Advance Wars: Dark Star
-Chapter 7: Dark Star Dogfight

The storm raged on around the Green Earth fleet. It seemed like nothing smart would have been out in this storm. The seas swelled like someone was detonating explosives under the surface and even Drake himself would have admitted, it was one of the roughest seas he had ever sailed before. The green colored ships would appear to ramp over the huge waves that went under them and sometimes into them. What made it worse, was that someone was flying out in this storm, and gunning for them. In one of the battleships Drake and his crew scrambled around the cramped hallways toward the bridge where reports from ships all over the area were getting hit, hard.

Drake had lost some weight since his last encounter with Black Hole. For years he had managed to avoid the Green Earth regulations concerning size, but eventually it caught up with him. It was enough so that his stomach didn't pop out anymore. He was straightening his hat as he barged onto the bridge and looked out across the raging seas.

"What en' blue blazes is goin' on out there?"

"A squadron of jets are attacking us!" One of the sailors reported. "It's Black Hole, they're hitting us in this storm!"

"Barnacles! Sturm just doesn't give us a break does he?" Drake bellowed.

It had been almost customary to every officer that talked to Drake would be deafened by his loud voice. But it was good in tight situations to get control. It was almost impossible not to hear him or to not understand his orders. Somewhere out among the battleships and Landers something streaked across the sky leaving a smoke trail. In the moments following it an explosion rang out on one of the Landers decks. Then the area would erupt in anti-air fire coming from the cruisers. Needless to say it was literally taking a shot in the dark. The black jets blended in perfectly with the storm and only the smoke trails gave evidence that there was even a squadron of jets attacking them.

"This is impossible. We can't even see what we're shooting at!" The sailor complained to Drake."

"It's only gonna' get worse when they bring out the bombers." Drake muttered.

As if on some terrible cue, the loud whistling sound could be heard even from within the bridge of the battleship. But to Green Earth's relief, they only heard a splashing sound and watched as water was thrown into the air by the explosions.

"Well I'll be! This storm isn't against us after all! Those bombers couldn't hit the broad side of a blue whale!" Drake exclaimed. "We need to get Eagle's jets out here now!"

------------------------

But Eagle was nowhere near Drake's location out at sea on the western ocean of Green Earth. He was much farther in land trying to deal with the Black Hole forces that were pouring in from the Blue Moon border. Intel immediately identified the moving forces as Adder's as they only moved at night. So far the front line had been constant, it seemed that they stopped Adder from coming any further into Green Earth. The line had been drawn just a couple of miles south of the Blue Moon / Green Earth border and things had quieted down.

Eagle was moving about one of the airbases as they tried to assess what was going on through the chaos of the random skirmishes that were going on. There would be an exchange of fire here, and then a full blown push by tanks over here. Adder had made engagements so random that it was hardly possible to coordinate a bombing run. By the time it was up in the air and reached the target, Adder's forces were gone and had disappeared into the deep forests where most of the fighting was going on.

"We have more sightings of anti-air and missiles sir." The communications officer reported snapping Eagle out of his daze.

"Try to get some more recon moving out about those forests. If Adder is trying to play some sick game of cat and mouse with me. I want to make him pay for it." Eagle answered firmly.

"It's strange sir. It's almost like he's waiting for something."

"Dammit. Why can't they just move out and attack all ready? They have to play these games with me!"

The two moved up the air-traffic control tower until they could see over the majority of the runways. The view could show the organization and the anticipation with a line of fighter jets ready to take off at a moments notice. There was all ready an large number of jets taking off and landing at the moment.

"What's going on with Drake?" Eagle asked next.

"We were getting to that sir, there's a call from his fleet. It's urgent."

Eagle nodded and the officer sat down and hit a button. Instantly there was the roar of jet engines in the distance and the rat-a-tat-tat of anti-air fire. Drake was currently ordering something to one of the sailors as the line was opened up.

"-no one gets through! Shoot them down!"

"Drake? What's going on?" Eagle began. "Your under attack?"

"Eagle! Thank Neptune. You won't believe this. But there's a squadron of insane pilots out here taking pot shots at us in a storm! We're like fish en' a barrel! You gotta send someone out here before we... What the hell!"

The engines were louder than before and more constant. If Eagle wasn't mistaken it sounded like some jet was revving it's engines right over Drake. The sound began to die away and Drake's voice could be heard once again.

"I don't believe this! They got a jet that floats around like a helicopter! It was flying around the bridge just taunting us!"

"A harrier! Sturm's forces have harrier jets!?" Eagle cried out, stunned. "Hold on Drake, I'll send squadrons to meet you from the..."

The transmission was soon cut off and the line was dead. The control tower was silent for a couple of moments as the officers tried different lines. Eventually the transmission came back, but Drake was no longer the voice on the other end.

"Eagle... I'm rather disappointed in you." A cold voice began. "The place an commanding officer is supposed to be is out on the field with their troops. I know that's where I am."

The com officers turned toward Eagle slowly with faces full of confusion. They could see that this voice had froze him, and the mic had begun to slip out of his hand. However this did not last long as he gripped the mic and pressed the button to respond.

"Who the hell..."

"It's obvious who I am Eagle. I went missing during those turbulent years of civil war. And Sturm found me. Right now your committing a rather embarrassing act of hiding behind a line of soldiers watching them do your work for you. Why... Drake is on the lines. Why aren't you?"

"Shut the hell up! Just shut up! How do you know anyway? If your where you say you are."

"Adder was telling me, your nowhere to be seen, he's rather fond of the idea that he would kill you before I could... My son."

"I'm not going to do some reckless action just because you think you can get under my skin!" Eagle declared. "Drake is going to shoot you out of the sky..."

Laughing cut him off before he could finish his sentence and it was chillingly confident. The sound was verbal cancer and it was getting Eagle angrier by the minute. His gloves showed how tightly Eagle gripped the mic and his teeth were clenched. There were beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead.

"That's a lie. And you know it. The harriers makes Drake's particular situation even worse. Anyway, I'll just litter the bottom of the ocean with the Green Earth fleet and I'll see you later. By the way, you haven't forgotten to fly now have you?"

The line was cut and soon Drake's voice rocketed back into the air.

"Eagle! Eagle! What ever he said to you. Don't come out here. Your pilots can handle it. Have a little faith in them."

"No..." Eagle started slowly. "He's better than that. His pilots are too good."

"Look. Your a little emotional over this. Why don't you let your subordinate take over while you cool off."

"Yes... Right. Of course. I'll send the fighters out to meet your forces immediately."

There was a long silence from Drake who eventually was satisfied with the response and the line was closed. The com officers began to scramble some of the squadrons on the ground as soon as Eagle put the mic up. He stared out across the runway at the green fighter jets and seemed distant compared to everyone else. A part of his mind was searching for the last time he was up in a jet. The frustration and the anger made it nearly impossible, he knew he had flown before, but when was escaping him.

He vaguely heard the voice of the com officer next to him before he turned with a determined look and pointed at the officer.

"Get me a jet." Eagle demanded.

"But who will be in charge..."

"Natasha, Natasha Gustav is a capable officer. She'll be in command while I'm gone."

"Yes sir..."

But Eagle was all ready on his way to the tarmac.

--------------------------

Most of the Green Earth ships had nothing to fire at, but there was plenty being fire at them. The submarines were frantically searching the area for aircraft carriers from where these planes were coming from. The cruisers fired into the air almost randomly the rain and dark clouds overhead made it impossible to simply lock onto one jet and shoot them down. The Black Hole fighters would rocket down in between the ships close to the waters and launch missiles at the hulls trying to punch a hole through them. Others used heavy machine guns to pepper the armaments on the ships trying to cause some sort of explosion.

Drake's battleship had been taken damage as well, but nothing to give the order to abandon ship. Even if they did evacuate everyone on it, the storm would surely make quick work of them. It wasn't until a couple hours into the fight that there was a notable lead jet among the others. It's cockpit windows were mirrored unlike the stained black cockpit windows of the other jets. This had been the same jet that taunted Drake by flying in front of it.

Suddenly a cruisers hull buckled under another missile explosion and was split into two. A chain of smaller explosions lit up the battle as some of the jets were illuminated in its light. Drake could see the explosions from where his battleship floated and had a nervous expression.

"I hope those guys get here soon!" Drake thought aloud.

More jets rocketed past, but these were slower that the breakneck speeds the Black Hole jets moved at. They were still fast but more noticeable, and an obviously different army. These new jets passed over the sinking cruiser and their green colors could be seen more clearly. Instantly Drake perked up and went to the radio.

"Hey, you guys got orders from Eagle?"

"Roger sir. This is the Dagger squadron on loan from Rotgers Airbase. We've been ordered to take on and take down some flies, over."

They flew in and began to look over the damaged ships that the Black Hole jets had hit since they began attacking and soon began to split up to take targets.

"All right Daggers, keep and eye out. These guys are fast."

And it was true, these Black Hole pilots were pulling turns at dangerous speeds. Something about them made it so that the storm played very little in their flight plans and the group of fighters were breaking formation and splitting up.

"Copy that Dagger 1. I got one of em in a lock." Dagger 2 called out to the others.

"Watch it, make sure your lock does not hit the fleet."

"As anticipated Dagger 1." The same pilot responded coolly.

The Green Earth squadron broke up formation as well and began to try and tail the speeding Black Hole jets. Dagger 2 had finally launched the missile as they cleared the fleet and darted about the open ocean. The targeted Black Hole fighter spun as it pulled up and had turned itself around heading directly back toward Drake's fleet. The other Daggers could see what the fighter was trying to pull as the missile was barely catching up with it's target. The fighter with the missile in tow, weaved in and out of the battleships and eventually caused the missile to hit one of the Green Earth ships.

The missile had hit a section of the large main cannons sticking out of the front and soon caused them to collapse making the front half of the battleship inoperative. The black jet pulled up and over back into the main group.

"Damn! I was too far away!"

The Dagger squadron was back up into the air and trying to close the gap between their fighters and the enemy. The Daggers could see that the sleek Black Hole jets resembled something of an Orange Star design, which wasn't overall surprising since Sturm's first forces were mere copies of Orange Star designs. They had begun to switch to machine gun fire after seeing how easily their missiles were avoided and soon the dark cloudy sky was lit up like a neon light. The cruisers had stopped their anti-air fire now that there was friendly units in the air.

Anyone on a ship could see that the black jets weren't initially concerned with the Green Earth squadron that had appeared and just avoided them for the time being. It wasn't until a second Green Earth squadron arrived that they really began to turn on the enemy fighters around them. Now they were outnumbered 5 to 10, but the numbers were quickly changing.

"Daggers, we have Vector squadron and three more enemies incoming. Watch yourselves."

The three new Black Hole jets joining the melee quickly began to launch missiles as they appeared. The closest targets being fired upon was Daggers 2, 3, and 5. All of them broke from their targets to take evasive maneuvers. During the break away, the lead jet had targeted Dagger 2 and began to open fire with machine guns. There was only so much time to avoid so many things and the wing of Dagger 2 was ripped clear from the jet. The ocean swelled and almost seemed to gobble up the downed fighter.

"Dagger squadron, this is Eagle. The lead Black Hole jet is mine."

"Sir?"

"You heard me." Eagle repeated firmly.

Eagle's jet wasn't marked in anyway, but his lucky goggles were clearly seen hanging around his neck over his flight suit. As he had declared, he instantly flew after it dodging the machine gun fire that began to erupt from the other Black Hole jets. One of the jets missed him by meters and immediately following that he got no more fire from the other Black Hole jets. Instead their turned their fire back on the Vector and Dagger fighters.

"He wants this to be between him and me..." Eagle muttered pushing the throttle harder and attempting to catch up with the blazing jet ahead of him.

Meanwhile the Black Hole squadron had taken the fight back toward the fleet and used the ships in order to escape. They flew dangerously low to the ocean speeding down and then rocketing up behind the Green Earth fighters.

"Vector 3, you got two on you! Move it!" Dagger 5 yelled out.

There was an effort to follow this advice, but the jets were far to fast to outrun. Vector 3 would pull to the right and almost go into a roll, but the Black Hole fighters were still following relentlessly.

"Damn! They're too fast! I've never seen pilots who push the throttle so hard in my life!"

Three of the Daggers had managed to break away from the fighters chasing them and instantly headed toward Vector 3. One of the Daggers had switched to missiles in a risky move while the other two fired off their machine guns. The missile this time was heading nearly straight down rather than chasing after the Black Hole fighter and easily impacted it blowing it up into smithereens. The debris clipped the other fighter and sent it spinning off out of control.

"Two birds with one stone!" Dagger 1 cried out.

"Yeah, something like that." Vector 3 responded with a sigh.

They all were to caught up in the fight to notice how far Eagle's fighter and the lead jet had strayed away from Drake's fleet. The two now flew around high in the air and changed places constantly from hunter to hunted. Every once and awhile the lead jet would dive and disappear into the storm clouds only to suddenly appear behind Eagle with machine guns blazing. Eagle would try to pull up above the lead jet to go over and behind him. He would get a missile lock and fire only to watch the lead jet go into a barrel roll and once again disappear into the clouds.

"Where did he go?" Eagle exclaimed now finding himself alone.

"Dagger 1! Watch it! The lead jet's back!" The Vector leader warned.

"No!" Eagle cried out.

He spun his fighter around and began to head back toward Drake's fleet. It seemed like the lead jet had unleashed some unseen sort of talent and had began to pick off the fighters in the Dagger squadron. Now the fight had evened itself out, 6 to 6. Some bright sunlight had begun to seep through the storm that had begun to retreat and the black jets were far more visible without the cover of rain and darkness. Eagle had managed to find the lead jet again and pushed the jet as hard as it could go in order to make up ground. Soon he was right behind him and pressed a switch on the stick.

"I got a surprise for you, Hawke."

A large cylinder shaped object under the right wing opened up and soon began to fire missiles at a constant rate. They also tracked the heat emitted from the engines and began to slam into the lead jet one after another. What they lacked in power was soon made up by number and the red engines soon turned to a black smoke and it soon began to go down. There was no ejector seat that escaped from the lead jet as it splashed down into the ocean and began to skid across it like a raft. The speeds soon ripped anything that wasn't part of the main body. Wings, tail fins and any sort of exposed landing gear was ripped clean off.

Some of the sailors had begun to aim their guns off the side of the ship toward the plane as it was barely floating in the center of the damaged fleet. Eagle slowed down and tilted his plane trying to see the pilot as the cockpit hatch was ripped off by the impact as well. The pilot was dead and he could see brown hair and then the face as the head rolled back showing the face of death.

"No... That wasn't him... It wasn't him... What am I doing out here?" Eagle began to stammer. "What's going on here? It wasn't him..."

"Commander Eagle! You won't believe this, the Black Hole forces in Blue Moon have managed to push into the country!" The Vector leader explained to him. "Drake just relayed it from the mainland."

Eagle turned his fighter back toward Green Earth with a face full of anger and hearing more about the Black Hole invasion from the north. He gritted his teeth and began to shake his head.

-Next Chapter: Countdown