Chapter 21 Sorrow Knows no bounds
Naruto woke the next morning and notice that Claudia was not home, but he did see a note on his bed side table explaining that she had to go in early for a meeting. He sighed and rolled out of bed and got dressed before heading out of his cabin for his morning run. What surprised him was to see the Chief also out on a run as well. The Blond pilot caught up to him with relative ease and gave him a curt nod. Both men continued on and ended up running a three mile loop, ending back where the Chief had started. Naruto, while a stamina freak, had to admit that the pace set was insane. He was breathing heavy and sweat dripped off his body as he fought to catch his breath. At least the chief was in not much better shape as he was trying to run for different reasons. Naruto finally managed to get his breathing under control.
"Damn Chief. I haven't worked this hard since I was thirteen and pranked Admiral Hunter."
The Spartan looked to him with some surprise.
"What did you do?"
Naruto grinned.
"Rewired his electric razor to give him a shock every time he tried to use it. He had me work out with the Marines for a week. That was a nightmare. Never meet some one so gung ho as Marines." He muttered.
John nodded.
"Most are. I had the privilege to serve beside a hell of a Marine who recently was killed during my previous assignment."
Naruto gave him a brief nod.
"I bet with you saying that, it would have meant a lot to him."
John blinked but nodded. Naruto however, noticed something was wrong.
"What's going on Chief?" He asked.
It appeared he was trying to decide if he should tell or not and settled on talking about it.
"Cortana's pregnant."
Naruto grinned and all fatigue was forgotten as he clasped the man on his shoulder.
"Congrats man. Hell, me and Claudia are expecting as well. So I guess we both get to ask the other for help, huh?" He said with a grin.
John seemed to have an amused look.
"I guess so. I don't mean to cut this short, but I have a meeting with one of the people that just arrived, a Major Lee Adama. They have crew members disappearing and are refusing to have their ship towed in until they are sure it is cleared of Cylons."
Naruto nodded.
"Alright Chief. I won't hold you hear any longer. Just remember, I'm here if you ever want any advice."
He watched the Spartan leave and headed back to his room and showered the sweat from his body and shivered once he stepped out of the shower. The Ace pilot got himself dressed and left his room to see his girls heading off to school. Naruto raised a hand in fare well that they returned and he headed to the flight deck to meet up with his squadron. It was time for the funeral detail.
-x-x-x-x-x-
"Detail. Attention." Naruto barked as the flag draped casket was lowered onto the ejection port.
"We are hear today, to pay last respects to Tomas Baker. He was a pilot of extraordinary luck and courage, always putting his comrades before himself. He was taken from us due not to any fault on his part, but due to a systematic failure from an electronic overload. But no matter the cause, we still lost a brother out there. But we will live on, for that is what he would have wanted us to do. We will remember are friend. Detail…Left face."
Naruto turned to his right as the platoon turned left.
"Present…Arms!"
Everyone in the launch bay snapped a crisp salute and held it, watching as two men took the UEG flag off the casket and folded it before giving it to Bakers' mother, who happened to be in attendance. They watched as the casket was sealed inside the launcher before it was ejected into space in a poof of white.
"Order…Arms."
Naruto dismissed his pilots and turned to face Baker's mother, who was crying as Chris tried his best to comfort her.
"Ma'am. I'm Lieutenant Commander Uzumaki. I was Tom's squadron commander. I want to apologize for my failure." He said gravely.
She shook her head, tears still falling.
"No. It wasn't your fault. You could not have foreseen that would happen."
Naruto simply stood in front of the woman, expecting a slap or even curses.
"That maybe true ma'am, but I shouldn't have put my men so close to an anomaly. In essence, it is my fault." He said sadly.
The woman placed a hand on his shoulders.
"I already talked to Chris about that. You were with in regulation distance. You have no fault here. Now, if you'll excuse me Commander, I must be getting back home."
Naruto nodded.
"Of course. Good day, to the both of you."
Naruto watched them leave and sighed as he made his way to his room. He still had CAP detail to run today.
-x-x-x-x-x-
Naruto brought his fighter around once more as he looped past the vessel that looked ready to fall apart. The worst part was, he could see the exact spot that Baker crashed into. He tore his eyes away from the hull and applied a little more thrust to his fighter and came around by the bridge, keeping on alert. After several hours of flying circles, Naruto was wishing something would happen to take his boredom away. He would regret this not moments later. His com became a buzz of activity.
"New contacts! Ten thousand meters out!"
Naruto looked up and had no idea what these ships looked like. They looked like some sort of creature. They had six arms, three extending from the top, and three from the bottom, of central portion. Their was at least a dozen of them. Naruto brought his fighter around and rallied his squadron and they bared down on the new contacts. He wondered why they would jump in with in weapons range and then it hit him. They were after the Battlestar. If that was the case, than maybe the Battlestar couldn't hit targets that far out. Naruto pushed these thoughts aside as new chatter came across the com.
"This is Admiral Richard Hunter to the Unknown ships. What is your business here?"
There was silence, though Naruto took the sight of swarms of fighters as the signal that they weren't friendly. He gripped his controls and prepared himself. Naruto watched as very other ship in system above Tirol deployed fighters as well, leveling the playing field. Naruto activated his com.
"Lets get um!"
They tore off with the others and found themselves in a melee of combat. It was insanity with how many fighters were involved in this little dogfight. Naruto looped around and watched as what looked like a lawn dart blazed past him, destroying a enemy fighter with relative ease. The blonde shook he head and lead his sights on his target and left his lasers eat their way through the hull with relative ease.
"Blaze! There's too many! Use your SP weapons!"
Naruto saw that their were indeed a large number of contacts. The blonde shifted to battloid mode and let his missiles fly. Dozens of explosions appeared in the silent vacuum of space as Naruto racked up the kills.
"Not bad, but when you blast a target with three missiles apiece, it's not that hard to kill it." A voice stated bluntly as Naruto put his battloid's fist through another targets wing.
"Who is this?" He asked.
"Name's Starbuck. Got a problem blondie?" The voice asked.
"No. But the name is Blaze. And let's see how you fare against twenty boogies bareing down on you." He retorted.
He heard a laugh across the com but put his concentration back on the fight. He decided to try something that could very well get him killed. Naruto shoved his throttle forward and let go of his cannons. He flipped a switch, pulling the hands back inside the arm housings an instead, a flat piece with an opening took their place. Naruto activated the power to them and a pair of energy blades snapped into existence. Naruto moved nimbly through space, slicing his way through the enemy. He turned and saw one of the enemy capital ships trying to get a shot off at Galactica and speed off to the target. He truly realized how big it was but didn't let that stop him as he moved in closed. He exchanged his right battloid blade for a hand and found a good purchase on the ship. Cutting quickly, he made a decent sized hole in it and found himself looked at a confused Centurion. Naruto wasted no time using the head mounted lasers and cut it down quickly. He took stock of what was in the center and was pleasantly surprised to see that he was looking at a core of some kind. The kind that would probably explode when shot. Naruto grinned and triggered his lasers again before kicking off from the ship. Unfortunately, he didn't escape the blast. The last thing he saw, were gold rings appearing around him and a deep voice.
"This is not the end for you, young human. Oh no, you will not be as lucky to escape me in death. Our time has only just begun."
It was a voice full of malice and evil. Of hatred and...insanity.
Who do you think the voice belongs too? And don't fret. I like this story too much to let it die. Also, this chapter focuses mostly on Naruto sonce most readers are wondering where he dissappeared to. Next chapter will deal with how Claudia and the girls will react to his apparent death. And we'll see what his captors look like...maybe.