Our Decals

I wish Diana didn't slam me into the ground so hard... It knocked the wind outta me pretty well. For a 14-year-old girl who looks so innocent on the outside, she's quite a dangerous predator... I should begin my training for the day. I raise my watch, speaking out my first command to its new birth.

Jax: "Match comms Chloe, Permission to begin CRPS practice?"

Chloe: "Permission granted, you know the boundaries already"

Jax: "Thank you."

I push the final door open, molding the cool indoor temperate into the sun's outdoor molten rath. This is a desert alright, in every sense. I step into the blazing afternoon heat as the doors flap shut behind me.

"Ah, hey Jax."

Hiding beside the doors, Nick stood leaned up against the wall.

Nick: "Going out on a mission?"

Jax: "Nick? What are you doing up so early? Usually, you'd be out cold right now. And no some practice."

Nick: "Couldn't really sleep. Had a lot on my mind, so I came out for a breath of air. Ya know?"

Jax: "I get that. Well, ill let you do your thing, imma go begin my practice."

Nick: "Mind if I join you? We don't get much practice with each other."

Jax: "Sure, but Jester is so unbearably fat... Sure more agile than Vertex but just barely out of her league."

Nick: "C'mon, he may be big, but he perfects to me. Plus I don't get very many partners to tango with due to my missions. So, just for me pal?"

Jax: "... Fine, just for you Nick. Chloe, change of plans. I'll be having a mock duel with Nick, permission?"

Chloe: "All green."

Jax: "Well, you heard her. It's been quite a while since we last had a duel. What's the score? 20-3?"

Nick: "Man, you and Lucas are quite competitive when it comes to duels huh?"

Jax: "I find it as a fun sport. Anyways, ill see you on the runway."

Fast forward past the usual stuff, hop into Spirit, taxi, and meet Nick inside his trusty AeroCord: Cruel Jester. Jester, as per usual is a modification of a previous fighter jet. In Jester's case, a modified F4E Phantom II with the Agile Eagle package. Jester was designed around the ability to deter a conflict. Being able to reach the target without a hostile interception. How does it do this you may ask? By doing what Jester's name suggests, fooling the enemy. Jester holds up to 100 drones scattered throughout its Fuselage and wings. Being covered head to toe with them, excluding the underside for payload options. Each of these drones can deploy a holographic mimic of Jester, as well as a radar cross-section. Fooling both the eye and tech into thinking one or two bandits are going against a whole company worth of fighters. That being said, they are JUST drones. They possess no offensive capability and are only transonic. As such, they only can be effective if Jester isn't supersonic, and cannot help besides visually deceiving the target. If any pilot were to call the bluff and engage, nick himself would be the only one capable of shooting it down. Relying on his drones as distractions for the real Jester to bring it down. To help aid the deception, Nick mainly operates at nighttime, where the effect is greatly enhanced. No pilot's foolish enough to try and engage over 50 aircraft with at most a squadron in modern fighter cells. but if for any reason, one was, Nick would be fighting that squadron on his own. It's an extremely rare occurrence, but it has happened a few times.

The true Jester is on the heavier side of AeroCords. mainly due to the F4s large size to accompany the large number of drones. as such, his engines are the MSABT-04 engines. being much more powerful than other AeroCord engines, but overheating three times as fast. you may be wondering "what happened to engines 2 and 3?" Two was a failed attempt at a new kind of propulsion. And three was a failed new type of starter fuel source to replace jet fuel. Now then, on to Nick himself. Nick is the second AeroCord pilot on base after Boss. Despite him being around longer than both me and Diana, due to his AeroCords tactics and strategies he rarely ever finds combat. As such, he's usually regarded as an average pilot in terms of dogfighting skills. We all try to give him as much practice as possible. But due to his missions setting, he's usually tired and requires sleep when we're out training.

In one of these tired states, Nick exposed a wonderful idea. The idea of Decals on our AeroCords. As you are already familiar with my dragon, ill ignore mine and explain the others. Cruel Jester's decal is a clown juggling three red balls while hopping on a large fourth with one leg. The clown grins deeply, exposing his evil, large, bloodied fangs with tattered cloths. Smoked Barrages decal is dirt being kicked up as an explosion erupts in the background. Hovering above the explosion is two rockets incoming with their own trails of fire. Each leading on their own side of the explosion. Violet Vertex has the simplest of all. Being a violet-blue spiraling vertex that blooms into an alluring deep violet flower. Very simple in design, but it has a majestic beauty to it that the others can't hold a candle to. We use our decals as a sort of right of passage into a true AeroCord pilot. None of our birds came with them, only the name. Now you may be wondering, "The other decals resemble their names, why doesn't Spirits have something to do with a ghost or something? Why is it just a normal dragon with wings?" and to that, there's a short story. During one of my missions when I just got Spirit. I had the task of wiping out a fighter squadron on my own. A simple mission for Spirit. Before I shot down the final target, the pilot said something quite interesting, "a sky dragon has appeared." Thus my decal: A strong and fearsome dragon that's domain is the whole sky, a perfect title, and decal for Spirit.

Nick: "Jester to CO, permission for take-off?"

Chloe: "Permission granted, you know the boundaries."

Nick: "Got it. Dude, you ok? You've just been sitting there for a while now."

Jax: "Ah, yea, sorry was lost in thought, ladies first."

Jester begins to roll down the runway gaining speed. Nick mocking a top hat in response to my remark. I quickly load Jester's flight characteristics and follow after him. I follow him in formation until we get to the training airspace, chatting about simple stuff as we fly.

Jax: "Feel free to use your drones, since its day their effectiveness won't be as potent in a close-range dogfight. I won't be using Spirit's cloak"

Nick: "Sure man, ill take any advantage I can get right now."

We split off in opposite directions, gaining around 8 miles between each other. We both turn around to face each other. I watch my radar's range gauge until my radar suddenly fills with dozens of dots. I look up through my crosshair, and as my radar suggested, dozens of planes stared me down in the distance. Each of which is indistinguishable at this range. Truly a terrifying sight for any pilot flying solo. I train my eyes on the dozens of planes, carefully watching the closure between me and the wall of clones.

Merge in three... two... one... merge.