After resting briefly, Danny turns his attention to the storm raging outside the aircraft's window. Pushing his stetson back on to his head, he takes a deep breath and then starts to concentrate, calling forth a Spirit from the chaotic and turbulent weather.

In what seems like no time at all, a dark cloud, black even against the dark night, coalesces outside the window, keeping pace with the plane as it flies through the night. Danny thanks the Spirit for responding, then requests it to use its powers to Guard the aircraft.

Blackjack finishes resting and finds her parachute in her pile of gear. She begins strapping it on and securing her other gear into the various pocket and straps of her camo suit. If something happens, and she has to jump, Blackjack wants to be prepared. She puts her duffel bag into the bag containing her requested gear and straps it to her chest. Blackjack checks all of the straps for the bag and the parachute for tightness before sitting back down.

"No faith, Six, no faith. ETA 20 minutes."

((cancel post))

Danny spends a few moments early in the trip in a meditation like stance. It doesn't take long for the spirit to manifest in the aircraft, a low rumble echoes about it. When it speaks it is as if thunder is crashing in the aircraft. It manifests for but a moment, then dissipates to protect the aircraft.

Grendel's vision is spread out before him in a topographical map that outlines the area in front of him. He see's distances, time vectors, fuel consumption, and wind sheers like the unplugged see colors. Storm swells swirls around the light-aircraft, buffeting it with wind and rain. The aircraft finally leaves the mainland behind. The weather patterns changes and flying becomes more difficult.

In the passenger area each moment can be felt. The vibrations of the engines are a constant companion, and a welcome one. Sleep comes easy for those that try. The occasional drop in altitude is both rare and minor. Leaving most with a weird feeling in their stomach.

The trip passes by slowly, anticipation building up every second.

Shortly into the flight, Warpath turns the microphone of his tranceiver off (while leaving the speaker on) and drifts into a light sleep. He is fully dressed for the flight, with a parachute strapped on to his back, a life vest on, and all of his gear arrayed in his webbing. He looks ready to leap from the plane at an instant's notice after waking up.

The only thing of note is that he appears to be using the world's most expensive pillow, the rolled up ruthenium cloak which once more is tied up at the top of his back.

@ Grendel,

Your active sensors alert your attention to a land mass 2 kilometers ahead. The dimensions reported back square with the island you are looking for. The weather has (temporarily) let up. Current winds are 40kph from the north, temperature outside is 36° F.

The island itself appears exactly as it did in the pictures. A massive cliff face dominates the western side, the ocean crashes against it relentlessly. The entire island is surrounded by a treacherous reef. You can easily see that insertion by boat would have been suicide.

As soon as his active sensor sweep verifies the location of the island, Grendel drops back into passive mode. With dizzing swiftness, the tilt-wing drops from its cruise altitude to barely thirty meters off the deck.

"Gear up, Team, get hot. We're 2 minutes out from the target. Winds are 360 at 21.6 knots. Surface temperature is a brisk 2 deg C. Rig for drop from the rear ramp."

Warpath releases his harness and moves to ready the descent lines. Once they're free and ready to be deployed, he clips himself on and gets ready. When the group is over the island, he releases his parachute's straps and removes it, stowing it to the side. He waits expectantly for the word to drop or more intel.

Blackjack checks her equipment and gets ready for the drop in. She stands up, facing the rear of the plane. She says over the comm, "I think I have my parachute on right. I saw it on a trid documentary about them. I jump out and count to 10 before I pull the cord, right?"

Delacroix looks at Grendel. In a calm relaxed voice the Elf says, "Grendel may I search the island for signs of Magic before we get any closer?"

Jessie looks up from her recording, "Good idea One, if there are any types of magical warning systems, see what you can do to nulify them."

"Go ahead, One, I'll circle once to evaluate the landing site. Make it quick, though, the longer we're low and slow the more vulnerable we are." Grendel makes a minute course correction, enough to take the tilt-wing on a tight counter-clockwise orbit of the island.

Under Grendels expert manipulation the Ares drops to the deck, the water looks so close you could reach down and touch it. Through the mist the island appears ahead of you. Tall and raggedy. A dark cloud obscures the top of the peak, sending rain and hail down below.

You are approaching from the south, most of the island is covered in fog and mist.

Over the comm, Jessie says, "Base, we can't see drek through the fog, are you picking anything up on sensors?"

"I'm running on passive sensors only, so far I've picked up nothing suspicious from the island. No active sensors, no radio or radar emissions, no excessive thermal signatures."

Delacroix looks back at Grendel. "Um oh okay. One? Is this code?" Delacroix glances back at Jessie, and gives both Jessie and Grendel an odd look. Delacroix slumps in his chair.

On the astral plane the elfs spirit emerges from his body. The elf dressed in white padded leathers and a black cloak. Basked in shadow, swirls of dark clouds hover around the elf. Allowing the plane to pass before him, the Elf's spirit energy passes thru the back of the plane.

Now observeing his surroundings, the Elf shoots forward towards the island. The journey takes a blink of the eye, and Delacroix is at the island. Delacroix looks intensely at the island, the surrounding ocean and anything else of interest, making sure not to miss the smallest of details.

The tilt wing comes in at 30 meters off the ocean surface, banking in a slow, lazy turn that brings it around the west side of the island. As it does Delacroix drops into astral and out of the plane. Faster than a thought he floats to the island and looks around.

The plane banks as Grendel brings it around the cliff face, even 200 meters away the massive rock wall's effects on local weather patterns can be felt.

Delacroix hovers over the island, looking for any signs of astral activity. over the apex of the cloud, partially obscured in the mana glow of the island, hangs a watcher. It appears as a large, unblinking eye, slowly rotating like a light house. On the island itself are many astral signatures, most too small to be anything other than squirrels or birds. Near the tree line, huddled under a makeshift shelter, is a larger astral signature, though very feint.

The Ares aircraft re-emerges from other side of the island, the roar of its engines washing over the area like rain and wind. The plan bucks in the air as a massive wind hits it, forcing it down toward the crashign waves. Grendel desperately fights with the controls, willing the plane to pull up.

In the astral Delacroix easily perceives the truth. A spirit has surface in the astral. Its massive cloud like form is blowing the aircraft down. A light flashes as another spirit manifests, not near the plane, but around it. Danny's summoned storm spirit materializes in the astral like a giant thunder cloud and shields the plane from the elemental attack.

Warpath and Blackjack are tossed around like rag dolls as the sudden turbulence strikes the plane. Negative G's accumulate from the sudden dive, forcing everything to the rear. The engines scream from the strain of fighting the sudden dive but seem to have no effect. Mere feet from the surface of the water, and certain death, the sudden pressure is gone. The aircraft pulls up, not gaining air, but flying 4 meters from the crashing water.

(OOC: Warpath and Blackjack need (2) successes @ (6) on a reaction roll to avoid being thrown around. If you are thrown around, ressist a 6M - 1/2 impact)

Grabbing onto a railing for support, Jessie manages to deal the thrashing of the plane. Her voice comes over the comm, calm and clear, "Base, any chance you can put this thing down on the beach? I'd rather not take a chance of the winds putting us down on the ocean again."

"Which spot on the densely forested, cliff-like, wind and sea swept beach would you like me to land on, Two?" Grendel's voice is equally calm and clear, despite the desperate scream of the tilt-wing's engines as they claw for altitude.

Once more, Jessie's voice comes over the comm, "Three, why don't you go Astral too and give One a hand. Better to have both of you work together on things out there."

@ Danny,

You feel the conjured spirits presence. It is fullfilling it's duty and guarding the plane.

@ Delacroix,

The spirit battle lasts the briefest of seconds, the wind spirit is defeated in howl of anger and magical energy. The disruption of the spirit send ripples through the astral.

Grendel seems to have control of the plane again.

Danny looks up, pausing in his current task of transferring several things from his large duffel bag into his smaller shoulder satchel.

"Ah be thinkin' the best place fer me right now is here. Might be an idea t' send along a little help though."

The shaman calls forth the two Watcher Spirits not currently performing any service, and instructs them to find the mage Delacroix, and assist him. He adds an extra instruction for the first Watcher that it should return to him immediately with news if a problem is encountered.

Jessie nods to Danny, "You know your stuff better than I do, I'll trust your word."

The watchers appear next to the Elf. Quickly the elfs body begins to tingle as he feels the rush of mana. His robes flow out and grow surrounding both him and the watcher. The Elf about to strike on his pray, is interupted by the small spirit as the two watchers identify themselves as a servants of Danny.

Holding the mana not wishing to release it quite yet the Elf speaks, "Tell your master that a watcher spirit has been set to watch the island. Shall I dispatch it?"

Delacroix's hold on the mana begins to become intense, and releases it allowing it to fizzle back into astral space. His astral signature subsides as well.

With an eye to the shrinking distance to the island, Grendel begins the transition from horizontal to vertical flight. The outboard half of the Traveller's wings begin to rotate, directing more and more of the turbo-prop's thrust on a downward vector. He uses the plane's forward momentum to ease the transition to the hover, bringing the nose up incrementally to suck as much lift as possible from the remaining wing section. The tilt-wing shudders, pivoting greasily in three dimensions before dynamic stability dampens out the oscillations. Still drifting forward at twenty knots, Grendel engages the rear ramp, timing the operation to have the cargo door open by the time his hover was established over the beachline. He brought the last of the speed off the tilt-wing, smoothly adjusting the throttles.

"Steady hover, deploy ground team."

Startled by the reappearance of the Watcher, Danny recovers quickly while he listens to it's report. After pondering the question for a moment, reaches a decision.

"Return to the mage with the following message. 'Might as well. Whoever sent it is gonna know 'bout us no matter what we do.' After delivering the message, stay and assist the mage."

The Watcher disappears, and Danny finishes his preparations, then stuffs the now-unneeded duffel bag under the aircraft's seat.

Blackjack grabs onto her seat harness and holds for dear life with all four of her arms. She grunts under the strain, but manages to hold on.

Once the aircraft reaches a hover over the beach, Blackjack undoes the straps on her parachute, since it's no longer needed, and slinges her duffel bag over her back. She jogs off the rear door and jumps the few feet onto the ground. Once on solid ground, Blackjack gets clear of the craft and waits for the others to exit.

Warpath hits the beach quickly as well, moving quickly for cover, though the island's uninhabited nature makes doing so of minimal value. Over the comm system, "Base, any readings on the target?"

Danny slings his shoulder bag and follows Warpath out the back of the plane. Shifting his perspective to the Astral, he keeps watch for mystical surprises while searching for any sign of their intended target.

"Team, Base, target bears 310 mag for twenty eight meters. Just beyond the treeline. I'm moving into an overhead orbit as soon as Two and Five are clear."

Blackjack scrunches her face and says, "Three ten mag? What does that mean?" She relaxes her expression into a smile and shrugs.

Looking around at her surroundings, she remarks, "This is a scary place, isn't it?"

Jessie unbuckles and grabs her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. She takes the short drop out of the rear with ease. Motioning for the others to follow her, she heads for the treeline.

"This way. Stay alert. Three, any signs of other threats that may pop up at us?"

Warpath cycles through vision modes, looking for any signs of danger. "Fan out," his digital voice comes over the comm. "Slow and steady." He takes his own advice and moves toward the glowing icon on the map displayed across the inside of his digital retinas. "If our target is capable, there may be traps, so watch your ass."

His Ares is slotted with gel rounds, and the saftey is off.

"Ah ain't seen nothin' so far."

Danny turns in place, surveying the near Astral in a circle around the group. He notes the continued presence of the Storm Spirit and the pair of Watchers protecting the aircraft. Calling the Watchers to him, he instructs one to continue watching Astral space near the plane, informing him of any danger, while the other is to accompany him and perform the same task.

Blackjack connects the Nav-Dat GPS to one of her jacks and brings up a map overlay on her Imagelink. She notes her location and coordinates, and then she kills the image so that she can focus on what's ahead of her. She loads a clip of gel rounds into her Ares Predator II and holsters it, so as not to scare their target. She speaks over the radio, "This is Six, team, did One find anything when he went astral?"

"He done found the Watcher set t' guard the place. Ah'm thinkin' he's a-takin' care of it right 'bout now."

Again, Warpath's voice comes over the com. "Four to team, No point in hangin' out here while that gets done. Let's get a move on, the target is supposed to be close." Warpath refrains from pulling the ties on his stealth cloak, but goes about working cover as best he can. He fumbles around in his webbing and produces a clip of hollowpoint ammo which he hangs on to, without slotting into his weapon. A quick change might be critical if the wrong type of person is what they find. That done, he moves forward stealthily.

Jessie continues on towards the location of the target, keeping an eye out for any signs of a trap, or anything else for that matter.

The wind blows from the hovering Ares, sending small dust fragments and spray in every direction. Under Grendels skillful manipulations the Tilt wing manages to stay nearly perfectly on station.

It doesn't take long for the landing party to spot the target. Huddled under a makeshift shelter, unconscious and freezing, is Jason Montgomery Feathers. His eyes open slowly at the approach of the team. He manages to push himself up slightly. He razes a fist sized rock in his left hand.

"If you come to kill me, know that I die a warrior. And I curse your souls for all eternity."

His words come out a stutter, and his body is shakingin extreme shivers.

Jessie leans down next to him, setting her backpack on the ground.

"Hush now, do I look like I'd hurt ya?"

Pulling out a warm blanket and wrapping it around Jason. Slipping an arm around him and helping him to his feet, she smiles to him and says, "Come on, lets get you outta this place."

Warpath voice crackles over the comm. "Four to base, target secure. Subject appears stable, though not too good besides. Requesting evac." In the more visible sense, he lowers the point of his Ares and gives the mental impulse to engage the safety. Then he trades the gel round clip and a clip of ex-ex. Anything from here out is likely not to be a mercy situation.

Ignoring the drama on the ground, Grendel focuses on the surrounding airspace, alert for the response he knows is coming. When Four's call comes in, he throws the aircraft into a hard left bank, coming into the wind again to make his approach to the beach. Once steady in a hover again, he lowers the cargo winch down to the ground team.

"Four, Base, in position, winch coming down."

Jessie climbs out of her climbing harness and helps Jason put it on. Once done, she clips him onto the winch and gives it a tug.

"Take him up, Base."

She looks up to Jason as he starts to rise.

"Toss down that harness when you are done with it."

"Negative, Two, send someone else up first. I don't trust the target's condition enough to get himself into the cabin without assistance."

Feeling really stupid, Jessie says over the comm, "Right."

She then unhooks Jason and motions Warpath over.

Danny steps forward and stops Jessie as she is in the process of unhooking their charge.

"Y'all jus' send him on up. Ah'll go up with him an' help out." He pauses, taking a last look around them, scanning the Astral for any sign of opposition. "'Sides, Ah wanna have a closer look at his condition."

With that, the shaman rises off the beach into the stormy night air, and flies straight towards the hovering aircraft.

Jessie chuckles a bit. "Alright then. You're back on Jason."

With that, she hooks him back up. "Take him up Base."

Jason slips in and out of unconsciousness as the winch pulls him up. A strong wind come up suddenly, forcing Grendel to move the tail of the aircraft around. The motion swings Jason to the side, but otherwise has little effect. Danny reaches the aircraft before before the boy, and positions himself to help the kid in. Danny unlatches him and sends the harness back down.

@ Grendel

Your passive sensors scream at you. Messages flash across the screen warning you of a fast mover. Inbound from the north, 35 klicks, moving at 800 kph, 2000 feet above sea level.