It sailed over the glittering water and ascended steadily at an angle of 15 degrees. Takato performed an in-flight systems check and strapped on her oxygen mask. “Albion 2, accelerating to 500 km/h,” she reported just as she began to push forward on the throttle controls. Even at such low speeds Nanase was already beginning to feel the thrill. While her life was on the line, she did not have to worry about enemy MiGs intercepting her today. Her eyes constantly darted in-between the displays and the world outside of the cockpit. “Increasing to 1,200.” Every XVF aircraft utilized a two phase propulsion system consisting of simple vector nozzles for vertical takeoffs and landings, and a two stage turbofan/ramjet hybrid dubbed Waveliner Screamjets, very similar in concept to the SR-71 Blackhawk’s J58 engines. With the Waveliner Screamjets any given XVF craft could reach speeds of Mach 3 and certainly beyond. Today’s purpose was to see just how far the Widow could go.
A transmission broke over the Mithril broadcast frequency during Takato’s flight. “Albion 4 reporting in and standing by for agility testing, all data logging systems are operational. Results of velocity test: Mach 3.9 with potential for more, a new record for this aircraft. I would like to report that recalibration is recommended on the transition from Screamer mode 1 to 2, maneuverability is limited after surpassing Mach 3. Automatic wing extension deployment is in need of some tweaking as well. Sending intermediate data on channel red for analysis.
“Excellent job Albion 4, cleared for agility testing, we hope to see you on the ground soon, Aquila Control out.”
A smile formed across the navy-haired pilot, although it was obscured by her black oxygen max. Thanks to more fine-tuning the Phoenix had nearly achieved Mach 4 velocity at an altitude of one kilometer. “Albion 3, requesting runway and apron assignment for minor adjustments.”
The testing on that day, Friday September 6th, had gone off smoothly until approximately 6:40 am. She had been ordered to return to base immediately after travelling 3.5 times the speed of sound.
September 12th
Tuatha de Danaan
It would be not be long until the Urzu Team returned from their assignment in the Middle East and the mousey captain could hardly wait for Kurz, Melissa, and most of all Sousuke return back safely. On her great oak desk rested a collection of papers. The topmost collection was an assignment extension form and had the captain’s signature on it.
Ota-ku, Tokyo-to
“You never answered my first question!”
“I’m in a bad mood!”
“I-I slept in…”
“Sou…”
They stood under the rain for what seemed like a very long time. By now Kayashi’s whole head was completely wet because of the excessive rainfall making the little time he spent making himself look presentable go to waste. “Is that all you can say?”
“It’s not unnatural to sleep in Chidori. However if you remain here talking to me you’ll become even more late,” he criticized in a deadpanned tone.
“Wait a minute, aren’t you coming to school too?”
“I have to think over some things. I’ll try to be there shortly.” Kaname wore a look of confusion under her umbrella. “If you don’t hurry you’ll miss the next train.”
“H-hai…”
Sheet lightning rolled in closer and closer towards Tokyo and the roaring of thunder increased in volume and frequency. Kaname Chidori reluctantly made her retreat to the train station. She plodded into the cold puddles littering the sidewalk, paying no attention to the depth of them. Was she slowly crumbling? Was she degenerating into her old self? Kayashi watched her until she disappeared out of sight and then exhaled deeply. “What the hell am I doing?”
It was his turn to retreat now, and his destination was back to his apartment. He couldn’t go to school in his waterlogged state. More jagged flashes of lightning struck the lightning rods mounted atop many of the buildings and more heavenly percussion washed over everyone with ears to hear. He finally reached Chrysanthemum Apartments and entered the lavish lobby. Mithril had truly booked an elegant place for his stay. Kenji could feel the dull pain re-enter his head and he had to grip the banister tightly to navigate up the several flights of stairs. “Kayashi?” He was now swimming in pain; he couldn’t even focus on the voice. His ascent slowed with each step he had to take. The migraine he sustained when with Mikihara rivalled what he was feeling now. His eyesight was turning red and that was not good news. A strong sense of vertigo overcame him causing him to stumble. “Kenji!” Nanase rushed to steady him before hurt himself any more by tumbling down the stairs. She wrapped her right arm around his body and gripped the railing with her other arm, preventing him from falling backwards. Not everything had gone the way Nanase had wanted. When everything had sorted itself out Kenji found himself on top of the woman he disliked the most, wrapped in her arms, with his head buried in her chest.
--------------------------------------
Well... uhh... I hope that was satisfactory.
And no, your eyes aren't decieving you. This has probably been the least downtime between releases...
Uh... so once again NO SOUSUKE AND CO, but at least you got to see everyone's favourite captain (well... not mine).
What's in store for Kenji and Nanase? Will Kenji commit seppuku or will he fall madly in love with the woman he could care less about?
What will Hayashimizu do now since Kazuya is late in his answer to join the Student Council?
Where does Ren factor into all of this?
Is Kaname acting normal? Is she cracking? Will she be confined to house arrest for arson?
Find out next time on Invariable Hypergeometric Sequence!!!
Last edited by Tsushima Masaki on Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
Keep writing, Tsush! I think I'm getting used to it being more about what
goes on in the FMP! universe than being about our fave FMP! chars... tho
I don't mind Tessa :drools:
Heheh, I'll try to integrate the familiar characters in soon.
I'm taking a break from writing for a while. Gotta review all these books I borrowed from the library to give me a better idea of fighting in the sky (mostly for my own pleasure).
But, I'm also addicted to Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. You remember me blabbing about Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (aka Distant Thunder for PAL)? It's the next sequel and damn is it amazing. Makes me want to actually buy my own PS2.
I think you'd like it HELLFIRE... wait... you said they're too mundane now and commanding units of fighters in an RTS is better. Oh well, I'm addicted, gotta play it tomorrow!
September 12th continued on with rain and gloom as if there was no hope of a sunny conclusion. Nanase Takato had managed to get herself out of the embarrassing situation with Kenji Kayashi and tend to his condition. Truthfully she was still blushing from what had happened on the stairwell not too long ago. She had witnessed his frailty firsthand and was starting to seriously question administration for sending a fellow pilot on an assignment outside of his normal job description in such condition. The Naval Division of Mithril had borrowed Kayashi for this mission, but under normal circumstances someone who had just experienced a severe case of G-LOC would not be on the active roster.
As 2nd Lieutenant Takato went over her thoughts again and again the while intensity of the weather increased. What was pitter-pattering against the windows had turned into violent thuds of water slamming into glass. The wind did its part by howling unceasingly through the urban section of Ota-ku; it assaulted the hapless pedestrians in their protective garments. Takato left a bowl of miso soup on the table beside her colleague’s bed and retreated from of the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She sighed for the fifth time since the whole incident on the stairwell and leaned against the closed white coloured door. The room beside his was her own. Its previous purpose was a weapons and communications room from what she gathered. It was time to use secure communications to request advice.
She dialled the appropriate numbers to connect to a Mithril relay node. “Connect to Aquila-Mithril: code orange, channel black…” she took a glance at the open folder she had been given.
“Please ID yourself with rank, name, division and SIN,” requested the firm voice on the other end.
Nanase took a deep breath and lay on her bed. “2nd Lieutenant Nanase Takato of the Mithril Air Force, Aquila Wing, SIN 00304 08058. Requesting Captain Messinger of Aquila Air Wing Command.”
“Request received Lieutenant. Please standby.”
Jindai Upper High School
“This is one of the many idioms found in the language. All languages have idioms that require more advanced knowledge to comprehend. Just like someone learning our language, Nihongo would find some of our phrases hard to comprehend or silly, the same goes for everyone else. When I was in North America most of the teenagers there were using phrases that I found to be very strange.
“I’ll give out some examples. When someone says ‘kick the can’ or ‘buy the farm,’ what do you suppose is meant?” No one could raise a hand to answer the question, just as Eri Kagurazaka had expected. She grinned, knowing she was one-up on her students, as she should be. “Those two phrases basically mean ‘to die.’ Buying the farm…”
Kaname had been late for class; however, no consequences had come about, yet. She had been in school for since halfway through the first period and now lunchtime was almost upon her. She could not find Kazuya anywhere. “He told me he’d make it, where is he?” she pondered softly. She gave off the illusion that she was being attentive but in reality she was deep in her own thoughts. She didn’t feel particularly safe and she was anxious for Sousuke to return. ‘Why is everything turning out like this?’
“Chidori-san?”
Her thoughts had been cut off because of the voice close to her left ear and she nearly jumped out of her seat in shock. Some her classmates giggled or chuckled at her. It was unusual for the class representative to space out during a lesson. Kaname could feel her cheeks heat up with embarrassment and she mentally slapped herself. “Chidori-san, is everything alright?” Kagurazaka inquired from beside her, peering directly into her class representative’s eyes.
“Iie… I don’t feel very good Sensei, I think…”
“Don’t push yourself to hard Kaname-san,” was her kind advice. “If you don’t feel 100% you should rest at home.”
Kaname considered the option. She wasn’t exactly being dishonest since she had skipped a good breakfast just to make cut down on her tardiness; and stress had been building up within her ever since the beginning of the week. She had to take the offer, she had to take some time off. “Arigato Sensei, I think I’ll go home.” She had responded in such a sullen voice, and this worried her best friend Kyouko Tokiwa. She watched Kaname collect her materials and exit the classroom. The room, which had been quiet during the exchange between the teacher and Kaname, was now filled with low whispers. “What do you think’s wrong with her?” or “has she finally snapped?” were the main topics of discussion among the class.
Kaname could discern a portion of the gossip as she drew further from the classroom. “Ara, Chidori-san?”
“Ah, Oren-san.”
They were both on the stairwell staring at each other; Chidori was on her way down and Mikihara was on her way up. Ren tilted her head slightly to the left and examined Chidori before inquiring “Is there something wrong Chidori-san?”
“Iie! There’s I’m ok! I’m just-I’m going-”
Ren put a thin smile on her face; she knew what was going on. “So you’re not feeling well. I guess I won’t delay you, please get better soon Chidori-san.”
‘How did she know? Is she simply playing along?’ Several questions buzzed through the blue-haired beauty’s mind before she simply nodded and croaked a goodbye. The ailing girl continued down the steps and proceeded down the next flight.
“Ah, Chidori-san.”
She froze in her position, waiting to hear what Ren wanted to tell her. “Chidori-san. If possible… If you see Nakajima-kun, could you tell him that Hayashimizu-senpai is still waiting for his answer.”
“If I see him, I’ll definitely tell him.”
“Also. I would like to know if he enjoyed my obento…”
12:00 pm
Streets of Ota-ku
“I would like to know if he enjoyed my obento…”
That sentence kept echoing within the inner chambers of her mind. Even though Kaname could not say her knowledge of the Student Council’s secretary was great, but she could not shake off the feeling. Kaname was certain Ren would normally not say something like that. ‘Masaka… could Mikihara have some-I’m thinking about pointless things again-“
She felt herself collide with something hard and she stumbled back, trying to regain her balance and awareness. “You little bitch. You should watch where you step! Who’s gonna pay to get his washed? It’s dry-clean only!” Kaname looked up at the person before her to see what he was talking about. She had caused a man to spill a soft drink on his fancy jacket. The large man lifted the helpless girl up by the collar and brought her closer to his face. Saying his breath was unpleasant would be an understatement. She struggled to get her feet back onto the ground and resorted to kicking the brute. “You’d better have money on you right now or else I’ll think of other ways to make you pay!”
‘Is he crazy? Who would do this just over dirty clothes?’ Kaname’s airflow was being restricted and she continued to fight him off in unsuccessfully. ‘Someone, help me! Sousuke! Kaz-Kazuya!’ “K-Kazuya,” she cried desperately. “Kazuya...”
She hit the pavement hard and blacked out, unable to keep conscious.
--------------------------------
Section B will sometime follow later. I had planned to make it one long chapter, but… well I couldn’t manage it today.
Last edited by Tsushima Masaki on Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:28 am, edited 3 times in total.
I too, have been some what turned off by the slow pace of the story, and
the focus on new characters, but I've been giving it a try, since the quality
of your writing makes it worth reading anyway. It would seem that part 13b
will give us a bit more drama, as well! ^_^ Well, we'll see if Takato-san's
idea with the surveillance phone works out, and if Kaname's assaillant is
just a unsavory character wanting to take advantage of a young girl, or if
the incident was staged for more sinister purposes.
A question I have- the XB-70 that Takato has been flying, is that supposed to be a production version of the prototype XB-70 Valkyrie mach 3 bomber
that was developed during the cold war? If I recall, it's synthetic boron-based fuel was mainly responsible for the capability to fly at mach 3 for it's entire mission, but also made it reportedly the noisiest aircraft on earth. The first prototype crashed, and the project was scrapped for reasons of costs, and the planes effectiveness, I believe.
All that aside, what does Mithril do with a mach 1+ intercontinental nuclear bomber? ^_^
It wouldn't make much sense for a covert operation like Mithril, that has probably little mainland infrastructure (hard to hide something like that
from the very countries they are remaining hidden from) to have much in the way of weapons systems that require a huge support infrastructure like
a bunch of huge bombers. It may be I'm mis-interpreting the XB-70 reference though... ^_^
The ZF-02 Somnius sounds like a proposed fighterbomber version of the f-22 that has had some advocates, called the "Switchblade" in fact, that I read about in Popular Science. It's variable-geometry wings would in fact fold forward into the body, like what you've described the Somnius doing.
You wouldn't be able to build anything like the VFX without black tech, though. Even if you put in the requirement to be "low and slow" before
transforming, the strains on the airframe are going to be something fierce.
Not to mention how to manage the airflow to the engines and various ducts
on an airframe that changes configuration that drastically.
Gonna need a lot of "unobtainium" alloy for that to work. ^_^
Nothing short of really exotic things like foamed metals, ceramics, carbon and synthetic fibers, and composite structures integrating all of those. Heck, you'd probably need a lambda-driver to hold it all together. There would be some precendence for that, since the lambda-driver was the only thing that allowed the "Behemoth" from A-21 to move and fight without falling apart from it's own weight.
Come to think of it, you would need a completely different solution for powering this craft, since the transformability will end up taking away alot of space for fuel. IE, you need an almost completely electrical aircraft, meaning the turbines are electrically powered, and fuel is only injected as needed to obtain high bursts of speed. Basically, you'd need a plasma generator to achieve the expansion of the inflowing air without burning large quantities of fuel to achieve the same result. A palladium reactor that powers the Mithirl M-9 is probably not the best solution, what you would need is a true fusion reactor, which could be a source of plasma,
failing that, a super-conducting storage ring, cooled with liquid hydrogen,
that could be used to help generate thrust as it boils off.
Okay, all that being said, this is your fic, and I'm able to ignore the practicalites pertaining to the black-tech weapons as they've appeared in
Full Metal Panic, in order to enjoy the action. ^_^
Thanks a lot for the post Geshron Tyler, you seem to know what you're talking about.
I'm happy that it's not my writing style that sucks, I just have to work on the technical aspects. The problem with me is that I am a poor planner. I usually write a story only knowing the beginning, and some possibilities for an ending, but getting sidetracked along the way. I almost permanently abandoned Variable Geometry because of some obvious oversights I had made. I was tempted to rewrite but I scrapped that. When I started Variable Geometry I was currently in Writing 12 and I needed something to write. I had always been interested in birds and aircraft, but I had no real knowledge.
All conventional Mithril aircraft are modified and re-engineered. Once that process has been completed it his given a "z" suffix to indicate this fact.
The XB-70z Seraphym was intended to be Mithril's modernized high-speed high altitude bomber which still utilized compression lift. I never bothered to remove the X from XB for some reason.
In my fic the scope of Mithril has changed, and its size has increased significantly. Aquila is pretty much a ficticious chain of landmass near Volcano Island. Merida Island does exist in my fic as well, but it hasn't appeared as of yet.
Black Technology was a possibility for the XVF Project but I never really got into the details.
Aircraft weapon loads were meant to be unrealistic so I introduced MAIM (replacing AIM), MAGM, etc. The short story is that the missiles were supposed to be smaller in dimensions and lighter in weight so that at least 50% more missiles could be carried (usually only for aircraft with internal stores).
The ZF-02 Somnius' airframe and main design was taken from the X-02 Stealth (later known as X-02 Wyvern) from the arcade air combat game Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (you would know it as Ace Combat 04: Distant Thunder) and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (known in Europe as Ace Combat 5: Squadron Leader). The folding wings are similar to the Switchblade, but not quite. At supersonic speeds the wing configuration would be swept back like the F-14's. At subsonic and transonic speeds internal wings stored in the main wings "fold out" for a pseudo-swept forward configuration. Whether or not this is actually aerodynamic... hell if I know, I'm sure it's not, but it was unique. Air resistance and acceleration would also make it very hard to for the extended wings to be swung back into the main wings. While in supersonic flight the tail fins also flatten out.
Examples:
Now that all these obvious fatal flaws have been pointed out I'm tempted to quit or redo some parts, heheheh. I'll try to keep things tighter and deliver more substance. The basic XVF concept was from Macross' Variable Fighters.
Thanks for your reviews and comments and criticism.
An interesting source for hightech aircraft would also be the anime "Yukikaze". I'm not sure if it's been released in North America yet, but the
german release has some nice booklets with backrounds on the aircraft that
appear in the anime. One episode deals with a flying aircraft carrier(!) that the enemy (which seem to be something like an information based lifeform, capable of copying matter, taking human shape) has captured. The visuals of that are pretty darn amazing.
I´ve read articles about wave-rider concepts, which I assume the Seraphym uses. Basically, an aircraft would ride on it's own supersonic shock wave, I think the concept was also linked to external burning propulsion, where the
shockwave contains the combustion of the fuel, basically an afterburner outside of an engine. Not very stealthy though... ^_^
As this is of course fiction, I wouldn't sweat technical details too much. After all, the people that created Macross, and FMP, and sundry other series didn't.
What would be important though, is to not get to caught up in the "techno-babble", and to try to have an outline of sorts. Many authors make outlines, and then find the story writing itself right out of those parameters thought. . But you should have some idea of what the driving force, the energy, of the story is in mind when you're writing. Then
I think you need to figure out what the likely reaction of your characters will be to events and changing situations. Sousuke is pretty easy- if Kaname ends up in danger by part 13b, he'll be hellbent for leather to rescue her. No doubt, Mao and Kurz right behind him. But the higher-ups at Mithril may have other ideas, and so "conflict" ensues- does Sousuke break the rules, or does he (or someone else, even Tessa) convince his superiors to allow his involvement? Just and example of course.
I've had fairly detailed plot ideas whizz through my mind, but getting myself to put something down in writing is real uphill battle for me. So, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. Unfortunately, my commentary tends to fall off close to zero often, even though I usually continue to read a story. So I hope you don't get discouraged at times by resounding silence, it's a problem endemic to fanfiction writing.
Yeah, that's true. I'm somewhat used to the silence now. I've been writing on and off since 1997 I believe. I post a couple stuff at FanFiction.Net under my other penname Timeless Enigma.
Most of it is incomplete, heheh. I think I may revive at least one of them some day.
Surprised you haven't taken a chance to insert
. But you should have some idea of what the driving force, the energy, of the story is in mind when you're writing. Then