Kelonian States
16-04-2004, 05:37
Journalists had been monitoring the increasing military traffic heading towards the remote Roloff AFB in the forests of western Kelonia for several weeks, evidence that some sort of long-term classified project was being worked on - So when the government relaxed the usually watertight security network aound the base to allow journalists almost up to the wire perimiter, they flocked in their hundreds.
Crowded into the official press area at the far end of the main runway at Roloff, the hacks jostled for the prime positions and the best views of whatever it was they had been brought here to see and to document. Army troopers stopped the crowd from getting too close to the perimeter of the base, while operatives of the secret service mingled among them for extra security.
The sun was almost set, creating a brilliant red and orange glow over the whole base and the surrounding dense forest that ringed the massive installation, usually so off-limits to civilian eyes that maybe no-one had seen this glow over the base, located in a huge clearing perched on top of a massive, gentle rolling hill, for years without special dispensation.
A hush descended over the crowd, and far down the runway there was movement, and the sound of jet engines warming up. A dark shape grew slowly larger as the jostling stopped, and all eyes, and cameras, were pointed towards the runway.
The shape grew larger, and started to take form as it came down the runway towards the waiting journalists, who now even more than before knew that this was something major, and the sound of it's engines grew louder... After what seemed like an age but, in reality was little more than a minute, the shape had taken form, taken off and soared low over the journalists, deafening them with it's huge, Turvic-developed engines. as it's dark, diamond-shaped form gathered speed and began to bank left to circle the clearing, the noise still deafening but growing more bearable.
The journalists still were stunned. Some continued to flash off photos at the shape, now blending in with the rapidly-darkening sky, but most stood in awe. The military was usually so secretive about it's new developments, but today the journalistic might of Kelonia had been drawn here, to the top-secret Roloff airbase, to witness a project come to fruition, an aircraft that spent so long in development, make it's first flight not hidden under a blanket of security so tight, barely a word got out.
The people gathered in that little area, just outside the perimeter fence at the end of Runway #1, had just witnessed the first non-testing flight of Kelonia's new spyplane. The people lucky enough to be in that area at that time had just witnessed the flight of the Malcha.
Crowded into the official press area at the far end of the main runway at Roloff, the hacks jostled for the prime positions and the best views of whatever it was they had been brought here to see and to document. Army troopers stopped the crowd from getting too close to the perimeter of the base, while operatives of the secret service mingled among them for extra security.
The sun was almost set, creating a brilliant red and orange glow over the whole base and the surrounding dense forest that ringed the massive installation, usually so off-limits to civilian eyes that maybe no-one had seen this glow over the base, located in a huge clearing perched on top of a massive, gentle rolling hill, for years without special dispensation.
A hush descended over the crowd, and far down the runway there was movement, and the sound of jet engines warming up. A dark shape grew slowly larger as the jostling stopped, and all eyes, and cameras, were pointed towards the runway.
The shape grew larger, and started to take form as it came down the runway towards the waiting journalists, who now even more than before knew that this was something major, and the sound of it's engines grew louder... After what seemed like an age but, in reality was little more than a minute, the shape had taken form, taken off and soared low over the journalists, deafening them with it's huge, Turvic-developed engines. as it's dark, diamond-shaped form gathered speed and began to bank left to circle the clearing, the noise still deafening but growing more bearable.
The journalists still were stunned. Some continued to flash off photos at the shape, now blending in with the rapidly-darkening sky, but most stood in awe. The military was usually so secretive about it's new developments, but today the journalistic might of Kelonia had been drawn here, to the top-secret Roloff airbase, to witness a project come to fruition, an aircraft that spent so long in development, make it's first flight not hidden under a blanket of security so tight, barely a word got out.
The people gathered in that little area, just outside the perimeter fence at the end of Runway #1, had just witnessed the first non-testing flight of Kelonia's new spyplane. The people lucky enough to be in that area at that time had just witnessed the flight of the Malcha.