The Ribbon

by Blaze118

Six years before the Demons of Razgiz ruled the skies over Yuktobania and Belka, a lone ace was known to the world only by his call sign; Mobius 1. With a heart full of anger and a lost will to live, he must face his own demons to learn what it means to be alive and human. I recommend reading my other story, The Aces of Razgriz first.

20. Shattered Skies

Fun Fact: I based this mission on one of my Battlefield 3 Air Superiority games where I went 41 and 2 (People don't have skill using anything other than using Heat Seeking missiles and teammates don't know how to look for their own goddamn target). I was only using my gun and rocket pods through the entire match.

Chapter 19 – Shattered Skies

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 1345hrs Wesson, Osea

I met with Neil and Brenda in the public library. I had them leave their phones in their car and disabled the Wi-Fi on my laptop so that we could talk without anyone watching us. We rented one of the study rooms that were soundproof and made sure that there was no way for anyone to watch us. Both of my friends were weary of my paranoia, but I needed their help. Once everything was set, I opened my laptop and tried opening the data that the General had Miranda steal.

"This isn't going to get us arrested, is it?" asked Neil.

"I'll make sure that you two aren't going to get caught," I said.

"That doesn't really make me feel any better. Anyways, what am I looking at?"

"You're looking a layer of encryption that I wasn't able to figure out. I've tried numerous decryption methods, but nothing worked. I need your help to find out what's on here."

"Then why do you need me if this is a computer problem?" asked Brenda.

"You'll see soon enough," I said.

Brenda shrugged and we both turned to Neil as he began to decipher the encrypted data on my laptop. It took him about five minutes to crack the thing and the three of us began to look over the pharmaceutical data that Miranda stole. I honestly had no idea what I was looking at and Brenda couldn't really make heads or tail of it either. She knew more about the anatomy of the human body better than anyone else I knew. She was aiming to be a biochemist later in life. Anyways, we were scrolling through everything, hoping that we'd come across something that we knew about.

"Wait, stop right there," said Brenda.

"What is it?"

"This formula right here, I think I've seen it before. These combinations of chemical produce copious amounts of adrenaline that could kill someone."

I looked at what she was pointing to. "Where have you seen it before?"

"A couple weeks ago during my internship at the hospital, this guy came in because he was covered in blood. It looked like he was cut with a knife multiple times because his clothes were covered in blood, but they didn't have any holes in them. When we did his blood work, we noticed that he had traces of this stuff in him. What he didn't know was that he was suffering from cardiac arrest and he didn't even know it."

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"He died. But when we looked at his blood even further, we found out that he was actually going through a heightened adrenaline rush and that's what caused his heart to rupture."

"And this is what you found in him?"

"Not exactly, the chemical structure of it is different in some ways and I honestly can't tell you why he had this stuff in him."

"Where is the guy now?"

"I don't know. A couple of hours after the man died, these people in Hazmat suits came by and hauled him away in a body bag. All of the information we gathered from him was deleted from the hospital's records and they told us that it was all classified government business."

"Are the people who watched over him still coming to work?"

"Yeah, why," asked Brenda.

"No reason," I said. The General's keeping his distance from them. Either he doesn't want to raise anyone's suspicion or maybe he didn't think the doctors knew enough about it for him to worry.

We all got up and left the library. I was about to start my car and head home, but I had just gotten a text from Miranda. Meet me at the skating rink. I figured that I had nothing better to do today and I headed to meet her. When I got there, the parking lot wasn't as packed as it was last time. Miranda's car was here so I figured that she was already inside. I headed into the building, but the first person I encountered was the girl that I spoke to last time I was here. It seemed like she had just gotten done with practice because she was carrying her gym bag over her shoulder.

"Hey, it's you again," she said with a smile.

"Hey, Sierra, right," I asked.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you remembered my name. I never caught your name though."

I was thinking back to when Miranda and I first met. She was everywhere I was and I quickly got fed up with her following me. However, now I felt like it wouldn't be the same without her in my life. Is Sierra going to become a part of my life the same way Miranda did? I was about to tell her my name when I suddenly remembered Miranda's hostile personality towards any girl who spoke to me.

"I think it's better if I don't tell you," I said.

"Why not," asked Sierra.

"It's for the sake of my own health. Miranda hates it when I talk to other girls for some reason. I honestly don't see what she's so worried about. She's one of the prettiest girls I've known and I don't really see why she'd want to be with a masochistic asshole like me."

"You don't really seem like that kind of a person."

"Believe me, if you knew the kind of person I really am, you'd hate the sight of me," I said glumly.

"Hmm, I guess Miranda did well in choosing you then," sighed Sierra and she turned to walk away.

What does she mean by that? I stood there for a few more seconds wondering what Sierra meant, but I decided not to worry about it just yet. Anyways, I headed into the rink Miranda usually practiced in and I saw her trying to practice her jumps. The best she was able to do was a double, but her landings were sloppy. She was using a different jumping technique than the other girls. In fact, it was a hell of a lot more ineffective than theirs. I quickly got some skates and got on the ice when Miranda wasn't looking so that I could show off my skills. She had just attempted to hit another jump but she wasn't able to get enough momentum to complete her spins. Miranda ended up falling flat on her ass and I just giggled at her. She looked up just in time to see me nail a triple axel in front of her. The envious look on her face was enough for me to figure out that she wasn't in the mood for my antics.

"Way to be an even bigger asshole," growled Miranda.

"It's what I do," I shrugged. "Anyways, get up so we can try this again."

Miranda glared at me for a few more seconds before she got up off the ground and began to skate around the rink with me. Some of the other people began watching us as we glided all over the place. I was mimicking her routine that she'd perform over the course of the next two months. While we were skating, I was telling her about what I've learned and how she should try to change up her technique when it came to her jumps.

"You know, I didn't ask you to meet me here so that you could teach me skating," said Miranda.

"I figured as much. Why did you call me here?" I asked.

"Well, I was wondering if you were doing anything for Christmas Eve."

"No not really. Mom and Amanda were going to church that night and I'll be home alone."

"Why don't you go with them?"

"I never really liked it when people preached to me and I feel like I'll spontaneously combust if I set foot in any church."

"Anyways," said Miranda in an annoyed tone. "You're not doing anything?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Well… I was hoping… that maybe we could… you know….go on our first date together," she said nervously.

"I thought our first date was back in October."

"I mean our first date as boyfriend and girlfriend," said Miranda.

"There's a difference?" I asked and Miranda gave me another annoyed look. "Alright, alright, I'd love to go on an official date with you."

Miranda's face seemed to light up and she hugged me before she skated off with the biggest grin spread across her face. However, she didn't know that I was panicking about what I'm supposed to do this time. I tried calling Harkin when I got home, but he just straight up laughed at me. None of my other friends were of any help either. I was so desperate that I even called Amelia. The only thing that I could think of was to take Miranda to dinner, get her a gift, and then walk around town until we found something to do. Crap, what kind of gift should I get her?

Friday, December 24, 2004 1720hrs, Wesson, Osea

Miranda didn't want me to pick her up for some reason and I waited for her to meet me in the town square. I had made her a small gift that I hoped to God she would like. What worried me the most about this night was that I'd screw up before it even started. While I was waiting, I had gotten a text from Harkin.

Here's a foolproof date plan for you, Kid. The first thing you're going to do is take her out to dinner. From there, join some of the Christmas festivities that are going on. The last thing you have to do is…

"Hey, handsome, I'm here."

I looked up from my phone to see Miranda standing in front of me. She was wearing a white leather jacket over a white sweater dress. She was also wearing black leggings along with brown knee-high boots. I couldn't tear my gaze away from her for some reason. There was something different about Miranda, but I honestly didn't know what it was. She just seemed to have this glow around her. The other guys that we passed on our way towards the restaurant noticed it too. Every guy kept turning to shoot glances at Miranda and their girlfriends or wives had a look of jealousy on their faces. I could see Miranda trying to fight a smile as we were walking. I guess she was thinking that I was the luckiest guy in the world right now, but that was far from the truth. I hope she's not planning to get carried away tonight.

Miranda and I ate dinner at this Italian restaurant that was actually another front for the Donati Family. It was a good thing that Miranda had her face covered during her last op; otherwise she would've been recognized by someone. While we were eating, Miranda kept gazing at me with this gentle look in her eye. I could see this one guy in the reflection of one of the windows gawking at her like he was melting at her gaze. This was something that I couldn't understand. Of course, Miranda was beautiful, but I had never given any real thought about her other than the fact that I like her. Was it enough to like someone?

After we got done eating, we left the restaurant and began to walk further into town so that we could see the Christmas parade. While it was going on, Miranda held my arm while we stood on the sidewalk. I almost wanted to act as cold as I did towards Becca when I went on that double date back in August, but I knew that I'd just make things worse if I did. Other than my own mixed feelings about tonight, Miranda did seem to be having a good time. That was until the parade ended and we had no idea what we should do next. We started walking around town together, but conversation wasn't flowing. Miranda was becoming visibly pissed at me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. When she wasn't looking, I pulled out my phone to re-read the text that Harkin sent me. When I read the part where Miranda cut me off, I was shocked to the point where I honestly didn't know what I should do. The last thing you have to do is kiss her like you mean it. I'm not talking about a quick peck on the lips. I'm talking about full on passionate tongue wrestling. I honestly didn't know if I could do it. Miranda looked like she was going to try and kill me again if I tried to go anywhere near her. If that happened, then I'd more than likely end up in jail again. On top of that, we haven't kissed since the beginning of the month. I wasn't even sure if she liked it. Oh wait, I almost forgot!

"Hey, Miranda," I said.

"What," she grumbled.

I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a box that I had wrapped for her. "I wanted to give this to you," I said as I held it out to her.

"Oh, thank you," she said and she nervously took it out of my hand. "Can I open it now?"

I nodded and quickly turned away so that I could prepare myself for when she told me how full of crap I was. I could hear her unwrap the box and take off the lid. She didn't say anything when she saw what was in there and I heard her take it out.

"Oh, wow! These are amazing!" she said. I turned to look at her as she held one of the cookies I had made for her. Last week she mentioned my cooking after what all my friends had told her about it. I decided that I should make something for her so I baked her some of raspberry cream sandwich cookies that I stumbled across a couple years ago. "You made these?"

"Uh, yeah… I didn't know what other kind of gift I could give you, so I made you these," I said shyly.

Miranda paused for a moment like she was deep in thought. An evil grin appeared on her face and her eyes seemed to twinkle like she figured something out. Miranda asked me to lead her back towards my car so that we could head back to my house. It was right then that I knew what she was thinking. This girl is as perverted as Amelia! Nevertheless, we walked back towards my car and drove back to my house. It turns out that Miranda took a cab to meet me because she knew that we'd end up coming back here. We entered my house and I hung up our jackets while she sat on the sofa. I then went to the kitchen and began to prepare some coffee when I started to think about how I was alone with my girlfriend in my house for the first time. Clam down, it's not like she's going to kill you!

"So, did you have any more of those cookies?" she asked.

Miranda startled me a little when she walked into the kitchen. "Yeah, they're in the jar over there," I said. I looked over at Miranda as she ate some more of the cookies I made. I had never really given much thought about it before, but I tried to see what the other guys saw in her that I couldn't. She was beautiful, but I honestly didn't know how to feel that I was dating the prettiest girl in school. Miranda looked back at me and saw me gazing at her as I leaned over the counter. The way I could describe her now was way different from when I first met her. Miranda's soft, honey-blonde hair ran down to the bottom of her shoulder blades and her emerald green eyes just seemed to glisten in the dim light. Her skin was as soft as her lips and could only imagine that the same went for the rest of her body. Miranda's legs were tall and slender, but they formed one perfectly shaped butt. Her rack was well shaped too. Miranda's body just seemed to match mine perfectly whenever we spooned. The more I looked at her, the more I could see why every other guy out there kept staring at her. I eventually felt myself blushing at the sight of her and I turned my head away so that she wouldn't see.

"What's wrong?" asked Miranda.

"Nothing, I just remembered the first time we met," I said. "I was such an idiot back then."

"You still are," she replied. "But, at least you seemed to work that stick out of your ass."

"You think so?"

"Oh yeah, I doubt that we would've gone out if you hadn't."

"I honestly thought I'd mess this up somehow."

"Well you didn't," said Miranda and she walked over to me to give me a hug.

As she pressed her head into my chest, I held her tenderly and began to think about my feelings towards her. I liked her, but I didn't know if that this was going to develop into love. What is love? When my mom told me to hold onto Miranda and let my feelings blossom, I honestly didn't know what she meant. I figured that she didn't want me to let go of a girl a beautiful as her. I have to tell her how I feel.

"Miranda…" I whispered and she looked up at me. My heart was pounding inside of my chest because I was nervous about what she might say to me. "…I… I like….. I like you."

No sooner had I said that I liked her did Miranda cup my face with both of her hands and pulled me close for a kiss. The whole thing was so sudden that she placed her tongue in my mouth. I slowly closed my eyes and embraced the fact that we were kissing again. It felt like we were the only two people in the world and I was totally okay with that. Miranda was here and she felt the same way I did. That was all I could ask for. I brought my hand up so that I could stroke her hair, but the moment was ruined when we heard someone coming up to the front porch.

"Mijo, we're home," announced my mother.

"Hey mom, how was church?" I asked.

Mom and Amanda both came into the kitchen and saw me and Miranda leaning against the counter. They then began to tell us everything that happened at the church and what kind of drama they encountered on their way home. I honestly didn't really care and neither did Miranda. We were both perturbed about the fact that our make out session was interrupted so suddenly. When all was said and done, Amanda invited Miranda to her room because she made her a present. When they left, mom stood next to me and glared at me like she knew I had a dirty little secret.

"So, how did it go?" she grinned.

"It went well," I said. "I kind of wish it lasted longer."

"Oh don't worry. Everyone's first time doesn't last that long," she said and her grin grew even bigger.

"Yeah…" I said awkwardly and I headed towards my room.

As I passed my sister's room I saw that she had given Miranda a knitted beret. When Miranda saw me head to my room she quickly followed me. We sat on my bed and began to watch Casablanca, but she fell asleep halfway through. Miranda fell asleep on my shoulder and laid her down as gently as I could so that I could finish watching the movie. Every so often, I would shoot glances at her while she lay curled up on my bed. The most beautiful girl in school was lying right next to me. I felt like I should just let her sleep alone.

"…You'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life," said Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in the movie.

I actually felt like he was talking to me when I thought about leaving her to sleep on her own. Maybe I would regret it. I didn't want Miranda to think that I'd take advantage of her or anything, but I really wanted to be with her. She must've wanted to be with me as well because she planned on coming home with me tonight. I turned off my TV before I laid myself next to my girlfriend and gently wrapped my arms around her. Both of our hearts took off racing again as we laid under my cover on cold night. It was all I could ask for.

Friday, December 31, 2004 1330hrs, 5 miles north of Comona Islands Rocket Base, Usea

I've been through many hair-raising situations throughout my short life, but this one was rather nerve-racking. Our allies were given the opportunity to tip the odds in our favor when ISAF was given the resources to build and launch an advanced recon satellite into space. This would give ISAF a huge advantage in supporting their future mainland operations. The Erusians found out about it somehow and deployed a large number of air-superiority fighters to stop the launch all together. In response, ISAF launched every available plane to maintain their air-superiority over the base. Danny, Yue, and I had to haul ass from Osea to our AO because we were told about it only thirteen hours ago. Thatch and Dahl managed to rendezvous with us so I didn't feel too bad

According to what Sky Eye was telling us along the way, our allies were holding out, but the Erusean Air Force was relentless. No matter how many enemy fighters were shot down, they just keep coming. Porter and Allen had relayed some information to us saying that some of the highest scoring aces from both sides were present. To make things even worse, reports of the Yellow squadron kept coming in and that put me even more on edge. I was ready to face them if the need arose, but I wasn't entirely sure if I could do it. Even though Yue didn't seem all that worried about today, I could still sense her uneasiness. Ever since I gave her the Christmas present I got her, she's had this faint smile on her face whenever I saw her.

"Attention all aircraft, this is Comona Base. This rocket launch is critical. Maintain air superiority until launch is complete."

"Halo 2, engaging," said Thatch.

"Omega 11, engaging," said Dahl.

"Rapier 8, engaging," said Yue.

"Mobius 1, engaging," I said as I put on my oxygen mask and lowered my visor.

We were coming up on Comona Island and I could see planes falling out of the sky left and right. The radio was frantic with calls for help and warnings from our allies. No sooner did we get within visual range did a quartet of enemy F-14s form up and head towards us. This whole approach to the battle seemed like it was out of a movie where both sides charge towards each other in the beginning of the fight. However, there was no dramatic music and I wasn't given the chance to reflect on my life beforehand. Instead, I could only hear the beeping of the missile warning, the wail of my engines, the rushing of the outside air, and the sound of my breathing as we came head on with the enemy formation. Danny locked onto the four of them with my AMRAAMs, but I knew that they'd evade them with chaff.

The four of us barreled into the formation at top speed with our guns blazing. None of us scored any hits as we flew past each and my formation continued to press into the fight over the base. Missiles, tracers, and shredded aircraft filled the sky in a chaotic frenzy as everyone played cat and mouse with each other. We all broke our formation to deal with any enemy fighters that came across our path. With no one watching my back and everyone out for my head, I quickly went after the first Erusian to fly in front of me.

The enemy pilot came in from my eleven o' clock high when he tried to pursue one of my allies. I pushed the stick over to the right and dove after the Erusian F-14. He saw me coming and tried to pull into a climbing right turn, but that just gave me the opening I needed. I fired a long burst into the plane's midsection and scored multiple hits on the fuel tanks. The Tomcat exploded into multiple pieces and I quickly latched onto another enemy fighter that I saw streaking off my left wing at lower altitude. I quickly nosed over into a split S and dove on the fighter. It turned out to be a MiG-29 when I saw the aircraft pull into a Cobra maneuver in the hopes that I'd over shoot. My mind quickly raced with ideas on how I could counter his move when I realized that he bled off a lot of speed trying to perform this stunt. As soon as I saw the plane's nose go up, I pulled into a hard climb for about two thousand feet, rolled over, and dove on top of the MiG. His loss of speed prevented him from climbing up after me and he didn't have thrust vectoring engines so he couldn't bring his guns to bear on me. When the MiG came out of the maneuver, I poured more bullets into his plane's engine and watched it spin out of the sky.

I was still in a dive when another bandit flew across my path while he began to chase an allied pilot. I didn't know who he was and I couldn't call for him to break into his attacker so that I could get a clear shot. I swung in behind the enemy and Danny quickly acquired a missile lock on the enemy F-14. The Erusian broke off his attack, but it was too late. I had already sent a sidewinder his way and it blew off both of the vertical stabilizers and the left elevator. I didn't have time to celebrate my victory because my canopy had become surrounded by tracers from an enemy MiG-29. He was diving on me too fast from my eight o' clock high and I nosed up sharply and rolled over into position behind him. The MiG pilot must've thought that I thought that I had run because he didn't try to evade me when I got behind him. I filled his right wing with 20 mm cannon shells and it became engulfed in flames.

"Mobius 1, I've got two on my arse! I'm bringing them by you," called out Dahl.

"He's coming in from our three o' clock, Zorro," said Danny.

I looked over to my right to see two F-15s relentlessly chasing Dahl. He was doing a rather good job of evading their attacks, but he wasn't going to last much longer if this kept up. Dahl was pulling a wide left bank towards me , but he didn't realize that he was setting me up for a deflection shot that would make it impossible for me to bag both enemy planes on the first pass. Before Dahl could pass me, I pulled up into another climb so that I had an altitude advantage and so that I could roll into position by performing a high yo-yo. Dahl was about to start bitching about how he thought I abandoned him, but he held his tongue when he saw two of my AMRAAMs burry themselves inside of his attackers' planes.

"Catch you next time, mate," said Danny as he saluted Dahl.

I peeled away and dove back into the fur ball where I could see numerous enemy fighters trying to gain the upper hand. There were several formations heading in and I told Danny to single out the flight lead of each one. Once I had tone, I fired all of my AMRAAMs and watched every formation scatter. If I didn't have to wait for my missiles to reload, I could've shot them down in rapid succession. Instead, the surrounding ISAF planes took advantage of the confusion and pounced on the confused Erusians. Missile trails suddenly surrounded the Erusian formations, cutting off any hope of them escaping certain doom. I continued to keep my distance from the fight as I orbited the fur ball. The only time I actually engaged any enemy fighters were when I saw them chasing after one of my allies or I they tried to engage me. I ended up bagging five more kills this way and I figured that I should stick to this tactic. From what I could see, the ISAF fighters were able to handle themselves rather well, but the Erusians still had the upper hand in this fight. The Yellow squadron was doing most of the work in thinning out the allies. I studied their maneuver more closely and I realized that they had improved their ACM significantly. They were no longer relying on the super maneuverability of their planes as much and they were picking out their targets with discretion. More specifically, they were picking out the nuggets (inexperienced pilots) first. These people have the audacity to call themselves Aces?

"Mobius 1, he's on you! Turn hard!" shouted one of my allies.

I looked behind me to a Su-37 closing in on me from behind at full speed. My reflexes took over as I barrel rolled over the Terminator and gunned my engines to pick up speed again. When the pilot pulled into a sharp right bank, I could see the number 4 emblazoned in yellow on the side of the plane's cockpit. I felt a sense of anger grip me as I continued to chase Yellow 4, but I was hesitant about fighting him. I was able to keep pace with his plane better than when I was flying my Phantom, but he was still out turning me. Yellow 4 kept up the turn for a little bit before I could look up and see him looking at me. It was right then that I decided to make my move and pull up into a climb. Yellow 4 pulled up after me thinking that I had made a huge mistake, but I was intent on leading him into a trap.

Our speed was decreasing while we were in the climb and I knew that I was going to stall first in this situation. We held the ascending spiral for as long as we could and I could see that Yellow 4 was bent on shooting me down in this fight. I was losing airspeed too fast for me to inch my way behind him and he would soon have me in his sights. When I knew that I couldn't afford to lose any more speed, I applied more power to my engines so that my speed had stagnated and my plane began to shudder from an imminent stall. Yellow 4 fell for it and reduced his speed even further so that he was now behind me. He was too close for a missile shot and his bullets were missing my plane by mere centimeters. In order to try and finally shoot me down, he had to gain some more distance and he cut back on the throttle even further. He was now behind me enough so that the blast radius of his missile wouldn't damage his plane, but he couldn't hold his position for long. He lost too much speed and stalled out. I had just nosed over into a dive to go after the Su-37, but my radio came to life with a call for help.

"Mobius 1, I can't shake him!" shouted Yue.

I looked towards my one o' clock low to see Yue's F-18 being pursued by another Su-37. This one had the number 13 painted on it and I broke of my pursuit of Yellow 4 to help my friend. I was diving on Yellow 13 at a steady speed so that I didn't over shoot and miss my only chance to save Yue.

"Zorro, look out! He's coming back around," warned Danny.

I looked back to see Yellow 4 diving and firing his gun on us. He was too eager to shoot me down and I easily avoided the attack by snap rolling out of the way. Yellow 4 over shot his mark and I pressed my attack on Yellow 13. Yellow 4 tried to quickly reverse his direction so that he could try and save his flight lead, but it was too late. Yellow 13 must've gotten a warning from his wingman because he tried to roll out of the way, but it wasn't any use. My finger closed around the trigger and my gun sent a volley of bullets into Yellow 13's right engine. He was still airborne, but he couldn't maneuver all that well and his speed had been significantly reduced.

"A Yellow's hit and trailing smoke," said one of the allied planes. "Whose kill was that?"

"It was Mobius 1, he got him!"

For some reason, I felt my ego grow a little. I had just crippled one of the most elite Erusian aces like it was nothing. If they were as deadly as everyone claimed that they were, then this had to be a pretty big deal. I was still hanging behind Yellow 13 and he tried desperately to get away from me, but I had already sunk my teeth into him. His maneuvers were erratic and he kept making mistakes as he climbed, dove, and banked wildly. He wasn't going to give me the satisfaction of giving him an easy kill and I really didn't want him to. I was now an ace that could go toe to toe with him and his squadron and I wanted him to know that he wasn't such hot shit in the skies of Usea.

Yellow 13 continued to try and evade my attacks, but eventually he ran out of option. He tried to claw for altitude, but he stalled out and fell out of the sky. He tried to recover as quickly as he could, but all he could do now was to fly straight and level. My finger slowly began to close around the trigger when Yellow 4 swooped down in between us. When I saw this, I hesitated on pulling the trigger. This was the exact same thing that I did to save Yue last month and I didn't know if I could bring myself to shoot them down. These two planes were meat on the table and my rep would go up if I shot down these two Yellows, but this wasn't any way to kill someone. How many people have these two killed fighting for something so meaningless? It doesn't matter, I'm better than that.

I sighed to myself and applied more throttle to my engine so that I was now flying wingtip to wingtip with Yellow 4. I could see the pilot looking at me and I was looking back at him. He lifted up his visor and took off his oxygen mask to reveal that she was a woman. I was actually surprised to see this for some reason. Her eyes were full of animosity as she glared at me. I realized that she harbored these feelings towards me was because I had put her flight lead in danger. I understood how she felt and I saluted her before I flew up onto Yellow 13's right wing. He didn't know that I was the person he spared last month until he saw the insignia on my tail. I nodded at him before I peeled away and headed back towards the fight. The remaining Yellows broke off their engagement and regrouped with their wounded flight lead.

"That's the second time you've let an easy kill get away. Aren't you forgetting that those bastards have shot down more allied planes than any other squadron in this war?" said Danny.

"Did you forget that he spared your life last time?" I asked.

"That doesn't matter, you mug! They're the biggest threat to ISAF next to Stonehenge!"

"Get over it; we still have work to do," I said and I singled out an enemy F-18 that was headed for me. I thought that he was the only one who was coming after me, but my radar was picking up multiple enemy signatures headed my way from multiple directions. I was all alone and there were no friendly aircraft nearby that could help me out.

"Uh, Zorro, I think we're in trouble," whimpered Danny.

He was right. I was strung out too far for any allied fighters to lend me support. "Razor, I need you to get your ass in gear if I'm going to get us out of here alive," I said and I headed for the nearest enemy formation.

I fired on the first target Danny locked onto and caused him to break off to the right. The remaining enemy fighter pressed their attack on me, but Danny broke their locks with decoy flares while I fired my gun into the bottom of the fighter that broke off from the rest of the formation. More enemy fighters launched their missiles at me and I broke off to evade them. All of the enemy fighters scrambled to get their licks in, but there was mass confusion among them. There was no coordination whatsoever as they all tried gunning for me. I had a total of sixteen enemy fighters glued to my tail and I was running at full speed. Tracers were streaking past my plane as I continued to run. I could've outrun the MiGs and F-18s all day, but the F-15s and F-14s would've kept pace with me easily. I couldn't get away like this and I pulled a sharp turn into the enemy formation. My move was so unexpected that all the enemy planes scattered in every direction in an attempt to find me. I quickly reversed my direction and swung in behind one of the enemy F-18s. He had lost me in the confusion and I was able to send a missile his way without any interruption from his allies. I was also able to fill two F-15s full of lead before the other enemy aircraft managed to latch onto my tail. They barely had any room to maneuver and they were all flying within close proximity to each other. I wonder… I pulled into a sharp left bank that the Erusians were able to keep up with. Then, without warning, I quickly reversed my direction and looked over my left shoulder to see four aircraft slam into each other.

"Hey, do those add to my kill count?" I asked Danny.

"I would assume so," said Danny.

I didn't have time to contemplate it any further because the enemy fighters had finally surrounded me in a coordinated Lufbery circle above me. This tactic was used to effectively shoot down a single plane in many scenarios I've heard about. I guess the fact that I was able to knock out Yellow 13 was reason enough to come after me. Two of the Erusian planes would dive on me and I would easily roll out of the way to evade their attack, but then two more enemies would dive out of the circle and attack soon after. My window of opportunity to attack was only a couple of seconds, but there was no way that I'd be able to get a good enough strike in with that narrow of a margin. I was surrounded and I couldn't get out of this mess on my own. If the others weren't so caught up in the rest of the fight, I'd be able to get out of here.

"This is Mobius 1, we need help over here!" shouted Danny into the radio.

"We're trying to get to you, but these guys are on us like stink on shit," said Thatch. "Just hang on, Mobius 1; we'll get you out of there!"

God dammit! I was running out of options and room to maneuver. Every time I rolled to evade the enemy attacks, I kept getting closer to the water. The enemy planes were also running out of room to dive on me and they'd have to think of another way to knock me out of the sky. I didn't think that they'd break formation and dive at me all at once, but that's what they did. They were chasing me only scant feet above the water and I was afraid that I might screw up and dip my wing into the drink. The enemy flight couldn't get a lock on me with their missiles because I was too close to the ground. The thought that they could only use their guns didn't make me feel any better because they were coming in too close for comfort.

I was sweating like crazy and I could feel my body trembling through all of my sharp maneuvering. The thought that I might actually fail to get out of this alive scared me because I wouldn't be able to see Miranda again. She and I had finally hit it off and I didn't want it to end with her finding out that I had died in combat. What's worse was the thought that my mother would know that I had gone behind her back to fight in a pointless war such as this. Danny was the last person who I worried about. It wasn't his fault that he got paired with a pilot who couldn't keep himself out of trouble and I figured that he already me enough.

"Hey, Zorro," he said suddenly. "We've had a good run, mate, but I don't think that they're coming for us this time. I just wanted to say that you lasted longer out here than I thought."

"Thanks for the backhanded compliment, but I'm not going to give up that easily. We're not dead yet," I said.

"I know, but I really don't think you'll be able to get us out of here alone. Anyways, I'm sorry that I ever doubted you. You're a good man you know that?"

I was choking up as I chuckled at his words. Danny was the second person to tell me that I was a good person and it made me feel good. I needed to get out of here and make it back to the fur ball so that my allies could help me out. But if I tried to head in that direction, I'd be leaving myself open to an attack. There was really nothing that I could do. Just when I thought that things couldn't get any worse. I saw five more enemy planes coming in to join the fray. A wave of anger swept over me knowing that these Erusians were wasting this much effort on me and I wasn't going to give these new fighters the satisfaction of trying to get their hits in. When one of the pursuing F-15s fired their gun at me, I performed half of a high G barrel roll and pushed forward on the stick. All the blood began to rush towards my head from the negative G effect and all I could see was red until I let off the stick. I was now in a vertical climb and I rolled over so that I could now pull a positive G turn so that I was now heading for the five new fighters.

"Lock those fuckers up," I growled and Danny did so without hesitation.

All four of my AMRAAMs flew towards the four trailing fighters and I sped towards the lead plane at full speed. I was planning on firing my sidewinder at the lead plane, but Danny wouldn't lock onto him for some reason. What the hell? I switched over to my gun and was about to fire towards the plane, but then I noticed that it was an ISAF F-18. More specifically, it was Yue. As soon as I realized this, the four planes that I fired my missiles at had fired at her also. Yue launched her countermeasures and fired a salvo of missiles at my attackers. We each scored four more kills and they all scattered to engage us. The remaining six fighters broke off into two groups so that they could deal with us, but now I wasn't alone. Yue and I could now support each other in the air and I felt my confidence rise just a little.

Yue and I were weaving through each other's flight path and we managed to get a few good hits on each other's attackers. Yue was coming in from my nine o' clock and I banked towards her. As soon as she saw me coming, she pulled into a sharp climb with her attackers following her closely. I was able to line the trailing plane up in my gun sight and squeeze off a good burst into his plane's underside. The enemy MiG broke off his engagement and tried to come after me, but he didn't realize that Yue had looped back around and began to dive on my pursuers. She had managed to finish the MiG off before she began to dive for the deck while I pulled a sharp left bank so that I could get behind her while she dove. As soon as I got behind her, Danny quickly locked onto one of the Erusian planes and I fired my one of my sidewinders at him. I shot down the bandit as Yue went into another climb and I went into a dive to set Yue up for her next kill. She performed a wide barrel roll so that she could dive after me and I gave her a pretty good deflection shot on my remaining two attackers. She fired her gun into the lead F-14's fuselage and managed to tear off both wings. She then sped under me and I performed a wide barrel roll as well so that I could swing in behind the last enemy F-15 that was chasing her. Yue flew straight and level for a good couple of seconds as I came out of my maneuver. It was all I needed to blow the plane out of the sky with a pair of sidewinders. Once he was down, one of my attackers broke off to trail Yue while the other stayed behind me. It was too easy. I pulled into a sharp right bank to let the Erusian get close enough for me to perform a high G barrel roll and position myself behind him. With him finally in my sights, I fired a good long burst from my gun into both of the plane's engines and watched it fall out of the sky. I then looked over at Yue's plane to see that she had led her attacker into a rolling scissors and bagged him with a missile shot.

"Holy hell, lassie, I never thought I'd be glad to see you," sighed Danny.

"It's my job to protect you, Mobius 1," she replied.

I was angry at Yue for coming to help me when she did, but she did save mine and Danny's lives. "Thanks, Shiro," I sighed.

I turned to head back towards the rocket base with Yue. It wasn't long before my missile warning went off and my radar picked up an enemy formation headed our way from nine o' clock. We both launched our counter measures and began our evasive maneuvering. Evading the missiles was easy, but the odds of Yue and I reaching the base seemed so far gone now. More than three dozen Erusian aircraft were headed our way and we knew that they were intent on killing us. I checked my remaining ammo and saw that there was no way I was going to be able to bag all of these planes. I only had six AMRAAMs and eight sidewinders left in my OSDs and I figured that Yue had the same situation. If we were going to get out of here, we'd need a lot more missiles.

"We're going to die," muttered Danny.

"You seriously didn't think that we'd leave you hanging, did you," said Thatch over the radio.

I looked over towards my three o' clock to see him and a bunch of other allied fighters headed for us. They all launched their AMRAAMs towards the enemy flight and the entire Erusian formation scattered in confusion. Fuck yeah! Yue and I throttled forward and dove into the fray with the other ISAF formation behind us. Once again, the sky was in complete chaos as everyone continued to gun for each other. There might've been fewer of us than the enemy, but we were still doing work. I did manage bag four more kills before we were forced to take the fight back over Comona. While I was chasing my next kill, I noticed that all of the enemy aircraft here were air superiority fighters. None of them were attack aircraft. If the Erusians wanted to stop the launch, why wouldn't they just attack the launch facility? Maybe they're waiting for the rocket to launch before they can attack it. If that was the case, then I had to focus on shooting down as many fighters as possible. I had just shot down another enemy F-15 when Sky Eye came over the radio.

"Sky Eye here, B-2 bombers approaching from the west. Intercept them before they reach the launch sight."

"Negative contact, nothing on my radar," said Porter.

"Look harder! The B-2s are difficult to detect on radar, they're stealth."

"Razor, do you see anything?" I asked.

"I don't see a bloomin' thing. We should try looking for them now before it's too late," he replied.

I was staring at my radar with such intensity that I didn't even notice the enemy planes latching onto me. It really didn't matter because my allies were relentlessly gunning for them. Yue was flying off my right wing to lend me some support. When I tuned into the wideband radio channel, the bomber crews were waiting for their fighters to clear us out before they commenced their bombing run. With nothing really to go off of, we continued to fly west and search for the bombers. I was scanning every bit of the sky carefully and I wasn't able to see anything.

Bomber formations held different formations based on the target they were attacking. For example, if they were going to bomb the rocket base, they would've held an echelon formation so that they could drop their bombs over a wider area and maximize the affected area. The bomber formation I encountered over Allenfort was supposed to maximize damage on a specific point. The B-2 formation had to be flying in an echelon formation, but I couldn't predict their altitude. In order to make it easier for us to spot them, Yue and I flew two miles apart at three hundred feet. This would allow us to cover a wider search area and it would make it easier to spot them against the sky instead of the ocean. We flew west for another couple of minutes, but it actually seemed longer than that. I was about to give up and head back to Comona when my radar had finally picked up an extremely faint signature. One turned into three and three turned into six. I took out my binoculars and started to scan the sky ahead of me until I saw the irregular triangular shape of the B-2s overhead.

"Shiro, we found them. Re-group on my position and we'll take care of these suckers," I hailed and she turned to head our way.

When I passed under the bomber formation, I pulled into a wide Immelmann turn so that I could get above and behind the B-2 formation. They had an extremely slim front, side, and rear profile. The best way to attack these damn things was from either the top or the bottom. Guns were pretty much the only effective way to shoot them down because they had ECM and flares to thwart our missile attacks. When Yue finally arrived, she followed my lead as I dove on top of the trailing B-2 and fired my gun into its right engines. I watched the bomber dip its right wing and go into a dive for the water.

"Zorro, I got multiple fighters headed towards us. They're coming to protect those bombers," said Danny.

"Dammit," I muttered. "Mobius 1 to all allied aircraft; we need some support over here. The enemy bomber formation has been located, but we got multiple enemy escorts converging on our position. Those bombers are going to be over the base in three minutes."

"This is Halo 2, we read you. Omega 11, we must aid Mobius 1," said Glinka.

"Roger, we're on our way," said Dahl.

Yue and I continued to attack the bombers and we managed to down two each before the escort finally arrived to deal with me and Yue. Ten Erusian F-15s dove on us from twelve o' clock high and we both broke away from them to avoid their missile shots. All of them rolled over into a dive to chase after us when we flew under them, but we countered their maneuver by pulling into a climb so that we could get an altitude advantage over them. My plane's improved rate of climb allowed me to outrun the F-15 in the vertical, but it wasn't enough to get out of their missile range. Danny launched our last set of flares to break an enemy missile lock and I pulled back on the stick until I was now in a dive. I was coming head on with six of the enemy fighters, but a couple of sidewinder missiles flew in from their nine o' clock. I looked over to see Yue coming in fast with four enemies on her tail and I began to pull lead on her so that I could swing in behind her and shoot down a couple of her attacker. One of them tried to fire his gun on me when he passed, but I snapped a roll to the right to avoid it. I pulled into position behind the F-15 and fired a sidewinder at him. I wasn't able to get another shot off before the other F-15s forced me to break off so that I could evade my attackers, but my fear was short lived. Thatch and Dahl arrived to finish off the remaining seven F-15 with their AMRAAMs.

"Hell yeah," I shouted. "Now, get after those two bombers, they're almost at the base!"

"I've always wanted to shoot down American B-2," said Glinka.

"They're Erusian bombers," said Frost.

"They are still same thing."

Thatch nosed up and looped back around so that he could dive on one of the bombers. The nose of his Super Hornet was engulfed in flames as he shot out the bomber's cockpit while Dahl fired his gun into the last bomber's bomb bay.

"All bombers confirmed shot down. Now sanitize the area of all enemy fighters," said Sky Eye.

"You heard the man, let's get going," said Thatch and we all formed on his wing. "So, how many kills have you three gotten so far?"

"You first, Captain," I said.

"Shit, I lost count at around twelve."

"He shot down sixteen planes," said Glinka.

"Ha, you beat Ducky," said Frost. "He's only gotten ten."

"Pipe down, you arse. It's not like anyone else could've done better," snapped Dahl.

"What about you, Shiro? How many have you bagged?"

"Twenty-seven," said Yue.

"No fucking way. Are you serious?" asked Thatch.

"Yes, I am telling the truth."

"Shiro doesn't lie and she's a great pilot. I've seen what she's capable of," I said.

"Alright, Mr. Yellow killer, how many kills have you gotten?" asked Frost.

"I don't know," I muttered. "Danny, were you keeping track?"

"I lost count at fifteen. But I do know one thing; you're going down in history as one of the top ace pilots," said Danny.

There was this ominous silence among everyone within our formation as we continued to fly towards the rocket base. The total number of enemy fighters didn't seem to change at all. They just kept coming and our allies were becoming fatigued. There weren't any other allies coming and this fight had been raging on for over half an hour. This kind of stress would quickly wear out a normal person and it was already showing. A large number of enemy fighters took advantage of the situation to refuel with a KC-10. One fighter would refuel while the others provided top cover for it.

I dove after the formation from three o' clock and fired my gun at the refueling fighter. My attack startled him to the point that he broke off from the tanker and managed to break the boom (refueling hose) as well. This caused a bunch of fuel to become suspended in the air and I fired my gun into the cloud before the boom operator could cut off the fuel supply. The resulting fireball engulfed one of the trailing F-15s in fire and the refueling plane went up into a huge fireball that rocked my plane violently as I tried to peel away from the other fighters that turned after me. Yue quickly swooped in as well to clear the enemy fighters off my tail before I pulled back up and lag rolled into position behind an F-18 that over shot his mark from my four o' clock. The Erusian tried to break hard right and reverse his direction so that I was now able to get in front of him. He now had a close enough deflection shot so that he wouldn't miss, but I countered by yawing under him and performed a displacement roll outside of his turn radius so that I could line up a shot. I sent a sidewinder his way and peeled off the deal with another F-18 that was chasing Dahl.

"Omega 11, you've got one coming in from your seven o' clock low," I warned.

"I see him," he replied and dove rolled over into a dive towards me.

Their angle of deflection was too great for me to get a missile shot, but I could still get him with my gun. My reflexes took over as I lined up the F-18's cockpit up in my gun sight and fired into it. I closed my eyes just before I saw my bullets impact so that I couldn't see the carnage of what I had done, even if it was for a split second. When I looked back, the Hornet staggered into a dive. I'm sorry.

"Final launch checks complete. Launch in sixty seconds," announced ground control.

I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that today was almost over, but then I figured that the Erusians would try to fight harder or try something else to stop the rocket from launching. When I began to look for another target of opportunity, Danny pointed out a pair of MiGs headed for the rocket base. Normally I wouldn't think much of it. But since they were headed there with no intentions to fight with any of the ISAF fighters, I figured that they were headed in to strafe the rocket. The Erusians would be screwed of the recon satellite made it into orbit.

"Leo, they're going after the rocket while it's still on the launch pad! We have to stop them," I said.

"Roger, I'm moving to intercept," said Thatch.

I saw his F-18 break out of the fight and dive on both of the MiGs. As he swung in behind them, he fired his gun into the lead plane's right wing and tore it off before he fired a missile into the other. At first it seemed like the danger was over, but another group of four MiGs were already headed for the rocket as well.

"Fifteen seconds to launch. All ISAF aircraft and vehicles flow to safe area," said ground control.

The final countdown had finally begun and the MiGs were waiting for it to lift off into the sky. I was the only one who could reach them in time and there were a bunch of enemy fighters headed towards me from every direction. I didn't have much of a choice and I blew through the fur ball as traces, missiles, and aircraft flew past me as I pressed my attack.

"Danny, lock 'em up," I ordered.

"There's too much interference from the other enemy planes!"

Shit! I didn't have enough ammo in my gun to bag all four of them, but I managed to line one of them up and send him spiraling into the shore of the island. The rocket began to rise off the ground and the remaining three MiGs pitched up to go after it.

"Zorro, I got it! Shoot!" shouted Danny.

I now had a lock on the MiGs and I sent my remaining AMRAAMs after them. All of them hit their targets, but one MiG was still going. He was firing his gun, but he was too far out of range as the rocket began to peel away and I knew that he was going to fire a missile at it. Danny locked onto it with my sidewinders and I ripple fired them as my OSDs reloaded them. The rest of my gun ammo went into the plane as well, but it wouldn't go down. The engines were trailing thick smoke as it continued to climb. I was totally out of ammo and I didn't know what else to do. My heart sank as I saw the MiG's missile fly towards the rocket. All of that effort and death was now in vain because of my failure. The MiG pilot bailed out and his plane exploded soon afterwards. I swear I could see him giving me both fingers as he fell past my plane and deployed his parachute. If he and I were both on the ground, I'd kick his ass.

"Rocket has reached forty thousand feet. It is now immune to enemy action," said ground control. "Thanks to you, the launch was a success."

The radio suddenly erupted with cheers and the remaining Erusian fighters all broke off their attack and began to retreat. While that was going on, I couldn't help but wonder why the enemy missile didn't destroy the rocket. I kept thinking about it until I satisfied myself knowing that it was out of the enemy's reach.

Sunday, January 2, 2005 1204hrs Wesson, Osea

"You're just lucky that satellite made it into orbit undamaged," said the General.

"Is that all you wanted to tell me?" I asked.

"No, I just wanted you to know that I know about everything you do out there. I'm actually shocked that you chose to let two of the Yellows escape. What's more is that the flight lead has even set up an e-mail account for Mobius 1 to find. You've made quite a name for yourself on that last sortie. Shooting down over forty enemy planes is rather impressive, so I can't consider you a total failure. I was hoping Yue would've been as effective as you," he muttered.

"She was," I said confidently.

"Really, where's your evidence?" shouted the General. "Where's your fucking proof!?"

"You don't need to worry about that. I just think you gave up on her too soon. If we're done here, I'd like to go home so that I could do something productive with my life."

The General waved me away and I headed out of his office. Yue was here with me and she was leaning against the wall when I walked out into the hallway. Even though the General didn't want to see her today, she decided to tag along with me anyways. She knew I was kind of mad at her, but she didn't know why.

"Antonio, why do you seem mad at me?" she asked softly.

"You were foolish on our last mission. You put your life at risk for the sake of mine," I said.

"That's no reason to be mad at me," she said softly.

"Well to me, it's reason enough."

"It's a stupid reason."

"You don't get it, do you?" I snapped. "You shouldn't sacrifice yourself to save me because someone told you to. If you died trying to save my life because I screwed up, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"But, you'd risk your life to save mine?" she asked.

"Of course I would, you deserve to experience life for once."

Yue stepped in front of me and gave me an evil glare. I had never seen this kind of expression from her before and it actually surprised. Without warning, she proceeded to slap me across my cheek and I held it as she continued to look into my eyes.

"Stop acting so self-righteous when you know nothing about the reasons for my actions," she growled and she turned to walk away.

"Wait, hold on. Why did you save me then?" I asked as I chased after her.

Yue paused in the middle of the hallway, lowered her head and clenched her fist. I didn't know what she was thinking. Her body language was similar to Miranda's when she was mad, but I didn't know what Yue was mad about other than my hypocrisy. If Yue didn't save me because she was ordered to, why else would she do it?

"…You make me feel…warm inside…" she said softly.

I honestly didn't know what to think at this point. Yue was the first person to admit her feelings to me. This was something that Miranda hadn't even done yet. Being on the receiving end of this felt weird because I never thought a girl would admit to liking me. My heart skipped a beat and my palms became sweaty. I didn't know what to do because I didn't know that Yue had changed this much. I wanted to hug her and tell her that I cared for her, but part of me felt like she might take it the wrong way and complicate things with Miranda. But now it didn't matter. Yue was actually showing some humanity and this was enough for me. I walked up to Yue and turned her around so that she could face me. She wouldn't look at me for some reason, but I didn't care. I hugged her so that she would know that I cared about her and she began to sob into my chest. This was the first time I've ever seen her express emotion and she actually looked cute.

"It's alright," I whispered.

"I don't mean to seem weak. Please forgive me," she sobbed.

I'm going to seem more like a hypocrite now. "You have nothing to be sorry for. You're starting to show me that there's an actual person within you. Don't try to deny the person you're becoming, Yue."

"…Please don't call me Yue anymore."

I looked at her as she pulled away from me to face the other way. "What should I call you then," I asked nervously.

"…My real name… is Naomi Kobayashi," she said proudly. "May you please address me by this when we're alone?"

I gently smiled at her and nodded. Naomi was still blushing as she continued to walk out of the building and I stood there for a little longer, wondering why she would tell me this. More importantly, why did I have this fluttering feeling in my chest? It was the same feeling I had towards Miranda, but I wasn't sure how to interoperate these feelings towards Naomi. I sat down on a nearby bench in the hallway to think about this. The things that were going through my head was what Miranda would think when she found about Naomi's attachment to me and what Naomi would do when Miranda threw a fit over it. Speaking of Miranda, she sent me a text not long after Naomi left. I can't wait to see you at school tomorrow.