Airborne-Class Carrier

The **Airborne-Class Airborne Aircraft Carrier** is the world's first airborne aircraft carrier class. One was made by the Immortal Union, the IUS Airborne. She was the brainchild of Admiral Horatio Nelson, inspired by science ficton books and by work done by Brigadier Henry Broadley in helping develop new British Aircraft Carriers.

Starting development in 1933 with the Military Design Bureau looking into the possibility of an immortal carrier, they quickly realised that they had 2 options, either the carrier was to be very similar in appearance to an existing carrier, or she would have to be able to remain a secret. This led to two teams designing models for it, culminating with the 'battle' between the Subsurface-Class Underwater Carrier and the Airborne-Class Airborne Carrier in 1936. The MDB decided on the Airborne as the Subsurface cersion didn't have a plan for sealing the entire ship and models flipped over. Airborne's design was heavily influenced by HMS Ark Royal and was often said to be the unknown sister ship of Ark Royal.

The Airborne began construction in Loch Cairnbawn Immortal Yard in Scotland on the 13th of September of 1937. On the 19th of June 1939 she was launched inside the hidden drydock and was commissioned on the 28th of December 1940 by the Commander. There had been one major issue, the propellers hadn't been tested and neither had the forwards propulsion rotors. Luckily they worked, though throughout her very long carreer she suffered from engine trouble causing several delays.

## Service

### World War 2

When IUS Airborne entered service in late 1940, World War 2 was already far underway and the immortal navy had been stuck in drydock after U-boat attacks. The only 2 ships capable of operating on their own were IUS Airborne and IUS Caesar, the recently finished battleship of the IU. Airborne took off on the 2nd of January to fly over Britain and aid in its defence.

#### Battle around Airborne

The most notable fight for Airborne was when German fighters discovered her whilst travelling across the North Sea on its way from Scotland to London on the 12th of March 1941. Captain Fred Fury immediatly ordered the 2 fighter squadrons aboard, Naval Pursuit Squadron 1 "Red Devils" (NPS-1) and Naval Pursuit Squadron 2 (NPS-2) "Flying Ghosts", to destroy every German fighter as to keep the carrier a secret. Within 10 minutes the Germans, in BF-109s, were on the retreat and pursued by the pilots of NFS-1 and NFS-2 in MDB NP-16 Dragons*.* One BF-109 pilot attempted to crash land on the Airborne, as his engine had failed and he was out of ammo. The Airborne's air controllers allowed him to land as they noticed his engine was dead and he wasn't firing, telling the AA crew to hold fire and ordering security forces to rush towards the flight deck. The pilot, Friedrich Krotenhoff, had been injured in the battle, but would survive. He was taken aboard a MDB C-11 Galley and taken to London where he was put in prison, interrogated and kept in Immortal custody for the sakes of keeping Airborne a secret. Krotenhoff promised to not tell anybody and returned to Germany in 1947. He remained in contact with the Immortal Union, as to keep him in check, and developed a friendship with a pilot of NFS-1, Léon Marquis. Krotenhoff later wrote down his story and in 2013, after the Immortal Revealing published it with permission from the IU.

#### Other WW2 service

Airborne would later be at many battles of WW2, including sending immortal paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Division into Normandy and later the Netherlands and sending bombers across Germany from the North Sea. Airborne was transferred to China in late 1944 to assist the fight against Japan, sinking IJS Katsuragi in 1945. She was on above the ceremony covering in case of last minute kamikazes.

### Post War Years

After the war Airborne was planned to return to Northern Scotland after a few months above Japan, until the Immortal Council had made a decision on what to do with her, but when the United States and United Kingdom request immortal presence in the occupation of Japan, Airborne is send back to Japan and remains there for another year.

In 1947, when Airborne returns to Scotland for a minor refit, 3 hunters spot Airborne sailing into the loch and entering the hangar. Several immortal jeeps arrest them for being on 'private proverty' and are brought inside, where according to protocol they are informed about the IU and told that they are not to tell anyone or face life in prison for treachery. They agree on it and are send back home, in vehicles disguised as British Army trucks bringing in supplies for the Immortal offices in Glasgow.

Over the next few years IUS Airborne is send to hover over New York, San Fransisco, London and Tokyo. When not above major cities she does training missions for hew new MDB F-3 Thunderer naval fighter jet aircraft. In 1949 a new squadron arrived, her 9th in total utilising MDB A-2 Striker attack aircraft. This squadron was Naval Attack Squadron 9 (NAS-9) "Harrasing Horses".

### Korean War, a New Home and First Major Refit

When on the 25th of June 1950 the Korean War broke out, Airborne was travelling back to Scotland from Egypt and was given the order to turn around and race towards Korea to keep an eye from high above. After several months the United Nations asked the Immortal Union to assist the UN force in Korea and they agreed.

In July 1952 Airborne's 1st and 2nd fighter squadrons were being pursued by 34 MiG-15s who discovered Airborne over Pyongyang. The immediatly called in back up and quickly radar spotted another 32 MiG-15s on their way. Roughly 17 minutes after the battle began a MiG-15 crashed into the flight deck nearly knocking 43 immortals of the deck, who were saved by the netting on the sides. Within 10 minutes another three MiG-15s had been shot down, but 2 crashed into a propeller causing Airborne to list heavily to it's starboard side. She was forced to retreat from the scene and as the fighters kept the MiG-15s away went into preparation for full speed, an impressive 96 knots. This meant nothing could land on it and everything had to be secured. She made it out with half her aircraft gone, many destoyed whilst on deck and NFS-2 nearly wiped out, it's pilots imprisoned by North Korea.

After this Airborne was ordered out of the theater of war and flew back sloqly towards Scotland. Here the crew was informed that as soon as she was repaired she would be heading to Nevada, to a new base that had been build over the past 5 years, a base planned after the 3 hunter incident. This new base, named Desert HQ, was safely located in the desert in a location protected by both the US and the IU on the terms that the US could use it's airfield for testing purposes.

When she arrived she lowered into her new hangar and was pulled from active service for an extensive refit which would put in place an angled flight deck, extend the flight deck, install new and improved propellers, add in emergency diesel engines, add extra propellers on the back, add several jet engines for extra velocity, get new radar, get improved aircraft, get a larger island and get improved netting to the sides. It took 3 years to complete mainly due to a decision by the MDB to extend her hull to become 291m long and make her flight deck 302m long. A decision was also made to keep Airborne above friendly territory at all times, as to avoid rapid reinforcements from the enemy.

### Kennedy, Space Program and New Carriers

After spending several years travelling betweem San Fransisco, New York, London and Desert HQ (Area-51 D-HQ), Airborne was ordered to remain in Florida for a few months as Cuba went through a communist revolution, seeing no real threat in it the carrier left and went to Washington DC for a secret meeting with President Eisenhower between him and Marshall Erwin Rommel, Theatre Commander Europe/Mediterranean for the Immortal Army. Eisenhower was brought aboard 50km off the coast of Maryland and took off with Airborne to a height of 3km. He and Rommel discussed several things, including a joint military training facility somewhere in the Rocky Mountains where the IU would help train US Special Forces.

A few years later President John F. Kennedy is assasinated and the US demands that the IU assist them in both the investigation and agree to a harsh deal that would force them to reveal themselves if another president got killed. They agreed after the US threatened to both reveal them and force them out. The deal was signed aboard Airborne after President Johnson had been brought aboard above New York.

In 1959 the Immortal Council had approved the creation of the Immortal Space Development Agency (ISDA) under the command of professor Chris Hunt and had it located in Huntsville as that was also the home of NASA. By 1964 they were going to launch their first manned aircraft, one of many to come in Project Uranus, Airborne was tasked with picking the astronaut José Clamia up, this nearly went wrong when one of Airborne's helicopters was spotted by a fishing boat from Cuba. Luckily nothing happened because of that.

Airborne was send back to Desert HQ in July of 1966 where her crew would be informed about a new development which would be very important for them. When they arrived they saw 2 new hangars being constructed titled Carrier Hangar 2 and Carrier Hangar 3. They were confused as to why, but they soon got an explanation. The Immortal Council had approved the construction of 2 new airborne carriers, but not of the same class as airborne. The 2 new ships were to be a completely new class, the Longbow-Class, ships that were larger, more effective and nuclear powered. The crew of airborne was informed that they would be split up to give both new carriers an experienced leadership. Lieutenant Commanders Jonathan Rogers and James Kirk were promoted to captains and were to take command of the new ships, whilst captain Fury was promoted to Fleet Commodore and became chief of the new Joint Airborne Command.

In 1969 IUS Longbow and IUS Arrow went into service and were sent to train for a year, whilst Airborne was to be prepared for her new and most extensive refit to date.

### Second Major Refit and Guarding Europe

In 1970 Airborne lowered into her hangar and her crew went to work removing their equipment from the ship as this refit would rip her hull apart and most of her armour would be removed. Her island was also removed and completely redesigned. Her flight deck was completely removed and work was done on her propellers to have them be increased in size and put a jet engine system on its side. Another process made it so that the upwards propellers could turn roughly 24 degrees to provide both lift and forwards power. But the most important thing was the removal of the main engines and replace them with 2 massive nuclear reactors. All the work done on her took 5 years and by the end her old crew almost entirely returned, with the crews of Longbow's and Arrow's having been trained enough. She rose up from the hangar and went on her way to her new station of Western Europe.

In Europe she was often travelling between Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy, patrolling for 7 years before she got a 6 month rest, which was to repaint her hull, give the fighter squadrons new aircraft (MDB F-19 "Vespa") and get the all other new aircraft, including a squadron of MDB V-1 "Passer" VTOL aircraft, these took over the role of the CH-26 "Ciconia" helicopters in Airborne Helicopter Squadron 11 (AHS-11), renamed Airborne VTOL Squadron 11 (AVS-11). After this Airborne returned to Europe and patrolled there again for the next few years, until 1989.

### Separation of the USSR, Guarding Asia and Final Major Refit

In 1989 communism started to crumble in Europe with communist governments falling in multiple nations, but the USSR still stood. This caused many people to fear that the USSR would either also fall or attempt to reinstall the communist governments, but it did neither. On the 19th of August 1991 a massive coup happened in the USSR that is said to have saved the USSR as in that the Russian SSR didn't leave and that the communist government could reform and awaken the Soviet bear once more, agreeing to sell massive amounts of resources to the People's Republic of China and to rebuild Soviet industry with Chinese manpower.

Airborne is during this time helping the Immortal Union in establishing relationships with the governments of the now independent SSRs. Airborne is able to enter Soviet territory after the USSR agrees to allow the immortals to create offices in the USSR, on the condition that the Immortal Union refrains from housing a major military base in the USSR.

After this Airborne was send to a new location, with Longbow taking over her position in Europe. She is send to Asia to patrol the air space between India, Australia and Japan. Here she stays for over 12 years, until in 2004 she is recalled for another refit and this time it is massive. New nuclear reactors, completely redone flight deck, removal of propellers, installment of new jet engines, extended hull, new anti aircraft weaponry and brand new computer systems. This took 6 years to compete and left Airborne as a ship that looked like it truly belonged in the modern era

After this Airborne and her new sister carriers IUS Shield and IUS Sword took off together to do training exercises with the new F-26 "Draco II, F-27 "Aquila", A-12 "Striker II", AV-29 "Mars", SV-29 "Neptunus", EV-31 "Spotter III" and UV-32 "Bishop" equipped squadrons.