Hello everyone, I just wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for the lack of updates. Recently I have been completely swamped with School, Work and other responsibilities. I promise that I will make an effort to push out more updates in the future. As usual, I absolutely thrive on your comments and ideas so please don't hesitate to let me know if there is something I can do to improve the story. Enjoy!
Chapter seven: The Best-laid Plans
A week after her first training flight in the YF-12, Ruby is laying down on the couch in one of the smaller planning rooms early in the morning with sunlight streaming in through the small window. Yang, Weiss, Blake and Coco are standing around a large table covered in maps, diagrams and inventory lists. Twelve hours previous, the small group was tasked with determining a short-term plan of action as well as strike targets.
Weiss rubs her eyes and says to the group "Alright, we've been at this all night long, do we have anything resembling a conclusion?" An exhausted Yang replies "Yeah, we are spreading ourselves a bit too thin and we have to start hitting more ground targets." Coco nods and says "Exactly, I dunno what idiot thought it was a good idea to hold back on initial bombings. But anyway, we need to fill this gap."
Ruby scoffs and says from the couch "Easy, all we need is more planes to do strike missions." Blake chuckles and says "Ruby, do you know that it costs 20 million lien for a single F-16, right?" The young huntress groans and says "Whatever, we've got a solution for now. Let's just go to bed."
Ruby gets up off the couch and the group begins clearing the table of important documents. Just as the girls are ready to leave, Weiss' scroll begins blaring loudly. The heiress opens her phone and stops in her tracks. Reading the message over several times, Weiss says wide-eyed "Oh…This is bad." Cautiously, Coco asks "How bad?" Weiss turns the scroll toward the rest of the group, revealing the image of Salem's battered corpse amongst a large pile of explosive debris.
For several seconds, the girls are in complete shock before Yang says, on the verge of panic "Oh we are so fucked. Cinder is going to have our heads for this!" Blake says to Weiss in a shaking voice "H-how?" Weiss shuts the scroll and says in a somber voice "One of our cruise missiles hit a small building we thought was a warehouse. Guess it was actually where Salem was operating from."
Silence envelops the room a second time before Coco says "Guys, we have a very unique opportunity here. If we take out Cinder…somehow in the next day or so, the enemy leadership will have no way to recover and we can end the war almost instantly."
Weiss, being the highest-ranked officer in the room replies "Absolutely not. We can't risk aircraft and people with such little planning." Blake sighs and says "We have to re-think everything now. Cinder is going to retaliate in some horrendous way and we need to be prepared."
The girls immediately begin putting their documents and maps back where they were on the table, knowing that a complete re-work of their strategy is required. Just as work resumes, a Vacuo long-range ballistic missile crashes into one of the hangars and vaporizes three B-1 bombers, including team JNPR's. Luckily, the hangar is abandoned, hurting nobody.
A second missile strikes the base of the control tower, ripping out a large chunk of material and nearly causing the building to collapse completely. People continue running to their defensive positions in a mass panic. Suddenly, the sultry and seductive female voice of Cinder Fall comes over the base loudspeakers, stopping everyone in their tracks.
The voice announces "Hope you all enjoyed my little presents. There will be more where that came from if you pull a stunt like that again. I won't forget this."
An hour later, with the danger gone, the inhabitants of Vale AFB leave their defensive positions and resume their regular activities. Having put the time spent waiting in the bunker to good use, Weiss searches for Blake, holding a piece of paper detailing a strike mission Coco described previously. Upon arriving at Blake's room, Weiss knocks on the door and hears "Come in!"
Weiss opens the door and immediately shuts and locks it behind her, the heiress says in a hushed tone "Blake, I've thought about Coco's suggestion about hitting Cinder as soon as possible and I got a plan for how to do it."
Blake's ears perk up and she asks with a slight smile "How do we do it?" Weiss sighs and says "You are not going to like it, the plan involves sneaking into heavily defended enemy airspace with no recon assets or electronic warfare assistance, bombing the enemy positions as much as we can before sending in paratroopers to… take care of things."
Blake thinks for a minute and says "That is the dumbest idea I've ever heard." Weiss replies "Well, we have a few aces up our sleeves. First, we can use the B-2s as the bombers with either F-22s or F-35s as escorts. As for the paratroopers, a C-17 will have to do, sitting duck or not." Blake lets out a sigh and says "Okay, if command approves it then that should be that. Might even volunteer for the escort role if I get the chance."
Weiss smiles back at Blake and says "To be honest, I am eager to get back at those bastards, thinking they can just attack us like that." Blake quickly agrees and Weiss walks out the door.
Sixteen hours later, Blake is woken up by the printer on her computer desk springing to life. Blake rubs her eyes and walks over to the printer, seeing that a single page of plain text was printed. The cat Faunus grabs the paper and begins reading.
Major Blake Belladonna
This is a TOP SECRET message from Atlas high command
Report to your aircraft in one hour with full mission equipment
Operation codename: STARLESS NIGHT
The objective of this operation is to provide cover for a task force consisting of four B-2 Spirits and one C-17 Globemaster tasked with the assassination of Cinder Fall. Additional briefing information will be provided en route to objective. Your callsign for this operation is Bodyguard 01.
NOTE: Failure to maintain absolute secrecy for this operation will result in LIFE IMPROSONMENT
DESTROY THIS PAPER
Now fully awake, Blake says under her breath "Huh, I can't believe Weiss convinced Ironwood to go for this." The cat Faunus rubs her eyes and rips the paper into shreds before flushing the pieces down the toilet.
Blake quickly assembles her flight gear and heads out her door, toward the hangars. While walking, the cat Faunus takes occasional glances out the window and notices the lack of the shattered moon, the low amount of light allowing for nearly perfect stealth.
Upon arriving at her F-22, Blake finds the hangar completely empty, except for one figure dressed in black, with pure white hair and a black facemask. Blake snickers and approaches the figure, saying "You know, being inconspicuous isn't your specialty, Weiss."
Weiss pulls the mask off, saying with a shocked expression" Oh no. Ironwood picked you?" Blake simply nods in response. Weiss sighs and says "I didn't want to put you into this kind of danger, Ironwood said that he would make the right decision!" Blake rests a hand on Weiss' shoulder and says "Don't worry. This is where I want to be."
Weiss nods and says "Okay… Anyway, here are the basics. As mentioned in our little note, you are going to be flying escort for the bombers and troop transport. You are going to have another Raptor in the air with you, the designation is Bodyguard 02. Your plane has its standard air to air loadout. Don't do anything that even has a chance of ruining your stealth, the capital of Vacuo has more anti-air weapons than any place in the world."
Blake nods and exhales, saying "Do you have any ideas for what to do about the C-17? It is not stealthy at all and it has all of our troops on board." Weiss responds "Well, we got our hands on some fake I.D. tags for aircraft to make the C-17 look like a civilian airliner. It's not perfect but it'll do." Blake closes her eyes, silently contemplating the information before saying "Ok. Got it."
Weiss smiles slightly and says "I don't need to tell you how dangerous this is but… please be safe." Blake surprises Weiss by wrapping the white-haired girl into a tight hug. The two embrace before Blake says grinning "Anyway, I should go. Wars don't end themselves."
Fifteen minutes later, Blake is in the air, following a loose formation in her F-22. Blake uses her near-perfect night vision to survey the four stealth bombers, cargo plane, as well as the other escort fighter. The pilot of the lead B-2 announces "Okay everyone, the op is live. Stealth up and tighten the formation, I don't want anybody getting lost."
The other planes acknowledge the leader and close the formation, leaving little room to maneuver. Blake checks her instruments and disables her radar as well as most of her external communications, leaving almost nothing to be detected by enemy systems.
As the group advances on the target area, Blake hears her radio crackle with the voice of her wingman "Bodyguard 01, you there?" Annoyed, Blake responds "What's up 02? We're supposed to keep radio use down to a minimum." The wingman says "I know, but this mission feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the attack earlier today." Blake sighs and says "I'm aware. Let's just worry about getting the troops and bombs on the ground." Blake's wingman simply acknowledges the cat Faunus.
After another hour of flight, the group is only a few kilometers outside the Vacuo capital city. Blake takes a large breath and cautiously into her mic "Okay, this is it everybody. Ground leader, what's your status?" The commanding yet calm voice of Winter Shnee replies "All 102 paratroopers are set to go. I'll alert you upon reaching the drop zone. Then we'll… do our thing." Blake acknowledges Winter and thinks to herself "Weiss is going to lose her mind if she finds out Winter got picked to lead this."
The lead B-2 soon announces "Everybody, this is it! Releasing ordnance in five!" Blake instinctively checks her instruments should the need to either fight or run arrive. "Four!" Blake tightens the grip on her controls as the bay doors of the stealth bombers open. "Three!" Blake glances backward at the last B-2 in the formation, just in time to see the bomber aircraft get struck by an air to air missile.
Blake screams "CONTACT CONTACT CONTACT!" into the radio as the already crippled bomber gets hit twice more. In one swift motion, Blake activates her radar as well as her weapon systems. She sees two unidentified aircraft on her radar, instantly recognizing them as a pair of SU-35s.
The lead B-2 pilot shouts "Everyone release their ordnance now! Paratroopers! You're going to have to jump now and improvise your way to the objective!" Blake immediately says "02, help me fry those SU-35s! We gotta take them from afar, stay on my tail!"
The pair of F-22s lose some altitude and increase their speed greatly, hoping to add momentum to their missiles upon releasing them. Hardly containing her fury, Blake shouts "On my mark, we'll fire off six AMRAAMs, splitting them between the two…Mark!" Both planes release six missiles each, immediately honing in on their respective targets. One of the SU-35s is hit multiple times and vaporized while the second fighter manages to escape unscathed.
Blake hears over the radio "01 we need to fry the second SU-35 before he comes around for another attack run!" Blake calmly says "Negative, we need to save missiles if more fighters arrive. Either way, he's on afterburners in the opposite direction he came from, he won't be bothering us again." A moment of silence follows before the cat Faunus quietly says to the enemy dot on her radar "I won't shoot you in your retreating back."
The pilot of the SU-35 wipes sweat off his brow with a shaking hand as he carefully watches the near-invisible specks of light on his radar. He takes a deep breath and says to himself, attempting to contain his emotions "Why'd it have to be us sent up tonight." After sufficiently calming himself, he says into his radio "Command! We have allied fighters and bomber aircraft headed toward the capitol building in the center of the city! Send whoever's available and alert city defense!"
With tired eyes, Blake carefully surveys the three remaining B-2s as they release their large inventories of air to surface missiles. 30 seconds after releasing, Blake looks to the ground and sees numerous bright flashes across the city as the missiles find their mark, destroying anti-air weapons, troop encampments and everything in between.
The lead B-2 pilot says angrily "Ground leader! What's the holdup?! You need to jump now otherwise all this will be for nothing!" Winter responds "We're opening the cargo doors now! We'll be on our way in fifteen-OH SHIT!" Blake snaps her attention to the C-17 as an R-77 air to air missile impacts the cockpit and detonates, effectively decapitating the troop transport.
As the C-17 begins to fall from the sky, all 102 paratroopers flood out of the plane in a large group. Now sufficiently scared, Blake directs her attention back to her radar screen and sees four very small dots, T-50 PAK-FAs. The cat Faunus keeps her cool and says "02… We've got four T-50s on an intercept course. We're breaking off immediately!" The second F-22 pilot replies "No way! We need to keep the bombers safe!"
Now ticked off, Blake says "I'm not losing another aircraft! Get your ass into formation and stealth up!" Blake's wingman yells back "We'll be sitting ducks! We need to fight back!" An infuriated Blake shouts "We are leaving with or without you 02!" to which she gets the response "Fine." Before the cat Faunus can respond, the second F-22 peels away from the group and the pilot briefly says "Just go… I'll buy you some time." before shutting off the radio.
Tears form in Blake's eyes as her F-22 and the three remaining B-2s turn and peel off toward home. Blake looks at her radar screen a final time and sees five incredibly small dots swarming around each other like a group of fireflies before seeing one of the dots vanish, then two, then a third disappears, prompting the two remaining PAK-FAs smooth out their flight and one of them to begin heading toward the bomber group.
With an incredibly choked up voice, Blake says "Everyone had better be stealthed up, one of them is heading back towards us." The bombers acknowledge Blake as the Saunus fighter begins trailing Blake's F-22. The cat Faunus thinks "How is it following me?! All my stealth systems are up…engine heat, that's gotta be it!"
Blake grabs her throttles and yanks them all the way back to their base positions, shutting down both of the F-22's engines. Blake keeps her aircraft in a controlled glide as the now-confused enemy pilot begins surveying the area, getting close enough that Blake can see the enemy plane. The Faunus pilot takes a good look at the PAK-FA and sees that the plane is coated in a red and black digital camouflage with a pair of oddly painted spikes on either side of the cockpit that almost look like… Bull horns.
Blake's eyes go wide and the Faunus pilot lets out a short scream before covering her mouth and letting tears fall freely from her eyes. As the hostile plane begins giving up on its search for the F-22, Blake says almost silently "Why did it have to be Adam?" With all options for tracking the F-22 exhausted, Adam peels off and disappears into the night.
After several hours of flying, the end of the disastrous mission is almost within reach. Blake's radio comes to life with Winter's hushed voice saying "All allied forces in the area, this is Winter Shnee, please respond." Blake un-mutes her mic and says "This is Major Blake Belladonna, go, Winter."
Winter replies "We're going to have to bug out for this mission, the entire capitol city is under complete lockdown and I don't think we can make it to the target. They've got tanks, artillery, air support and several companies worth of ground troops. We need a full evac as fast as possible, please relay to Allied central command, Major." Blake acknowledges Winter and relays her message as instructed.
Upon landing, just after sunrise, Blake nervously clambers down the ladder adjacent to her F-22 and removes her helmet. Blake gazes across the airfield and notices five A-10 Warthogs fully loaded for air to surface combat queuing for takeoff. Amongst the group is Coco in the lead with Yang bringing up the rear. Blake lets out an exhale and says to herself as the planes take off "Please be safe."
