Chapter 2: War?

July 14, 2018

Britasa Air Base, Clavis

0600 hrs.

"It has been two days since Ethantis was bombed and there were still no leads on who did it. The general public has calmed down a bit, they are still fearful of an attack like the one at Ethantis--" Aden flipped off the radio and sat up in his bed. Aden was forty-six and ready to retire. He was six-foot-seven and weighed two-hundred and sixty-three pounds. He had green eyes and short brunette colored hair.

The sun was just starting to rise on the horizon as the alarm signaling it was time to get up blared through the base over the intercom. Aden was lucky though, he was one of the few pilots on the base who got his own room, his own shower, and a actual bed to sleep on instead of those uncomfortable bunk beds. He stood up and walked to his dresser and grabbed a clean set of clothes. He then went into his bathroom to take a shower. After a relaxing shower he got dressed, brushed his teeth and then headed for the mess hall.

"Morning Tom." Aden said to the cook, "What do we have today?"

"Today we have a wonderful selection of stale cereal or eggs I found this morning."

"Eggs you found? I'll go with the cereal." Aden grabbed his bowl of plain old cornflakes and cup of coffee and headed towards his usual table where one of his wing mates was already eating.

"Morning Aden." Theresa said. Theresa wasn't the type of person you would think of when you think flying ace. She was thirty-two years old, five-foot-six, one-hundred and eighty-seven pounds most of it muscle. She had blue eyes with and her hair was dyed a dark blue that was just a little below shoulder length.

"Morning, I decided to try the cereal today." He replied.

"Wow, usually we just have a cup of coffee and the other three eat this crap."

"Well, I decided to be a little bit different today, not to mention I'm really hungry." Aden put a spoonful of the cereal in his mouth and started to chew. Instead of the normal crunch people expect from cornflakes this was more like chewing a stick of gum. After about a minute of chewing Aden finally swallowed his spoonful and looked up at Theresa who was trying not to laugh at the look of disgust on Aden's face. "I shall never eat breakfast her again." He said and pushed the bowl away.

"Hey Aden, are you going to finish that?" Asked Leo, another wingman, who just walked up with a plate of eggs.

"No, it's all yours."

"Yes, cereal and eggs it's my lucky day!" Leo sat down and started to eat. Leo was thirtey-7 years old and two-hundred twenty pounds, he was the lightest of the three guys in the squad. He pale blue eyes that sometimes looked as if they were gray. He almost shoulder-length blonde hair that would occasionally fall in his face.

"Leo, you're a pig." A fourth pilot walked up to the table and sat down next to Theresa. He had a cup of coffee and two slices of toast.

"Hey, where did you get the toast Zach?" Aden asked him.

"My mom sent it to me from home. She sent me a box with four slices of bread, a new toothbrush and a lighter, that's how I made it into toast."

"Four slices of bread, a toothbrush, and a lighter?" Aden had a puzzled look on his face. "Is your mom crazy or was what?"

"She's not crazy, I asked for a toothbrush and a way to make toast, she wanted to send me a toaster but I didn't want her spending that much money on me, I'm a grown man after all." Zach said. Zach was second oldest in the group at forty years old. He weighed in at two-hundred and thirty-nine pounds. He had a very light gray eye color that was almost white. He also had long platinum colored hair that was to about the middle of his back.

"Well that's nice, I wish my mom would actually speak to me." This was the fifth and final pilot of the group, Cassandra, "Cassy" or "Sandra" for short. She was the newest member to the group and was only twenty-nine years old. She was one-hundred and ninety pounds. She had dark brown eyes and long black hair.

"Oh come on kid, cheer up. Forget about your mom she is probably a bitch anyways." Leo was always trying to cheer Cassandra up but he wasn't that good at it.

"Leo, have you ever once thought before words came spilling out of your mouth?" Theresa snapped at him. Cassandra say down and they finished their breakfast in silence. Once they had finished they got up and walked to their hanger where they usually would hang out so if anything happened they were right next to their jets.

Meanwhile…

Ferrium Air Base, Verusa

0630 hrs.

There were five F-22's all outfitted to carry the type of bomb used to destroy Ethantis, the bomb is now being called "Black Rose." The five jets were all going to different military bases near the Clavis-Verusa border. The pilot that dropped the bomb on Ethantis was going to go to Britasa Air Base, the main threat to Verusa's air force.

"Storm one you are cleared for take off."

"Rodger that." The pilot opened up the throttle and shot off down the runway. He quickly climbed to 10,000 feet and went to the south west heading for Britasa at full speed.

Britasa Air Base, Clavis

0700 hrs.

Aden was tossing a baseball up in the air an catching it on it's way down to pass the time.

"Hey Aden! Throw it here!" Leo shouted as he ran across the hanger as if he was going after a fly ball. Aden tossed the ball about four feet in front of Leo. Leo was running for it but he slammed into Zach who was trying to get it first and they both fell to the floor, half laughing, half trying to breath.

"Great job boys, I'm glad you don't do that in the air." Theresa joked as she bent down to pick up the ball. "He Sandra, think fast!" Cassandra turned and almost caught the ball Theresa threw at her.

"Nice aim." She joked as she walked over to get the ball. She bent down to pick it up but stopped, "Hey, do you guys hear that?"

"No, what are you a dog or something?" Leo said as he stood up.

"Shut up, I can hear it to, it's a faint whistling sound." Aden said, that was when the air raid siren went off. The five of them all ran to their Su-47's and quickly climbed in. Aden got his helmet on and strapped him self in. He started up the jets engine and rolled it out of the hanger.

"Scorpion squadron, we need you to go after the F-22, head for runway 3 and take off, I'm sure you can do it yourselves."

"Rodger that. You heard him guys, lets get to runway 3 as fast as possible." Aden said over the radio. He taxied out to runway three and lined up to take off. "This is scorpion one, call sign Flame taking off."

"Hurry up scorpions, the bomb is at 5,000 feet and dropping fast." After that there was no more radio chatter that came from the tower as they tried to get everyone in to the bomb shelters. Aden opened up the throttle and the jet sped don the runway, followed by the other four. They went up into the air and sped off after the F-22 that was on radar.

Back on the ground the tower was just getting into the bomb shelter when the bomb hit. They could feel the ground shake but the bomb shelter kept them safe.

"Did you feel that?" Leo voice came over the radio.

"Yeah, I can't believe that bomb shook our planes like this, it didn't look big enough to destroy a city block." Theresa replied as she looked back at the base which was now completely leveled.

"That's why they picked runway three, they knew it was the fast way to get away from the base. Any other runway and we would be dead right now." This time Zach spoke. "I hope everyone was okay but it doesn't look like that is possible."

"Lets focus on getting that jet for now then we can worry about they others alright." Aden said, "Radar last showed him heading north-east at 10,000 feet. Lets hope we can catch him."

"This is Storm One to the Clavis pilots. I am not the one who dropped the bomb, I am a Verusan pilot who followed the attacker."

"This is Scorpion One of the Clavis Air Force, you know that you had no authorization to follow the air craft into Clavian Air Space, we will escort you to the nearest air base for questioning, if you do not comply within the next minute we will engage and shoot you down."

"Please let me safely return to Verusa and we can forget this ever happened." The pilot responded as Aden and the others surrounded him.

"Hey, Flame, he is unarmed. The hatch where the F-22 carries missiles is missing it's doors and there is some type coupling system there." This was Leo who was flying a little lower then the F-22.

"Alright, Storm One right? You will follow us to our nearest base for questioning."

"Since my cover is blown as the man who bombed your base I'll let you in on a secret. At 0730 hours Verusa plans to declare war. At 0745 we will take control of the three main cities on the border and we shall meet no military resistance because we have already destroyed the five bases on the Verusa-Clavis border. So, shoot me down if you want." Storm One then ejected from the jet and watched as they all sped away from him.

They were traveling at such high speeds no one noticed he Storm One had ejected already. Aden and Theresa both fired their 30 mm cannons and the bullets ripped through the F-22 which blew up.

"We have to find someplace to land and inform the president of what is happening some how." Aden turned and head south to the nearest city and the other four followed.

Was it true, were they going to be at war, did they really drop those bombs, or was Storm One just a terrorist try to trigger war between the two nations?