Chapter nine: Prey
With a smile on her face, Ruby shuts and locks the door to her room and starts walking down the hall, excited for her day off. The young pilot turns a corner and throws open a set of double-doors, leading to the pilot common room. Ruby glances around and takes in all the usual sights, Yang playing a motion-controlled dancing videogame with a group of slack-jawed onlookers behind her, Blake and Sun making out on one of the couches, and Weiss watching it all disapprovingly.
Ruby slides up next to Weiss with a look of pure excitement on her face
"Hey there, Weiss! Ready to go?"
"Yup. Let's go."
Weiss takes a last look at the immaturity that surrounds her and the two make their way outside to the parking area. Ruby produces a set of keys from her pocket.
"I'll drive."
Weiss scoffs.
"Uh. You don't have a car."
Ruby makes eye contact with Weiss and her lips curl into a devilish grin.
"I sure don't. Now hop on"
Ruby gestures to Yang's motorcycle, Bumblebee and continues walking towards it. Weiss shakes her head rapidly and takes a step backwards.
"Nonono! I'm not getting on that deathtrap!"
"Weisssss, c'mon! Stop being a baby! You've flown an F-15 at Mach 2.7 like… 20 kilometers in the air! Why are you afraid of a 200-kilogram motorbike?!"
Weiss starts straightening her hair nervously seemingly without realizing.
"Well… it's just…You can't expect me to believe that you actually have a license to use that thing."
A very smug smile works its way onto Ruby's face as she unfurls her wallet, revealing a Vale motorcycle license. Weiss closes her eyes and lets out a sigh of defeat.
"Just gimmie the helmet."
Two minutes later, Ruby and Weiss are blasting down the long access road that leads from Vale AFB to the center of town. Ruby keeps the throttle steady, maintaining a speed of 130 kph while Weiss clutches onto her red-clad driver for dear life. Not wanting to give her passenger a heart attack, Ruby reduces her speed and turns off the access road, bringing her onto Vale's main street.
Ruby further reduces her speed and takes in the sight of Vale's many small shops and restaurants basking in the intense summer heat. Spotting their destination, Ruby makes a left turn and pulls into the parking lot of a restaurant called Cibo per la mente.
After finding a parking spot, Ruby dismounts the bike and casually removes her helmet, tossing it on the motorcycle's seat. A visibly shaking Weiss removes her helmet and takes a deep breath to calm herself before getting off the bike and catching up with Ruby. The two aviators throw open the doors and are greeted with the cool interior of the restaurant. Weiss glances around and takes note of the aged wood paneling, well-worn carpets and antique lighting fixtures synonymous with a mom and pop restaurant.
Ruby exchanges pleasantries with the hostess who then guides the pair to a table outside on the brick sidewalk, right near the street. Ruby and Weiss take their seats and place their orders, Penne alla vodka for Weiss and a 'Special Order' pizza for Ruby.
With their orders placed, Ruby leans her chair back and props her feet up on the metal barricade that separates the restaurant area from the rest of the sidewalk, much to Weiss' displeasure. Ruby relaxes and leans further back, enjoying the intense sunlight. After a minute of quiet, Ruby breaks the silence.
"Weiss… what do you think Cinder's play is? I can't seem to, well, get inside her headspace."
Surprised, Weiss thinks over the question carefully before responding.
"Looks like the classic greedy power grab to me. Usurp control quickly and cleanly then start taking out the competition systematically. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it with my father. Of course in our case we can effectively fight back, unlike all those poor companies now under the Shnee name."
With that last sentence, Weiss' face contorts slightly as she works her jaw from side to side, mentally berating herself for bringing up her family. Ruby nods and her voice suddenly quiets down.
"I just want to get a few punches in before the dust settles." Just then, a waitress walks by with a pair of large trays. Weiss smiles and turns to Ruby with a smile on her face.
"Well you can't fight on an empty stomach, eat up."
Ruby turns and sees her pizza, a huge mess of buffalo chicken, ranch dressing, multiple types of cheese, and bacon. The two girls look at the pizza and Ruby's face has a look of pure pleasure.
"Ohhhhhh baby, come to mama."
"Rubes, my arteries are getting clogged just looking at that thing."
Ruby grabs a slice without hesitation and takes a massive bite, savoring every bit of the highly caloric pizza. Weiss looks on both intrigued and appalled at the sight of Ruby enjoying one of her favorite foods. Ruby continues eating as if her life depended on it while Weiss delicately picks at her pasta, both disturbed and intrigued by watching Ruby eat.
After wolfing down two pizza slices in the span of five minutes, Ruby takes a big breath and relaxes slightly, leaning her chair back with a look of bliss on her face.
"Well, it looks like you're happy."
"I am in food-based heaven."
The two girls continue eating and talking about various topics for another 30 minutes, enjoying each other's company as well as the lovely weather. Just as Ruby finishes her fourth slice of pizza, her scrolls begin to buzz aggressively. Ruby pulls out her phone first and begins reading the message sent to her by Vale AFB's commander.
Suddenly, Ruby's expression hardens into a dead-serious glare as she looks up from her phone and makes eye contact with Weiss. The white-haired aviator pinches the bridge of her nose.
"Alright, lay it on me."
Ruby rises from her seat, and motions for Weiss to follow her. Weiss follows her friend through the restaurant and out the back door to where Bumblebee is parked. Ruby wastes no time in throwing on her helmet and tossing the spare helmet to Weiss. Before either of them mount the bike, Weiss grabs onto Ruby's arm and turns her around so that the two are making eye contact.
"Ruby! For god's sake explain what's going on!"
"There's a Tupolev Tu-160 bomber is on its way to Vale's coast. The bomber's two escorts just shot down a pair of F-16s and are heading straight for the mainland! I'm the fastest interceptor plane so I have to shoot it down! Now get on the bike!"
Both girls immediately hop on Bumblebee and Ruby starts the motorbike, engulfing the parking area in a high-pitched whine as the 998cc engine churns to life. Ruby pushes against the ground with her feet, moving the bike out of its parking space and into the center of the lot. Ruby then closes the throttle, pulls in the clutch, pushes downward on the shifter with her foot and guns the throttle.
Thanks to Bumblebee's incredible power to weight ratio and excellent tire grip, Ruby and Weiss are thrown forward at incredible speed. The pair feel a slight bump as the motorcycle drops from the sidewalk down to street level and starts accelerating again.
With whole-hearted determination burning at her very soul, Ruby squeezes the clutch and gives the shifter a small kick, shifting into second gear and accelerating to 100kph on the cramped public road. Weiss observes her friend masterfully weave in and out through the dense late-morning traffic, then shift to third gear and feel another surge of acceleration.
After only a few minutes of travel, Ruby spots the access road that leads to Vale AFB and turns hard, not bothering to let up on the throttle at all. Bumblebee is thrown into an aggressive skid to which Ruby steers into and counters beautifully. Now on the access road and only four kilometers from the base, Ruby forces Bumblebee through her gears until she reaches her final drive in sixth gear.
At 270 kilometers per hour, Weiss is both fascinated and terrified by the situation presented in front of her. Ruby's focus in controlling the bike is absolute, as if Bumblebee were an extension of her very body. Weiss watches the few trees that line the road blow by at lightning speed as she listens to the high-pitched whine of the bike's supercharger gulping down liter after liter of air to feed the combustion cycle in its engine.
Ruby starts decelerating the bike as the base approaches in an effort to make it to her unit's locker room as fast as possible. Upon seeing the proper building, Ruby lets up on the throttle and fully squeezes the brake handle, heating the disc brakes in both wheels to a dull orange glow. The instant the bike grinds to a halt, Ruby leaps off her driver's position and runs into her unit's locker room, leaving Weiss in a state of shock at the young pilot's huge amount of professionalism and dedication when confronted with such a desperate situation.
A minute later, Ruby bursts through the door, clad in her red and black space suit and starts running towards her YF-12. The young pilot's legs become a blur as she reaches her running speed of 33 kilometers per hour. With her plane coming into view, Ruby's ears pick up the massive roar of the YF-12's pair of J58 engines.
Ruby dons her helmet and seemingly flies up the stairs leading to the cockpit, landing perfectly in her seat. With Penny already onboard, the group of engineers on the ground remove the stairs, cables and fuel hoses from the YF-12. Ruby checks the pressure seals on her suit and keys her mic.
"Comm check, you there Penny?"
"I'm here Ruby, all pre-flight checks are already completed. Let's take her out."
With a small nudge of the throttles, the YF-12 lumbers forward toward the designated runway. Now that most of the adrenaline rush has subsided, Ruby calms down slightly and allows herself to think.
"Do we know anything about the escort planes?"
"Negative. None of the pilots were able to get a look at them and report in before they were shot down. We just need to avoid them."
Ruby soon reaches her designated runway and throws the throttles forward, producing a pair of 15-meter-long afterburner flames from the engines as the plane surges forward. Upon hitting proper takeoff speed, Ruby gently pulls back on the control stick, easing the huge plane into the air.
After a regular mid-air refueling and acceleration phase, Ruby and Penny are 24 kilometers in the air and moving at 3 times the speed of sound. Penny checks her radar screen and analyzes the data in an instant.
"Ruby, the enemy formation is 400 kilometers out and directly approaching us, we should be within firing range in two minutes."
"Got it. Get me a firing solution on all three of them."
"Hm, that's odd. It seems that one of the planes won't show up on our displays properly. Looks like a combination of stealth properties and electronic warfare equipment. Advanced stuff, too."
"Can you get radar lock-on?"
"I can but the chances of scoring a hit are fewer than one in 50."
"I like those odds!"
Several hundred kilometers away, Emerald Sustrai in her MiG-29K and Neo in her stolen F-35C continue escorting the Tu-160 bomber. Emerald glances at the F-35 and lets out a short, frustrated breath. It had been Neo's idea to peel off from the group and attack the pair of F-16s, whether it was to prevent it from revealing their location or for fun, she has no idea. Emerald takes a look at her radar screen and sees an incredibly fuzzy contact causing a huge amount of interference with her instruments.
Emerald reaches to the side of her helmet and keys her mic.
"Neo, can you see that contact causing all of that interference?"
Neo responds by using their computers data links to send a text message to Emerald's display.
Yes, its approaching fast, too.
"If it's a plane and not just some malfunction, it's probably an SR-71… Why the hell would they send a spy plane after us? If they had even half a brain in their skulls they would send more fighter planes."
Before either of the two can fully ignore the unknown radar contact, Neo's HUD starts alerting her to an incoming missile. In response, Neo rapid-fire types a message alerting her wingman to the danger. Emerald informs the crew of the bomber and checks her surroundings, seeing nothing at first before a missile nearly four meters long blows past Neo's F-35 at Mach 3 and continues downward at a 45-degree angle.
None of the three planes have time to react before a second missile impacts the Tu-160 and blows it cleanly in half with a third missile barely misses Emerald's MiG. Both Emerald and Neo are blinded by the massive explosion, their planes thrown sideways from the shockwave. Neo recovers from the blast very quickly and starts searching for her attacker while Emerald is thrown into nearly every aviator's worst nightmare, a flat spin.
Emerald's eyes feel as though they are in the back of her head as the MiG-29 spins violently out of control and begins plummeting toward the ground. The green-haired pilot's mind quickly becomes a jumbled mess of terrified thoughts and attempts at finding a solution for her current situation. Remembering a trick she once heard, Emerald lowers her landing gear and flaps, then pushes both engines to full throttle. The increased air resistance soon slows down the spin and allows Emerald to recover, albeit 5000 meters lower than when she started.
Back in the cockpit of the YF-12, a small grin has found its way onto Ruby's face. Her first ever air to air victory had gone off without a hitch thanks to her fantastic piloting skill as well as Penny's excellent judgment and intelligence.
"Nice work Penny! Let's head home, looks like the other two aren't too much of a problem."
"Erm, Don't be so sure. One of them is on an intercept course, altitude increasing at 150 meters per second."
Out of habit, Ruby grabs her throttles and pushes them forward almost all the way, accelerating the plane to 3.35 times the speed of sound. Penny does a series of quick calculations and keys her mic.
"It won't be enough to accelerate! No matter what we do the intercepting plane will end up in front of us in 30 seconds."
"Fine. Got any idea what type of plane it is?"
Penny goes silent for three seconds as she analyzes every scrap of data the YF-12's sensors have gathered on the enemy combatant.
"Definitely an F-35C. It was reported stolen off the Atlesian navy's Maiden class carrier."
"Okay, give me some more info on that plane! I need some way to beat it!"
"Well it was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics one and a half years ago, it cost the Vale Navy 110.8 million lien for procurement, It was flight tested and delivered on…"
For one of the few times in her life, Ruby almost completely loses her temper.
"GET TO THE POINT!"
"F-35s were never meant to fly this high, even as a desperation measure. Any higher and the engine and control surfaces could crap out, so to speak."
Ruby instantly pulls up in an effort to out-climb the F-35. The young pilot watches her altitude increase to 25 kilometers, then 26 and 27. Penny re-checks her radar and is incredibly pleased with the readouts.
"Good news! The F-35 just lost all its momentum and stalled. Oh, wait… It just fired off four AMRAAM missiles."
Ruby's HUD goes alive with missile warnings, prompting her to push her throttles to maximum and start losing altitude.
Penny keys her mic and her voice adopts an uncharacteristically nervous tone.
"Rubes, adjust your course. The atmosphere gets thicker the closer we get to the ground. At these speeds, we'll be vaporized."
"We just need to keep ahead of the missiles for a little while longer! The longer their engines burn, the more speed they lose, then we can just outrun them."
As the YF-12's altitude decreases even more, dozens of warning lights flash on Ruby's HUD and control board, warning her of excessive heat and pressure in the plane's most vital components. When the plane dips below 20 kilometers in altitude, the missiles lose their lock and fly off in random directions. Ruby barely has time to acknowledge her luck before Penny keys her mic in a hurry.
"Ruby! Altitude!"
Ruby immediately pulls back on her control stick, sending the YF-12 hurtling back toward the sky at Mach speed to safety.
15 kilometers below the YF-12, Neo re-gains control over her plane and links up with Emerald.
"No luck, right?"
Neo doesn't bother responding, choosing instead to look over at Emerald through her fighter's canopy. Even through the flight suit and helmet, Emerald can tell that Neo has an expression on her face that says 'No shit'.
"Fine then, follow me back to base. We'll deal with the consequences as they come."
Several hours later, Neo and Emerald find themselves in a darkly lit office in a Vacuo air force base in southern Saunus. Still clad in their flight suits, the two shift uncomfortably while waiting for the figure, clad in a red evening dress and heels, to start talking.
"Look, words won't accurately describe how mad I am. I want to hear your side of the story."
Emerald wipes a thin line of sweat off of her forehead and clears her throat.
"We took off, we escorted the bomber, I spotted two Vale F-16s Neo here moved to engage and shot them down."
Cinder turns to Neo and her eyes narrow, leaving her pale orange irises barely visible.
"Why did you feel the need to attack the two fighters? Was there any sort of reason to engage them and draw attention to yourself like that?"
Neo responds with a cutesy smile and her trademark silence.
Cinder sighs and stands up from her chair. She stands directly in front of Emerald and jabs her index finger directly above the green-haired pilot's breastbone.
"If you fuck up like that again, I… I don't know what I'm gonna do. I though this little team I put together was worth something! All it's gotten me is Mercury killed and billions of lien worth of aircraft destroyed. Not to mention what happened to Salem!"
"Uhm, weren't you going to have Salem killed anyway. Isn't that your plan to get absolute control?"
Cinder's expression hardens and she stands up from her desk, then walks past Emerald and Neo and out the door.
"Just make sure this doesn't happen again."
