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Act II: Chapter XXV

"Target destroyed," said the bombardier on the radio.

"10-4," said Sally, "Circling around for another pass."

Sally turned The Baron Avenger in a wide semi-circle back towards Fort Romanov, it was so frightening for her since she couldn't see in all that blackness, all she was able to see were the glowing instruments on the dashboard. Jammy continuously kept her updated as he reads the landmarks from an infrared scope. The scope was bulky and highly sophisticated, it swings in and out as it was supported on a small pole. A variable zoom-in camera mounted underneath the plane allows Jammy to see the world below in infrared rays. He kept his face glued to it some of the time either when they're not on a bombing run, since they were high enough he can calculate the distance of the bombing run and pinpoint Sally in that direction. The bombardiers aiming and dropping the actual bombs will take care of the rest.

If Jammy was also scared as Sally then he wasn't showing it. He appeared calm, how can he be calm in a situation like this? Sally didn't had the nerve to ask him, this wasn't the best time to be asking personal questions anyway, "10 degrees to the left," said Jammy, "Keep her steady Sal."

"Yes sir." said Sally

"We're coming back up to the fort," said the bombardier from the radio, "Ready for next target Sally."

"The infirmary building."

Since each crew member studied the map of Fort Romanov before the mission, she didn't have to tell the bombardier where it was: Its the rectangular building with the flat roof on the western side of the fort, almost up against the wall.

The POW quarters was quite close to the infirmary. Sally's thoughts quickly shifted to Handy, who was probably suffering from unknown horrors in the prison. If she miss her direction of travel by nearly a few centimeters, she would risk bombing the POW quarters as well as the infirmary. There's no second chances in a bombing run, once done is permanently done.

"Drop elevation by a hundred meters," said Jammy, "Concentrate the range on the building, we're nearly perpendicular to it."

"Yes sir."

Sally made the adjustments, now she dreaded for the two words from the bombardier that will tell her the start of the execution of the 2nd bombing run. She didn't have to wait long.

"Bombs away."

She squeezed the joystick in her hand as she felt the plane jolt slightly higher into the sky. Sally held her breath and waited for the confirmation that the target she picked out was hit, she can't afford to miss.

. . .

The POW quarters was quiet as usual, the smurfs were either sleeping, crying, or hoping for relief. They hadn't felt the vibrations from the first bombing run, the concrete walls of the prison was just too thick and the range was quite far off. But when the 2nd bombing run roared in, the smurfs felt the building shake violently. All the smurfs who were sleeping except Lazy woke up. Instantly they thought of utter terror, they had no idea what was happening but they know it was something big.

Several smurfs such as Handy and Hefty weren't afraid at all, they knew what was going on. They knew the green smurfs had the ability to fly a bomber and execute its targets without being detected, its because they had actually seen one of the bombers themselves, even been inside one. The green smurfs were trying to help them, they couldn't think of anyone else with this kind of technology.

The guards were also puzzled at once going on, one of them peaked out the window and saw a wall of fire before him. Word quickly spreads, and a mass panic rose up. Red smurfs ran in all directions, trying to follow protocols on what to do during an air raid. Some red smurfs panicked and ran down into the mines below the fort to take cover, others simply froze in shock, inert like a statue made of stone.

In the mines, Nikolai, Izotov, and Sergei managed to move Baldwin to the caves. He had to be carried, his weight bogged everyone down as they struggle to get him into the mines. There were some fellow red smurf conscripts taking cover in the mines in sheer panic, the group can see how terrified they were under the dim lighting, "We should be safe here," said Izotov, "We'll come back up to the surface once the attack is over."

"Did anyone brought a radio?" asked Nikolai.

"I did," said Sergei, "Though I doubt it would work down here."

"We have copper wires running through the caves, we should get some reception down here."

"I think I'm going to be sick," muttered Baldwin, "For some reason, my ass itches."

"Well sit on it and suppress it tubby." barked Nikolai.

The group sat Baldwin on a bench and rest for a moment, the constant vibration of the cave walls made everyone thought of potential cave-ins. A red smurf already had second thoughts from going down into the mines and so ran off back towards the surface, "Cowards!" yelled Nikolai, his voice echoing madly in the tight quarters of the mine.

"Had anyone took shelter in a cave before?" asked Sergei.

"I think the blue smurfs had," said Baldwin, "But I hadn't."

"So Baldwin," said Izotov, "How many bombs does the green smurfs' stealth bombers carry?"

Baldwin simply looked at him and said, "More bombs than you have firearms."

. . .

Oleg had braved the bombing that was trying to destroy the red smurf base and made his way into the VIP bunker. He ran down the dust covered halls, passing several confused and terrified red smurf conscripts and officers along the way. He had took cover during the first bombing run and made a break for it when it stopped, he kept running even when the 2nd bombing run came into play. Oleg wasn't so concerned about the bombs nor his own safety, he was more worried of his cousin more than anyone else.

Sergeant Dragovich made his way up the stairs awhile amazingly kept his balance from the constant shaking of the bunker. When he reached the elite level, he ran into General Dragovich's office and found it trashed and devoid of red smurfs, "Comrade General," Oleg cried, "Adrian! Cousin! Where are you!"

Oleg ran behind his cousin's desk and found him underneath it, blood was trickling down his head as he laid knocked out cold on the floor, Sergeant Dragovich pulled General Dragovich out from underneath the desk and attempted to wake him.

"Coz!" he cried, "Wake up!"

"No Izotov," muttered the general, "It wasn't me, it was Joe..."

"I'll get you to safety cox, I promise!"

Oleg hoisted Adrian over his shoulders and ran out of the room and made his way downstairs, along the way he gave orders to red smurfs who were wondering around in a stupor to follow him. They complied without question, clearly they didn't have a plan in mind at all. Once he reached the first floor, Oleg had a train of red smurfs scurrying behind him.

Once downstairs, Colonel Antosha came running up to Oleg panting. "The hell is going on Oleg," he cried, "And what happened to the general."

"The Comrade General hit his head underneath his desk," said Oleg, "We gotta get to safety... and a medic!"

"Follow me." said Antosha.

Colonel Antosha ordered all of the red smurfs in the room to follow him into the basement, it was a tight squeeze when going down the stairwell, it was so tight that no one tripped and fell. Once they reached the basement level, Oleg felt General Dragovich began to regain consciousness. "Oh what happened?" he mumbled, "I feel sore."

Oleg let his cousin down and offered him his shoulder, the general put his hand on his head and saw saw the blood on it, "Now I remember."

"Get him into that room!" ordered Antosha.

Oleg and Antosha escorted General Dragovich into the room and had him sit down on a bench, "We are under attack sir," said Colonel Antosha, "Are you okay?"

"Get me some gauze and I'll might be fine," said the general, "Let me see your radio."

"Yes sir."

Antosha handed General Dragovich his radio as Sergeant Dragovich managed to find the first aid kit, as Oleg wrapped up the wound on Adrian's head he clicked on the radio and spoke into it, "Defense Command," he said, "This is General Adrian Dragovich, do you copy?"

"Copy," said a voice, "What are your orders?"

"Turn the sky into Swiss cheese, use all the AA guns you guys can get a hold of."

"Da da, firing away."

. . .

"Target destroyed," said the bombardier, "Awaiting new target."

"Copy," said Sally, "Turning around for another pass."

Again she made a semi-circle and looped back around towards the fort. Her anxiety had mostly past by now, but she was still scared from the bombing run, still fearling of being shot down. Thankfully, the heating pad that was keeping her butt warm relaxed her tense muscles.

"Okay Sal," said Jammy as he looked through the infrared scope, "15 degrees to the right then keep it straight."

"Yes sir."

Sally made the adjustments and kept The Baron Avenger steady, without warning they were greeted by a fireworks display of anti-aircraft fire. Jammy pushed the infrared scope aside and cursed, "Sh*t, get us out of here Sally!"

"Okay!"

And just when she thought the mission would go by smoothly, it became a fight for survival at the blink of an eye. She pulled the joystick towards her and the Avenger's nose tipped upward. Sally was pressed into her seat as the bomber shot high into the sky, that's when warning lights started flashing at random.

"Status report." said Sally.

"The fuel lines are freezing," cried Jammy, "Damn the engineers for not insulating the pipes!"

"Drop the fuel and the waste matter, get rid of most weight based of liquids."

"Roger!"

Jammy pressed the button that ejects the fuel from the gas tank and out into the open air, next he pressed the button that does the same thing to the sewage in the septic tank. Sally felt The Baron Avenger gettting lighter as a mixture of crap and jet fuel rained down to the earth below.

"Stabilize! Stabilize!" cried Jammy.

Sally leveled The Baron Avenger to the horizon, the excitement of the action soon wore off for only a brief moment when gunfire erupted again from below. More alarms went off in response, Sally's ears were close to bleeding as she struggled to maintain control of the aircraft awhile processing ship loads of information. She heard a loud bang coming from behind and felt the rush of cold air past her neck. It wasn't the cold from the atmosphere that sent a chill down her spine, it was the realization of one of her worst nightmares becoming reality.

"We're hit!" cried Jammy, "Sh*t, they shot the steering system. We're loosing hydraulic pressure from the wings and rudder, we're loosing control!"

Oh fuck! Thought Sally.

"We're going down!" cried Jammy.

"Stop saying the obvious!" insisted Sally.

She activated the intercom system admits the constant shaking and vibrating of the bomber speeding down towards earth, Sally took a deep breath before giving one last order to her long time crew, "Prepare for crash landing! Dump all of the bombs! I repeat, dump every single bomb from this plane! Do it now!"

A light came on in the sea of flashing warning lights on the dashboard told her that the bomb bay doors had opened up. The plane jolt and shook from the lack of steering and sudden lost of weight. When the world started to slow down, Sally thought she was going to die. Maybe Handy would be in a heep of trouble if the red smurfs knew who was piloting the plane, already word of her affair with him has spread. The end was more bitter than it tasted, it seemed that the only miracle that can occur was the bomber crashing far away from Fort Romanov so the red smurfs won't come by to piss on what remains.

The tree line was starting to come into view, Sally had a last ditch idea that might save most of the crew. She reached over to the dashboard and cut the engines, the loud screeching drone of the twin jet engines died out. She tried to stay calm as her inevitable fate came ever closer, she flipped on the intercom and said what she thought were her last words, "Ladies and gentlemen of The Baron Avenger, this is the pilot speaking. It has been an honor serving with you guys, may all of you have honor."

"It's nice knowing you Sal," said the bombardier, "If anyone makes it out alive, I promise to bring home those who didn't make it."

"I just realize something." said Jammy.

"What?" asked Sally.

"I'm not wearing brown pants."

Sally took the moment and laugh, the plane soon slammed into the ground and Sally hit her head on the dash. She lost consciousness thereafter.

. . .

Oleg saw something went down, after a few minutes of Fort Romanov's AA guns were blindly firing up in the air, a fireball appeared out of the black sky and went careening down to earth like a meteor. He stood there and watched the object fell to earth until it made impact, when it crashed the fort's air defenses went silent. Seeing that the situation was now over, Oleg heads back into the VIP bunker and meet up with General Dragovich, who was holding an ice pack to his scalp, "UFO was shot down," he said, "Might as well be the thing that attacked us, I suppose."

"We'll investigate the crash site in the morning," said Dragovich, "Right now we need to assess the damage and casualty count of the attack."

The two cousins head outside and surveyed the scene before them, thick gray smoke was towering into the sky, bodies or body parts of red smurfs were lying everywhere, several vehicles were destroyed, and a couple of buildings were on fire. Among the carnage were red smurfs struggling to find medical aid, as one of the buildings destroyed happened to be the infirmary.

"Obliterated," said the general, "Nothing left."

"So what happens now, coz?" asked the sergeant.

"This attack will not be tolerated, I already have some plans to begin the day tomorrow."

"What kind of plans sir?"

"I'll tell you along with everybody else, assessing the casualties will be our first priority before everything else."

"Why not leave the task to me coz? You appear tired as it is."

General Dragovich gave Sergeant Dragovich a look, "You're right, you handle it. It might as well take weeks to sort all this out for all I know. I'll see you tomorrow then, goodnight."

"Night."

The general heads back outside as Oleg ran towards the infirmary, he knew Sergei, Izotov, and Nikolai were there watching Baldwin. He knew they were smart enough to take cover, but he want's to make sure they hadn't perished in the bombing. He searched through the wreckage, looking for any sign of them. Oleg managed to find whats left of Baldwin's room but saw that it was empty, maybe they were in the tunnels where it was safe.

Just as he was leaving the wreckage, he saw the smurfs he was looking for coming out of the doors to the POW quarters, "Comrades," he said as he approached them, "I was looking for you, are you alright?"

"Yeah," said Izotov, "Seeing what's left of the infirmary made it seem that going down into the caves was a good idea after all."

"I guess I owe you one Izotov," said Nikolai, "I'll pay you back as soon as I can."

"Sarge," said Sergei as he struggled to carry Baldwin, "Help me with him!"

Sergeant Dragovich helped Sergei to get Baldwin onto his feet, "Thank you," said Baldwin, "Maybe I would be your ambassador rather than a prisoner afterall."

"I will suggest that to Adrian," said Oleg, "I promise you that."

Baldwin looked at Oleg and smiled, "You seemed to be quite close to him, you seem to be doing a good job at shielding him from corruption."

"Not an easy task boy," said Izotov, "Adrian is just as unpredictable when he was a smurfling, one time he sneaked out of his childhood home one night just to get wasted."

"I was with him," said Sergei, "Once he got drunk, he began to regret sneaking out. He asked me to take him home, and then you caught us red handed when we got there."

"All of you are already red-handed," laughed Baldwin, "What? Its a green smurf joke."

"Are you still feeling okay?" asked Oleg.

"I'm fine, though I'm still a bit beat. The feeling of nearly being killed by one of my own isn't new, I have to deal with it everyday. To an ancient, they are just children in adult form. Its actually literally true, the oldest green smurf is just barely 2 years old."

"So," said Sergei, "Where is he going to stay for tonight?"

"He can stay at my place," said Oleg, "He'll be under supervision of course."

"You sure Spetsnaz will like it?" asked Nikolai.

"They won't, but if Baldwin had a few drinks they might."

"A rule of thumb for all green smurf soldiers," said Baldwin, "Never drink out of a red smurf's alcohol if its opened, a popular belief in the colony was that they're usually had backwash."

"No wonder why the green smurfs always take the unopened bottles of liquor." said Nikolai.

"Okay then," said Oleg, "Help me get Baldwin to my place Sergei, stay with him until I finish taking count of the damage, okay?"

"Yes sir." said Sergei.

TO BE CONTINUED...