12/24/7X
"I've finally found a reason to fight. How about you?"
The wind at this altitude is like a wolf's howl in the dead of night. No matter how bad it is for the refugees and soldiers still remaining in the woodlands below, at 15,000 feet it gives new meaning to the phrase "cut to the bone". "Rainbow" grits her teeth and pushes on, the roar of the jet striker warring with the wind for the honor of tearing her ears off.
Calm down, she thinks. Remember the training. The fight is the only thing that matters.
Rainbow closes her eyes and empties her mind, letting her senses become dull. Soon the wind and the jet striker are a mere buzz in the back of her head and her heartbeat was the only sound she can hear.
One.
Two.
Three.
She counts the beats of her heart as she flies onwards, driven by an urge she feels but does not understand. The manual says it is part of the striker's avionics, a set of revolutionary equipment built into the jet striker. It focuses her magic into a pulse, the manual says, and increases her ability to sense enemies. But Rainbow wrinkled her nose at the passage and tried not to think about it too hard.
To her this feeling is not technology. It is instinct. The enemy is here, and it is someone she has resolved to destroy at any cost.
Rainbow banks left and dives towards the ground, just as a flash of agonizing heat passes from above, through the spot that she just occupied. The enemy stands above her, wielding a beam of light in one hand. A girl, the same as her. The enemy carries a missile pod slung over her other shoulder. She smiles, almost warmly.
Rainbow hefts an M61 and fires without hesitation, but the enemy has dropped into a steep angle of attack, swinging the beam at her once more. She dashes forward, opening the throttle on her jet striker to carry her rapidly past the enemy and inside the arc of the deadly beam.
"This is Storm Crow 1, I have visual confirmation of the target. I say again, Morgan is here."
The radio in here ear crackles to life, "Storm Crow 1, pull back. You are not authorized to engage."
Rainbow's vision swims as a knee slams into her gut and she starts to lose altitude.
She returns the favor with the butt of her rifle as "Morgan" pursues. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Rainbow dashes upward, towards the moon.
"She's guilty! We all know that!" she yells into the radio, "You can have your damn trial when I drag her back to the air field!" Her words are punctuated by the hum of the M61 as it spits fire.
There is a throaty laugh on the radio. Morgan still knows the wing's frequencies. "Hey, isn't it a little late to be debating morals? I swear, people who survive this long start to think they're invincible. I bet you do too."
The other female voice comes back, more insistent now, "First Lieutenant Cain, you do not know what you are dealing with. Return to base now."
Voices and instincts war for her attention. She twists around Morgan's beam blade spell and empties a magazine into Morgan's shield. Rainbow can see the strain in her eyes as she struggles to maintain it.
Then, all at once, Morgan's jet striker cuts off.
She is spinning backwards.
The missile pod is in her hands. Rainbow's eyes widen.
Her world is overwhelmed by bright colors.
The air bursts with a clap of thunder.