Chapter 0
#1 of Mage's Cold War
This is a crosspost from fanfiction.net of a modernish adaptation of the early Lacky/Dixon gryphon books. There is a blending of canon characters and some OCs
A pilot chapter to gauge interest :)
Silence.
Well relative silence filled the briefing room of Building 73, the oldest building on Loring Air Force Base, Limestone Maine, one of the most northernmost points in the frozen state. The building was completely modified with large hallways and rooms, this briefing room that Skandranon Raskae, The Black Gryphon, occupied was no exception he looked out the huge glass window and down onto the alert pad, a C-130 specially equipped for the birds and 6 A-10 fighters sat ready for the alert force gryphons and humans to be launched to whatever this cold war brought them. The furnance in the basement lit off with a subtle yet noticeable rumble, that same basement holding 6 gryphons and many humans, likely still asleep, he glanced up at the clock on the wall, 0443, he sighed and paced around a bit.
This base had 2 long 16,000 foot runways and two alert forces, this one, the only gryphon force in the US, and a complement of human support personnel, the other side of the base held the bomber alert force, all human and with a fleet of B-52 bombers. Both forces poised ready to respond to whatever Ma'ar and the USSR had in store for them, lately tensions had been raising between the two countries, but the posture at least from the military standpoint was the same, be ready, ask questions later.
Soon the automatic door opened and the black gryphon looked up and smiled at who entered "Little cold out there for you Chrisssy?" he said with a little hiss of a chuckle.
The Tervardi male groaned and marched forward "Close!" he barked at the door that finally closed to seal the sub-zero temperature outside. He walked to the table at the center of the room and started to shed his hat and gloves, sliding a copy of the New York Times and a cassette down the table toward the huge gryphon. Skan quickly stopped it sliding with a talon. "took me forever to find that, found it at some small store in Boston" Chris said flumping into a seat made for humans at the table, and looking to his friend
"Eexxxxcelent, thank you!" Skan said looking at the copy of Sports by Hewie Lewis and the News.
"Now if you could not break it apart like you did the last one, reeeemeber, eeeeasy out... easy inn" Chris said then looking aside and chuckled "that's what she said"
"Heh, yaknow, gotta enjoy it" The black gryphon snickered looking at the newspaper, January 23 1984, was the date.
The two exchanged morning gossip back and forth, mainly about who's dating who and who got in trouble for what.
Chris was a field engineer for Raytheon, one of the many civilian contractors that supported the gryphons, the black and white Tervardi was stationed on this base and helped with repairs and training to the flight packs the gryphons wore, as well as other tech on base for communications and intelligence. In the course of his duties he became friends with all the gryphons, which were currently a very niche group, they provided close air support for certain tactical missions, this base was the only one with them so far, currently operating as a semi-classified pilot project.
The morning briefing went on without a hitch, everyone on duty piled into the room and got the day's orders which mostly consisted of 'find busy', however just when everyone was clearing out the PA system burst to life "ALERT FORCE ALERT FORCE KLAXON KLAXON" The the alarm started blaring, but the alert forces were already sprinting down hallways and bursting out the door, the gryphons all were inside then the humans followed, closing the doors as the engines started. The A-10s were starting, the bombers were already rolling, this made many hearts skip a beat, these two forces never ever launched together... was this real world? No time to think about that now, as the G-forces pushed everyone back as the jet assisted takeoff pushed the C-130 off the runway airborne.
When the plane reached their destination the back door was lowered and one-by-one they jumped out the back "1...2...3...4" It was always a count of 4 seconds before they opened their wings and started decent onto target, a Distant Early warning radar site was bring sabotaged by 3 makkar, however when they were just getting ready to engage all the found were 3 makkar bodies and a small... different gryphon looking at all of them, decked out in the bulky flight computer, holstering their talon-guns "d-did you do this?" Aubri was finally the one to pipe up and ask, with a weak nod Zhaneel confirmed, while looking up to see the A-10s circling the air above them