International Space Elevator, Gunther Bay
October 31, 2019

The last volley of Helios missiles rumbled across the bay, shaking our aircraft and giving a fireworks show to the people watching from the nearby city on the coast. As the last of the shockwaves passed us, I could see our radars had been cleared. Despite the coalition taking a handful of losses in the battle, I could see that all the remaining Radical aircraft and their drone escorts had been splashed. That only left us with one final target, and the other reason we had all come today. Before I could turn my attention to that task, I got an urgent call from Avril down below in the Lighthouse. She spoke with an uneasy tone in her voice, "Trigger... I don't know how to say this, but the princess has just locked us out of the maintenance shaft and means to disable the tower by herself. I can't believe that dumbass girl would do that!"

My stomach dropped at the thought. What the hell was Rosa thinking? Did she have a death wish or something? Couldn't she leave that sort of thing to the rest of us pilots outside? It was insane enough trying to take on the Arsenal Bird in an all out battle in the air. Perhaps Rosa wanted to do her part and not risk everyone else below: Avril, Tabloid, and the Shilage girls. Maybe she wanted to continue making up for her past mistakes in starting this war. Whatever the reason, there was little I could do right now. "I hear you Avril... but we're going to be launching the final attack on the Arsenal Bird soon. However you guys are going to knock out the tower's capabilities, it's up to you. I trust you to do your jobs, just like I'm going to do mine up here."

"Wilco," Avril nodded gravely, "You and Count stay safe up there okay? Wish us luck. We'll see you soon... I hope."

The line cut out as some new calls came in from an Osean naval task force which had just entered the waters of the bay. The small fleet of missile destroyers had primed their cruise missile launchers to add their firepower in the coming attack and we could only pray it would be enough. "All coalition units, the Arsenal Bird is approaching. Prepare for saturation attack!"

I turned my head and angled my Raptor over as the rest of the remaining fighters gathered together to face our new foe. In the distance, I could see the behemoth Arsenal Bird arrive on the battlefield. It seemed to materialize from a thick white cloud bank and churn toward us with a slow relentless purpose. This had not been the first time I had seen one of those things, yet every time it filled my heart with fear and dread. The monstrous leviathan of the skies bore down on the allied forces casting its menacing shadow over the ocean waters below it. It was now or never and we were determined to survive. Although we couldn't muster the same single concentrated attack that took down the other Arsenal Bird at Stonehenge, we would have to pray that this would be enough.

I could already hear the countdown start as our combined naval and air forces lined up into formations and pushed forward. My palms grew sweaty inside my gloves as I armed my missiles and prepared to fire. Once the radar locks went red, every coalition unit let loose a salvo of missiles at the flying monster. Close to a hundred missiles streaked through the air from our fighters while several scores of cruise missiles were launched from the ships below. Smoke trails filled the sky in a strangely beautiful sight as our projectiles cruised across the blue seas and skies hoping to strike home on their target. As expected, the Arsenal Bird powered its defensive force shields and quickly encased itself within its protective blue bubble of energy.

We watched with wide eyes as the unified hail of missiles struck the Arsenal Bird and lit up the skies in a dazzling series of bright fiery explosions. Much like the Helios missiles, our attack shook the bay with a thunderous roar and momentarily blinded us with the sheer force of the ferocious assault. We held our breaths and felt our blood run cold as the large winged form emerged from the blinding cloud of smoke and fire. We felt our stomachs drop while fear gripped our hearts as we realized the force shields had in fact held! Even after that massive bombardment, the mighty Arsenal Bird hadn't been scratched at all!

One by one, flight leaders and ship commanders spoke over each other in dread relaying the bad news of our failed attack. I blinked several times trying to focus and think of a new plan when I heard Long Caster speaking in my ear, "This is AWACS Long Caster to all allied aircraft, I'm picking up multiple blips on my scope. Damn! There's a lot of them!"

"Here they come," Count said grimly as he watched a massive cloud of UAV drones being deployed from the bottom of the Arsenal Bird.

"That's somethin' all right," Huxian agreed as we formed up to meet the onslaught of the enemy counter-attack.

No sooner had the drone fighters got into range, we were shocked by one more terrifying surprise. We watched as powerful concentrated laser beams were fired from some of the Arsenal Bird's mounted cannons at the fleet below. Several warships were caught in the blast and immolated or sliced clean in half. Huxian surprised us all by exclaiming her own vulgar outrage, "Lasers? Who the fuck was the genius who decided to arm that thing with lasers?"

"Missile destroyer ships Drake and Lark are sunk," came some allied chatter, "Flagship Starling has been heavily damaged in the attack!"

By now, the UAVs were swarming us and the battle in the air became a free for all. Strider Squadron and I twisted and corkscrewed around to avoid collisions while we fired our own laser pulse cannons to cut a path through the swarm. It did little good though. Several drones went down from our hail of laser bolts but more just seemed to keep coming and taking their place.

"Strider Squadron, evasive maneuvers! Break! Break!" I shouted peeling off and trying to roll clear while Count followed suit and stayed on my wing.

"Righto. Can you believe that firepower? I for one did not expect that."

Long Caster interrupted and tried to signal regional HQ, "HQ, we have a problem The Arsenal Bird is packing some serious firepower and the fleet is getting torn apart. Please advise!"

"The Bird's APS worked all too well. Let's try to set up a new saturation attack," came the reply over the comms.

It was clear that was wishful thinking. The air battle had devolved into a chaotic mess of missiles and individual dogfights against the swarming drones. I pulled a tight turn and did a half roll to barely evade some stray fire while I tried desperately to maintain some kind of awareness of my squadron's relative positions. Several allied fighters from the Useans and Eruseans launched a second volley of missiles at the Arsenal Bird, but they were again stopped dead in their tracks by the force shield. With the battle going poorly out here, I could only hope my other friends were having better luck at the space elevator.


Meanwhile, Avril picked up a tablet and pulled up schematics of the Lighthouse before trying to reach Rosa on the comm line. much to her relief, she was able to hack into the systems and monitor the princess's progress as she rode the turbolift up to one of the higher levels. "Cossette! Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Rosa answered in surprise, "Avril, I'm sorry but..."

"Never mind that. I'm going to try and guide you through the job here but you have to hurry! Trigger and the others are fighting the Arsenal Bird outside and they won't be able to hold out forever while its shields are up."

Rosa nodded and reached the right level on an upper floor of the elevator, "Okay. I understand."

The Princess took her toolbox and hurried into one of the empty main rooms with several monitors and computers before looking around. Avril spoke up, "Cossette, that's not the control room. Go through the airlock and get to the secondary maintenance elevator. From there, head to the top of the windbreak. You're going to need a pressurized suit and..."

"I see it," Rosa said as she opened a closet and removed a pressure suit, "Just give me a minute."

The princess looked out the window and saw a ferocious air battle being waged in the distance between the Arsenal Bird and its swarming drones vs the faltering coalition. She knew she had to hurry and that fear drove her to change into the suit faster. She reluctantly shrugged off Trigger's jacket and zipped up the form fitting suit before securing her pressurized helmet and gathering her things. Just as Avril instructed, she headed out of a nearby airlock and got on the secondary service elevator which would take her the rest of the way to her objective. She already felt much more exposed in the cold open air and she tried not to think about just how high she probably was already. She kept her mind focused on saving her people and on helping Trigger and the others in their battle.


Across the bay, the air battle continued to devolve as we began to fight a losing battle against the Arsenal Bird. We were no longer on the offensive, but just staying alive and buying time until HQ could come up with a better plan. I winced as an Osean fighter exploded above me and the resulting fire and shrapnel raked the top of my Raptor. I was jostled violently and struggled to steady my aircraft before veering away from another drone. "Damn it! We're sitting ducks out here!"

"Trigger is right," Long Caster called over the comms, "HQ, conventional weapons aren't working and all the ace pilots in the world aren't going to save us unless we have a plan!"

"Give us time... we'll see what we can do," was the only reply.

"That's it? You've got to be joking! They're only just thinking about this now?" Count spat incredulously.

I watched in growing dread as the Arsenal Bird sailed closer toward the Lighthouse and I knew we had to try and intercept it. The problem was, we had literally thrown the kitchen sink at the enemy and it still wasn't enough. As we neared, I heard some more chatter being picked up. It sounded like Cossette... she was coordinating with Avril and probably doing something really dangerous?

"I can see a lightbulb shaped thing... but it isn't lit up," the princess said while holding a large wrench.

"That's it! That's the location marker!' Avril said excitedly, "You have it from there, girl. Smash it! Smash all six of those bastards!"

"Isn't there something we can do to help?" I heard Jaeger cut in to me amidst the chaos, "We can't just sit back and play defense forever."

Count growled, "When is that shield going to lose power?"

"Never," Wit of Sol Squadron answered over our line, "The orbital elevator is constantly supplying it with energy."

"Then what should we do?" Huxain demanded with fear and desperation creeping into her normally confident voice.

Count smiled as he throttled up and buzzed by the periphery of the Arsenal Bird in defiance, "Calm down Lin. I'll do something about it."

"Eugene? Hey! What are you going to do?"

I watched as my friend circled the Bird in daring swoops and wondered if he had finally cracked... if maybe he had finally lost his mind.

I could hear Cossette panting and grunting over the comm as she raised her heavy wrench and began to smash the markers one by one.

"Damn shield! Just go away!" Count shouted. *SMASH!*

"Begone!" *SMASH!*

"Disappear!" *SMASH!*

Huxian smacked the side of her helmet incredulously, "Have you lost your damn mind? Gone cuckoo, Count?"

"Away with you!" he shouted furiously at the Arsenal Bird. *SMASH!*

To everyone's astonishment, the energy shield protecting the Arsenal Bird began to flicker and dissipate before dissolving away completely. All of us among the coalition forces stared in wide eyed shock before I pointed, "Everyone, look!"

Huxian gave a giddy laugh, "Ha! I could kiss you Count! Just what kind of crazy magic did you work there you asshole?"

"Heh... it worked!" he replied with a dry laugh, "Just like I planned it. Now's our chance! Do it Trigger!"

I throttled my Raptor forward at full speed and gave an exhilarated grin while bringing all my weapons systems to bear, "Copy that. Strider Squadron on me! Let's do this everyone!"

I was met with a cheer as our five Raptors formed up into a perfect flying V and plowed forward, unloading a devastating barrage of laser bolts and missiles into the Arsenal Bird's propeller system. Finally, our weapons struck home and began to damage the monstrous aircraft. It looked like the beast could be hurt after all!

As power was cut to the Arsenal Bird, its UAV drones also began to lose power and altitude as their systems became scrambled. By now, Avril, Tabloid, Schroeder, and the Shilage girls had gotten outside the tower to head to an access point for the underground tunnels. Avril stared with wide eyes at the battle above her, "Holy shit! Are you seeing this? The drones are falling one after the other! They've completely lost control!

Up above, Strider Squadron and I continued to pummel the Arsenal Bird in a furious assault. One by one, its propellers and outer weapons systems were mangled and ruined by focus fired missiles, laser bolts, and bullets. Lanza was already on the edge of his seat whooping with excitement, "All right! Not bad! Not bad!"

As the other coalition fighter swooped in and added some fire, Long Caster chimed in, "Everyone. I think we've found a way to take down the Bird for good. We have to hit it at its core. If you can destroy the docking modules, the energy supply unit will break off the Arsenal Bird and leave its interior open to attack. If you can light that section on fire, we can flash fry that turkey and cook it whole.

Sol 2 butted in over our comm, "Easier said than done. Those modules are going to be extremely hard to hit, even for an experienced pilot!"

"You're forgetting who we've got on our side," Count corrected him with a smile, "We've got an ace among aces here. You ready to do this Trigger?"

I gave a tense grin and pulled my Raptor around for another pass, "I'm on it. Count, you're with me. Cover my rudder!"

I throttled up and swooped in at a sharp angle unloading a barrage of laser fire into the rear ventral tail of the Arsenal Bird. As I blasted away at the thick armored sections that Long Caster marked for me, Count buzzed around and kept me protected from any other drones who dared to get near.

"Don't get distracted Trigger!" he called to me, "Just focus on what you need to do! Let me cover you and worry about the rest."

"Wilco!" I answered gratefully to my wingman as I kept firing away and hammering at the weak points. I could hear my warning sensors blaring telling me some enemies had locks on me, but I'd put my faith in Count and the others to shield me, "Strider Squadron, press the attack! Keep firing and don't let up!"

Over the comms, I could hear some allied units join in behind the Striders, "All Erusean fighters, fall in behind Three Strikes and follow his lead!"

Back on the grounds of the Lighthouse, Osean and Erusean troops retreated to the safety of the tower or to other landing craft as the UAV drones began to lose power and plummet from the skies like a rain of dead birds. Avri, Tabloid, and the others rushed toward the pedestrian entrance to the underground tunnel but found that it had been sealed up by an auto-lock security system. Dr. Schroeder fumbled at the controls and tried to override it but to no avail, "Damn! The thing is locked! I don't have time to to crack this!"

Tabloid scanned the grounds before his eyes found a small helipad some distance away with a transport chopper. "Over there! We can use that to get clear of this whole war zone!"

"And who's going to fly that thing? You?" Avril asked quickly.

"Yes me!" Tabloid insisted, "We don't have time to argue Avril! Let's get these young ladies to safety!"

As their group broke from cover and began their long sprint across the grounds, Avril gave a panicked cry as she pointed to the air, "Look out! More drones are falling!"

Ionela began to panic as she pulled her sister along and Avril pressed forward, "Hey! Just stay calm! You want to get yourselves killed?"

Before the teenager could answer, her hand slipped and Alma took a spill on the ground. Tabloid immediately turned around and headed back to fetch her. Avril shouted in fear as the drones continued to rain down around them, "Tabloid! Steven! Get back here!"

"I'm not going to let this little girl die!" he shouted back as he scooped her up in his arms and began to rush forward as fast as his bad leg would carry him.

Avril kept sprinting with the others and called behind her in desperate frustration, "Just hurry! Run! Run!"

From the top of the tower, even Rosa had picked up the desperation of Avril over the open comm line and asked, "Is everything okay? The drones are acting strangely."

As the others neared the helipad, Avril turned just in time to see a drone fall from the sky and land right behind Tabloid as he struggled to keep up. He grimaced in pain and exhaustion from running on his bad leg and he gripped Alma tightly as the drone exploded behind him kicking up a cloud of smoke, dirt, and wreckage. Avril's eyes went wide and she screamed in horror as she went back to find her friend, "No! Tabloid!"

She let the cloud of debris wash over her and allowed the shockwave to pass before pushing on again. She searched through the blinding mess shouting for Tabloid when she heard some coughing and muffled crying. As the smoke cleared, Avril bent down to see Tabloid lying on the ground motionless while still shielding Alma from harm with his body. Avril pulled the girl free and comforted her for a moment before reaching out to Tabloid. She rolled him over and desperately began to pat his cheek, wiping away some grime as he continued to lie still, "Tabloid! Steven! Hey, speak to me! If you die here, I'm going to be so pissed at you, and so will Trigger."

To Avril's sudden relief, she felt Tabloid stir and give a sputtering cough. He cracked his eyes open slightly and forced a weak smile to her, "Avril... haven't you learned our motto? We stick with Trigger and we'll make it, remember?"

Avril almost broke out into tears as she gave a relieved smile, "You're damn right we will."

"I thought I was going to die when I crashed my Mirage back then. I couldn't let a crashing drone kill me instead."

Avril laughed and surprised him by bending down to plant a big heartfelt kiss on his lips. When they finally parted she spoke quietly, "You damn fool, quit with the heroics and let's get out of here."

By now, Ionela had come to collect her sister while Avril helped Tabloid rise and make it the rest of the way. Avril messaged Rosa with a flushed face, "Cossette... everything is fine. I think... no, I know we're going to be fine."

As the drama continued to unfold on the ground, the coalition forces began to circle and close in around the wounded Arsenal Bird as it put up its last stand. As I continued to fire my pulse cannons, I could see that they were starting to overheat, but now was the time to throw caution to the wind. We didn't have the time to let up. The blue laser bolts from my Raptor pummeled the underside of the Arsenal Bird and finally sheared away the thick armor plates that held the support structures for the Bird's power supply. In one great blast, the module collapsed and Long Caster gave a cheer, "That's it! Targets are destroyed! You should be able to see the rectennea where the supply unit fell off."

As I broke off and angled in for one final pass, I could already see a large central chunk of the Arsenal Bird fall apart and plummet to the ocean in a plume of smoke and flames. The central core of the Bird was finally exposed. I swooped in from overhead in a rolling dive and armed my last two missiles, letting them both fly with a shout, "Strider 1, Fox 2!"

The missiles flew true and struck home in the heart of the Arsenal Bird. I almost felt like one of those knights from the myths who had just lanced a terrible flying dragon through the heart as a great blast erupted from the airship's core. It belched a thick cloud of black smoke as the propellers sputtered to a halt and the dying Bird lost power. I pulled free of the enemy's flight path as I heard a chorus of cheers from the coalition forces and watched as the mighty Arsenal Bird began to lose altitude. While it continued to sink in the skies, a series of secondary explosions detonated from within and tore though the hull of the monstrous beast in gouts of searing fire.

Long Caster gave an equally jubilant cheer as he confirmed the kill, "Direct hit confirmed on the Arsenal Bird! Target is going down! I repeat, the target is going down!"

"This will be a hell of a story to tell my son," Jaeger agreed as the rest of the Striders formed up on my wings. We kept our distance and watched together as the flaming leviathan plummeted from the skies and crashed into the open ocean waters.

A colossal plume of water and smoke crested upward as the Arsenal Bird met it fiery end and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Count couldn't help but give a small smug grin of satisfaction, "Man, even in death that thing is still intimidating."

I sent a call out to Avril on the ground and flipped up my helmet's visor, "Mission accomplished! Avril, Tabloid, we're coming home!"

Avril gave deep sigh of relief as she sat in the chopper with Tabloid. He began to power up the aircraft to get the others back home and started to finish his pre-flight check. "Copy that Trigger. Thank God. We'll see you soon."

She then looked up and radioed Rosa who was still stranded up on the elevator, "Cossette? Wait there, Princess. We'll get you down."

"Don't worry about me. Please just take care of Ionela and Alma for me. I'll parachute down," Rosa answered as she strapped in an emergency parachute that she recovered from the lift. The princess walked out to the edge of the tower's outer catwalk and took several deep breaths to steady herself. She had gone skydiving once or twice before when she was younger, but never like this. She was up so high at this vantage point and she almost swore that she could see half of the Usean continent from here. She took a few more steadying breaths and prepared to steel herself to jump when she caught movement out the corner of her eye. She looked out over the distant skies and spotted two strange aircraft with dark markings and sharp angles on their design. "What?"

Were those the two renegade drones that Ionela and Dr. Schroeder told them about? The ones that had killed Moretti and posed a threat from the other factories that were ready to replicate them? If that wasn't an impetus to jump and escape, Rosa didn't know what was. She spread out her arms and closed her arms before leaping off the platform in a graceful swan dive. As she plummeted she saw a flight of Osean F-22s enter the airspace. It looked to be Strider Squadron led by Trigger.

From my cockpit, I spotted the distant figure of Rosa diving off the Lighthouse just as Long Caster signaled a new warning to us. "Strider Squadron, two unidentified bogeys have entered the air space. It looks like their weapon systems are armed."

I could see the two strange black fighters angle in toward the falling form of Rosa and my heart stopped beating for a moment. It looked like those fighters meant to intercept her and even attack. I could already hear Count and Lanza in my ear.

"Trigger? Those guys look like bad news."

"Boss, do something!"

I saw one of the bogeys fire a missile directly at Rosa and I knew what I had to do. Without a second thought, I throttled my Raptor forward as fast as it's thrusters could go, "No! Cossette! Look out!"

The princess turned her head in shock just in time to see the errant missile screaming through the air directly at her. She gave a panicked shriek of fear before I followed the example of Tabloid and interposed my plane at the last moment. Every Osean pilot who was present held their collective breaths and I heard my squadmates shout in alarm, seconds before the missile impacted my fighter plane in a fiery blast.

"Trigger!"