"You're hearin' it late, but you're hearin' it straight"
This is a small 'pilot' piece I got inspiration to write after discovering a track that I think fits the ambiance of a scene like this well. This is a bit of a 'slice of life' look at some of the missions that my avian and gryphon characters are apart of. Please tell me what you think of this; love it, hate it, more of it, burn it. Please let me know what you do and don't enjoy about my writing.
This is a small 'pilot' piece I got inspiration to write after discovering a track that I think fits the ambiance of a scene like this well. This is a bit of a 'slice of life' look at some of the missions that my avian and gryphon charicters are apart of. Please tell me what you think of this; love it, hate it, more of it, burn it. Please let me know what you do and don't enjoy about my writing.
The youtube links are useful for some 'ambiance' to the scenes.
Christopher stood from his bed and ruffled and settled his feathers. Avains were hollow boned and had a certain degree of fragility to them, the first thing to put on was the lightly ribbed undershirt to augment the inherent weakness of his own ribs he then shook out his flight suit and slid his talon feet into it, balling them up to keep them from tearing the fabric. Adjusting the cuffs, zipping the front of the vest he sighed and holstered his side-arm, slid the parachute pack over his body. Clip Clip Clip, he fastened the buckles, picked up his leather helmet. Lastly he slid the feathers of his family crest into a small pocket on his parachute, something cultural that permeated the generations of avains was each family had a unique color crest, painted on a feather that was always visible on their person. He flung the flap of his tent open and saw that despite the sun barely starting to lighten the sky the mobile encampment of the 306th Special Operations Squadron was already alight with activity. Avian pilots all started the walk toward the morning brief. Gryphons soared only a few feet overhead.
Fidik made a frustrated croak as the falcon gryphon slid the metallic claws over his front and back talons. His talons weren't nearly as formidable as his broadwing counterparts. Something that often landed him on the receiving end of sometimes one-to-many jokes. He grumbled as he SHOOK his feathers all out again. For the past couple days for some unknown reason every flying thing, gryphon or otherwise had these white and black bars painted on them, Fidik had been dyeing his feathers a forest camouflage color, but this wasn't dye they used it was paint, mixed thin to try and keep the feathers from clumping but it didn't help. If this was some stupid exercise thing. When his wings were folded these colors mottled his body with white and black spots, other unit markings hidden as well. He strapped his radio to his front leg, holstering his knives, the gryphon wielding pistol rifle. Eventually the bird stepped outside and saw the huge crowd of people approaching the flightline "holy shit..." he muttered to himself. This was no training....
Raela had been up almost all night, the unit navigator and communicator was told of this mission ahead of time to start preparing her comm equipment. The huge broadwing stellar sea eagle gryphon even studied maps and made notes while the men helped paint her feathers with black and white bars as best and straight as they could. She sighed and started the process of weighing herself down. The huge radio pack and it's hundred or more pounds of lead-acid batteries, antennas and radios. Her satchel of notebooks and maps, compasses and star charts. Her sidearm and knives. Finally he stood and ruffled herself out again. Her wings felt alien to her right now, almost like.... Like they were covered in paint not letting the feathers settle as they should. She sighed and made her way to the huge crowd gathering in front of the hanger.
"Folks... you're hearin' it late, but you're hearin' it straight. We have been working towards this day for months... we've been devoting considerable resources to deceive the Germans and today we take advtantage of that... we're joining the rest of the allied offensive landing on the beached of Normandy France." The speech went on for some time. Ending with recording of General Eisenhower addressing them before they boarded their aircraft.
"...The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you...."
"That's all Brother" The nose of the C-47 they boarded read, Raela first then Fidik, then a few other gryphons, others would be in planes following. They were supposed to be the lead.
The C47 always made Fidik's skin crawl. Not because of anything wrong with the plane but just being in that confined space just made every flight instinct in his body want to fling himself out of any window he could fit through. He laid on the floor and wrung his talons squirming around a bit. Looking around he saw how other gryphons coped, some stress preened, some fidgeted endlessly with their gear, some slept, some stared out the window.
"RISE!" Came the yell from the crewman as he pulled the door open and started motioning gryphon after gryphon outside.
The lull of the planes engines gave way in an instant to the sound of air around him, as the falcon open his wings partially, letting the acceleration of the plane keep him moving as fast he could. Looking around he could see what must have been hundreds of human paratroopers emerging from airplanes around him.
Raela wasn't far behind the broadwing eagle gryphon having to let the air on her body slow her before opening her wings. She dropped some rolls of antenna wire she had in her front talons, deploying the HF streamer antenna behind her as she got her bearings. They started their decent with the rest of the paratroopers. The 306th tasked with what they do best, close air support to paratroopers.