The Demon Lord, that is suddenly what he was considering himself again, even though he hated that moniker, was driving down a dirt road that led to his residence of the infamous, 'Cameron Holtz' his actual name that he was given from birth.
But yet he was better known, as 'Demon Lord' was that was odd being known only to the world as that. As a man who killed other men perfectly. He knew that though. Even though he hated it. And to think, he washed out of his home nations Airforce Academy on a technicality, stole a fighter. And joined the mercenary unit that would lead to the success in the Belkan War.
And his date with renown and infamy.
He arrived on the motorcycle at the slight hill that over looked his secluded place in the mountains. He could see the three room shack. A bedroom/bathroom, kitchen, and living area. He reflected with a frown that if he were able to save Abi in this case he would likely have to move away. Been living here twenty years.
He entered the room after getting off of his bike, no one knew about this place. He made his way over to the Sofa in five long strides, and reached down into the case. Did not do this because of sloppiness, but of need. He needed to hide what he was looking for, he found them and tore them out. The Keys to his F-22 Raptor that he 'borrowed' from the Oseans. In reality it was given to him. But he did not think the Oseans would have liked him to hijack it and take it, never to be seen again.
He walked out into the darkening dusk, the sky was lit yellow and orange just beyond the area, a deep dark blue was throughout the rest of the sky. But he knew that where he was going it would be a little more light. He always preferred to fly in the day.
He went into the cave, and took off the Tarp. Revealing the deadly and accurate Raptor.
This plane was officially a prototype. At least at the start of its life. The last model F-22 that was made before they were going to rush them into full production. They being the Osean Defense Force. Then the Belkan War happened, and they moved this specific one to active duty. Just they did not know where to put it.
But after he liberated Directus, tearing through the enemy formations. They knew. It caused much moaning in the Osean military and Government, they figured that it was going to be given to the top Osean ace. But no such luck. The next day he was presented with it. It was love at first sight.
Which made his wingman just a bit jealous, he never followed up on that.
He would then take the plane into battle, several times. Fighting the good fight. Destroying Excalibur, the XB-O, the Avalon Dam raid, and then he had to kill his best friend in the entire world. That was horrible. All the while he cemented a legend, the legend of him, and his F-22. The same legend that Blaze and Mobius 1 would add onto. The same legend that they would improve upon. Each being legends in their own right, maybe even better then him in some respects, but he was first.
He finished running his hand over the airframe, feeling it. Seeing if he could find any imperfection. And of course there was not.
He then leapt into the plane, and started with his systems checks. Satisfied he turned it on, and taxied down the path he made out of the cave and onto the main road that he used as a runway. Well then, this was it, once more into the sky with him. Could even be his last, hopefully it was, his last time at war, but then again he did say that before.
And it never seemed to quite be true, the infinite hurdle, his planes vibrations forced him back into the real world.
He snapped his head around, looking for any traffic that he might run into, he had so few minutes to do this. But he was ready.
He slammed his throttle forward and his plane rocketed down the road that acted as his runway.
He felt a feeling of exhilaration move throughout his entire body as he thrusted into the sky, and moved up hard. He loved this feeling, the rush. He plain loved to be in the sky, the feeling, and the excitement. It was indescribable what he could do once he was up here. And he had not had this feeling for so long. Not since about two months before this current assignment. Four months. That seemed like ages.
Just after the Belkan War, he disappeared from the map, erased himself with the help of the President of Ustio, as he moved over to intelligence. But there were certain provisions that he asked for, and got accepted by the President.
They were, one: to allow him to have a complete card for military credits. He had unlimited access to his bird for weapons, maintenance, and fuel, should he need it. One of only two people to have such a thing as that. Nothing of a military nature cost him any money. It was the least they could do.
With that thought pushed aside he checked his nav points, and altitude, he frowned and pulled up hard on the stick, going quite fast to thirty thousand feet, and turning to go almost due west. He turned on the autopilot, and set his course to intercept, taking his hands off of the stick. He then made sure he was on super cruise in order to close the distance between him and his target.
His mind at this point started to drift, as he realized what he was doing once more. He started to think about the past. First the last time he was in combat. But more and more his thoughts focused on Abi. She really had become so important to him, as had all of his team. His head was filled with memories from the last few months. Trying desperately to recall everything.
He was loosing himself in the past, in her sweet face, and the debates between him, Hicks, and Harkness.
Starring at the hurtling Earth below.
"Can you see any borders up here buddy?" He heard the voice of his former squad mate say once.
And no you could not, but that did not matter. They were not right. But then again, neither perhaps was the side he used to fight for.
At least he had a just cause now. Saving a person he loved.
That war took so much personal sacrifice from him. And he wondered if he came through that war with anywhere near most of his soul intact. He loved to fly, and even enjoyed flying in the skies of combat, the excitement of it. But, he hated the aftermath, the dreams and nightmares that still haunted him. The pieces of his soul that were missing after the realization that he mercilessly hunted down his fellow man, his cause may have been just, but that did not prevent any of this.
He was brought back to reality by a beep, and then another, and another, and finally four consecutive beeps. He looked down at his board and found his targets there, still a good fifteen miles off before he was in engagement range. His head snapped forward as he looked out over the empty sky, his eyes scanning the area behind his oxygen mask. He made his decision
He threw off the autopilot, and went to full burners for a short burst, bringing him up to Mach two in a second. Close enough to identify his targets as three SU-47s, and the mother of all Cargo planes, the C-130.
He adjusted his course slightly to try and intercept them before they got any farther to their destination, wondering what he should do. They could not have detected him with their radar at this distance.
He made his decision, he tapped his control throttle forward as he went to a slight twenty second burn on after burners, just moving up past Mach 1.5 as he closed the distance. And then he clicked the mike on.
"This is Lt. Col. Cameron Holtz of the Ustian Airforce calling leakers, you are in restricted airspace, you will surrender yourselves and your prisoner now."
"Ah. Demon Lord." A familiar voice responded to him.
"I am not the Demon Lord, I am a Colonel in the Ustain Airforce."
"You are flying that plane, and you answered our summons." The man on the other end said again as the three SU-47s turned toward him.
"True…."
"And even if you are not, you have not flown a plane in years, intelligence agent, which suggests with your skill in getting here that you are the Demon Lord. The evidence is mounting against you Cameron Holtz."
He then heard a clicking and shuffling on the other end of the line, then he heard another female voice come on, that made his heart jump. "Cameron, I have…uh…. sorry…but I have figured it out…if it is the last thing I tell you."
"Abi, are you alright?" He asked.
"Yes, I am fine. Please." That was all, as he heard the same shuffling.
"Yes, she is, but she will not be for long Demon Lord. Unless you of course surrender."
He then knew where he had heard that voice before. "Doctor Kaufer?! No I will not surrender."
"Ah. You have figured it out. Or at least part of it. Pilots," he said with derision, "even ones with such renown as the Demon Lord are not the brightest tools in the bunch."
"Dr…. what is your plan? Why?-"
"Why did we do it?" he laughed, with venom. "To catch you of course, to get you out of hiding, we knew that we would never be able to find you if journalists and governments have tried for 20 years. So we made up a threat to have your government to find you. And then to kill you."
"But why do the Belkans need an engineer like you anyway?"
"Oh yes, now we come to it. The secret experiment. You see, what they need me for is a very selective brain washing machine, a Doctor and me are putting it together. Without you to stop us we can convert anyone and anything, in any seat of government, or power, to do our bidding. The whole of Ustio will collapse. So do you surrender?"
"No." The cold adrenaline started to pump through his veins, that stuff of determination that he began to adopt toward the end of the war. The first time was when he saw the nukes go off, never again, and then when he flew against XB-O.
The SU-47s once more began to fly directly at him, gaining such speed as they charged at him. He heard a warning tone go off.
He checked his radar as he then saw twelve missile blips appear on it, as each one of the planes detached their first salvo or ordinance. He so hoped they were not the special kind, only one way to find that out.
He inverted his plane and dove for the deck hard as he could, loosing altitude fast as he did this, he retched on his afterburners ah he could feel his straps tighten at the high g turn, cutting into him.
He watched the hurtling Earth now above him, as he was judging his turn based on that distance, and not what his instruments were telling him. The warning alarms were going on in his headset as the missiles went into a crescent moon formation and began to fall on him, all of them were now falling on top of him, he was dead in their sights.
He then reverted his planes, just clearing the rocks below, as he began to look for places to run now that he was down on the deck. The missiles would be hitting him any second, and he needed to find something in order to loose their advanced systems. He had gained several key seconds in the reckless dive. But they were being eaten up.
He saw something, and turned for it, the only way to beat these missiles would be to try to get them to fall off of him by confusing their sensors. He accelerated ahead to the mountain, revving up his after burners as he screamed over the planes. The missiles were now down into kill mode. He would have to time it just perfectly.
He started to pull up slightly as the mountain was filling his cockpit window, his airspeed read roughly mach 1.8 as he…
Doctor Kaufer was staring down on the same mountain as he saw the area around it light up in one giant fireball.
"Is that confirmed?" He heard a male voice ask.
"That is, I do not have anything on radar." A female pilot reported.
"Then we did it, we killed the Demon Lord." The original voice said in amazement.
"Yahoo!" A second male voice said.
"Alright, let us get back into formation, we still have this package to deliver to base." The lead pilot said to the others cool and professional.
The people in the cabin of the cargo plane looked around at each other, smiling. They did it.
"Soon my dear, it is going to be so fun breaking you."
"I will never do it." She said shakily.
He ran a hand across her cheek. "Oh, but you will-"
An explosion to his left made his head snap around as he saw another missile slam into the SU-47 on the left, causing it to fall out of the sky.
Cameron was indeed still alive. Climbing rapidly into the air, after taking his chance he rose fast. Then he turned on his radar just as he entered a range, a tricky shot but it did work.
He was rising straight up as the debris began to fall, a puff of smoke and cloud obstructing his view, as the main part of the wreck came out of it falling down in a heap. His eyes widened behind his oxygen mask, as he had to wrench his control stick, rolling the plane hard, the G forces threatening to rip his plane apart. As he heard taps against his plane as debris hit, the main wreckage missing the bay that contained his missiles by mere inches.
He then looked down beyond his ejection seat as he saw the two remaining bandits turn left and right, as they both climbed up to meet him. He was soon going to run out of room.
He then made yet another tactical decision. He powered the stick into his body as he brought the plane down into a direct loop. He was now pointing back at the ground, his speed rising rapidly as he passed Mach one with a boom again. He was pointing right at the two rising Belkan aces, their noses rising up to meet him.
He knew that he was not in position to make a direct frontal shoot and pass, that Mobius one actually invented not him. But he hoped that they did not have the same time either to set it up on him. He would make it harder on them. He threw his burners into full power.
He fell out of the sky, on top of his opponents, they had to spin out of the way as he shot right through them. Hurtling toward the small Earth below him, he loved his view from up here, he could just make out the C-130 as it was trying to leave the area in a huff.
He then pulled up hard on his stick, and opened his breaks, and cut his speed off, as his hands danced across his controls, and ran the piccolo.
His fighter bottomed out on him. Quickly.
His eyes searched around his controls making sure that he did not break anything, confirming that he took no damage, as it felt like he was about to come out of his seat as he pulled that radical negative Gs. Nothing was going on that he could see. He checked his radar as the two of his opponents were trying to follow him now, both cautiously looping. He turned back on his burners and was slammed back as he got his air speed back up above mach one.
The bandits sneaked in on his six, as perhaps he was not maneuvering as he should, but he had a plan.
He let them get comfortable for a few more seconds, and then he juked right, bringing his plane around in a simple right hand turn, and down. They followed.
He then stopped mid turn, slammed his throttle into full power and made a radical left hand turn. He was moving left and climbing as he did so, making one radical roller coaster like loop, arching in the sky hard. As he was literally forced into his feet.
The enemy tried to follow him, and one did a pretty good job at it, as he was now completing his loop, switching back to sidewinders as he did so.
He then completed his loop as he adjusted his course, taking him right behind the other fighter, as she dived. He reversed, added some speed, and dove with her. Picking up speed as he did so. Why he cut speed earlier, he was making sure he did not over shoot.
He stayed with her, as the plane danced in and out of his HUD, but yet he was able to stay behind, with no idea where the other one was. He could wait her out.
He did as she had to pull up hard in order to stop from slamming into the rocks below, he spun around bringing his plane in a graceful downward spin right on top of her, and behind. The tone sounded immediately.
He pressed the trigger twice. Sending two missiles into her tail pipe as she exploded with a scream. Only one left.
He then leveled off, rising slightly as he watched the debris fall down toward the Earth, lazily, just seconds before it was a multi million-dollar war machine.
He stayed level for about a second too long. As the warning alarm blared in his head set, he wrenched around to look at the avenging wingman as he shot.
Cameron threw his stick down and to the left, as the plane rolled and accelerated at the Earth, throwing off the missile lock, but not the fighter that was now locked onto his tail. Like a Dog to a mean mailman.
Cameron edged left and right throwing the plane into radical maneuvering, trying to stay one step ahead of the ace pilot. He followed and stayed with him.
He saw a missile release warning and twisted his stick inverting his plane, then reverting it the other way. He saw the missile go streaking into the sky. His eyes going wide again under his mask as another was launched. He accelerated and edged the wing a little up, that missile missed as well.
He then had to maneuver clear as the guy reloaded, he checked behind him all the time. And he was still on him as…. his warning alarms sounded again, and another close miss as he cut power and made them over shoot, but not his eager opponent.
This would happen three more times, each time the missile only avoided him by inches.
Then it happened. The enemy got off two more shots at him, one missed, but the other slammed into his left wind causing him to rise again. Alarms sounded all over his control panels. As the enemy then squeezed a burst into his right flap, the control stick started to shake.
The board in front of him for damage lit up red and went instantly to 69, as well as he was loosing hydraulic fuel. Not a good thing at all. He had to end this fast.
He looked behind him again, and saw his opponent there, no less then a mile away. Closing on him fast. Wanting and needing the kill, his last bit of deperation occurred to him as he realized he was in the Jet Stream.
He checked his instruments as another burst went whizzing by the airframe. He then said a quick prayer…had not done that in twenty years…. and threw the throttle back toward him, and the stick back as well.
His speed was cut, and he flew up into the air, letting the wind almost push him back without his speed, just maintaining enough to sat airborne. He inverted his plane as the alarms screamed at him again as he was stalling. He looked left as the SU-47 tried to compensate but just ended up flying right on through.
Cameron then threw his throttle forward as the plane leapt forward eagerly, the speed gauge shooting up to near mach speeds.
His eyes snapped open as he pushed down on the weapon select button loading the long range AMRAAMs as the SU-47 was making a radical turn heading for the dirt, Cameron followed him. Now his Raptor was the predator he was born to be. It was so cold. Everything he was, was reverted to the past, he was now back in his mode in the Belkan War. Just one press of the button.
The steady beeping in his head set greeted his ears, as the diamond of the radar lock was trying to trace in the sky, of his enemy's bird. The two met in the sky, and the Demon Lord, with one pang of conscience despite of everything, once more being in the skies of battle, he pressed the button.
The missile dropped free of his plane, and it shuddered gratefully in response. Glad to be momentarily free of the weight.
The missile tracked across the sky, the smoke plume following it as it moved to intercept. But this was not good enough for Cameron Holtz. He wretched the throttle forward, pouncing on his enemy. Just as his shot missed due to a masterful maneuver, but Holtz was there, waiting, Sidewinders prepped.
The guy straightened out, probably breathing a sigh of relief. He pressed his trigger two more times as his headset screamed in the lock on.
He did another impressive invasive, throwing off yet one more of the missile, but the other one his him dead center, causing the plane to stutter almost out of the sky. Holtz leaped on him, guns blazing. He did not miss. His opponent was turned into a flaming fireball, exploding down toward the ground.
He then checked across his radar, looking for the fleeing C-130. He found it, and his eyes widened. It was less then seven miles from the Belkan border….Osean, whatever. But they had radar powerful enough to detect even a stealth. Especially his damaged one. If he crossed he would be shot down for violating the airspace.
He adjusted his throttle and sped after the plane, flying at near Mach one the whole way, wondering what he was going to do when he caught up.
He heard his radio come to life…he was thinking about putting a sidewinder right up its engine. "You can't shoot at us Cameron. Your love is aboard. And any shrapnel caused be an explosion…or a bullet…will kill her."
"Don't worry about me Cam! Shoot us down!" He heard her scream in the background which was followed up by a scream of pain.
"Your choice Colonel." The radio clicked off, and Cameron let go of the stick. His mind racing once more.
He then considered something, by far his most dangerous maneuver to date, if he timed this wrong, he she and they would die. He began searching the ground, found a slightly paved highway. It would have to do.
He pulled up behind the C-130, and prayed yet again. He rolled slightly to the top of it, bringing his plane just above its flaps.
He edged the plane forward ever so slightly. Getting above the plane. Soon he was slightly in front of the cockpit, and above it, making sure he could be seen.
Another quick prayer was said by him. And then he edged the stick down on top of the C-130.
The Pilot panicked, and went down. Holtz was forcing the plane down on the ground below. Slowly. He could make out a struggle going on for control of the aircraft. It continued to go down, now a lot more rapidly. As they were both nearly pointing to the ground.
The pilot then did a radical turn up, as he was now committed to landing, tried to level out and throw down his gear to break his sudden fall.
Holtz watched in horror as the plane then collapsed in the dirt and ground, as the wheels gave way under the sudden weight, causing the plane to skid sickenly on three miles of real estate.
He looked around, and found an almost dirt path. His stomach did lurch a bit, but there was no other way he could see around it.
He went down to the deck, as he cut his speed to the bare minimum to stay in the air, as he came down, steadily, slowly, and then…. touchdown. It was slow but yet the plane still shook like an Earthquake.
His damage indicator went up again, there was no way that he could risk taking off again at the moment. He would have to repair it.
He then popped the cockpit, and scrambled out of it.
He went over to the cargo compartment that he built into the plane. It was so small, but big enough for his needs. He withdrew the P-90 SMG, and gave it a once over, before loading in a magazine, and loading a round into the chamber.
He then moved to jog over to the crashed C-130, as it was face down in the mountainous dirt around it. He was moving cautiously.
Then a man opened up the back door to the plane and came stumbling out, AK-74 in hand. The Demon Lord quickly put his weapon up to his shoulder and fired, most of the bullets went wide, but enough of them hit to cause the opponent to go down in the dirt.
He then approached the cabin quickly, and cautiously, going up into the plane with his gun leading, he heard a noise on his right and saw Doctor Kaufer using Abi as a human shield, protecting his scrawny frame behind her.
"Let her go!"
"No!" You will drop your weapon and surrender to me now!"
"I do not think so."
"She will die."
"Just shoot Cam…what are you waiting for? Do not worry about hitting me, I do not even want to spend one moment like this."
Cameron in a small flash recognized the movie like quality this whole scene displayed, but that was not going to help him out so he pushed it to the back of his mind.
He did not trust himself. And he did not want to hit Abi, especially considering that Kaufer was hiding so well behind her.
He then fired, right at his ear, and the bullet went right where he wanted it to, killing him, puffing red behind Abi, dragging her down with him for a second.
She then got up, and ran into his arms, he had to put the P-90 on safety real fast as he tossed it to the ground. She stumbled there, and he had to help her keep from loosing his balance.
All was once again right with his world. Hopefully forever now. And now, it was time to decide what his next move was going to be.