A/N School year is winding down, only got a couple weeks left, so guess what that means! Story chapters will be able to start coming out fairly regularly now!
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Chapter 27 - White Bird (Part 2)

As the demon sleeps, man turns on man

His own blood and madness soon cover the earth

From the depths of despair awaken the Razgriz

Its raven wings ablaze in majestic light


"Production is proceeding smoothly, don't you worry. I have the organizations best interests in mind, trust me."

"We of the board are unsure of that doctor. It goes without saying that you and your men have brought this age old organization leaps and bounds forward towards our goal, but we still believe that you are hiding something from us."

"Trust me, everything is fine. Good day."

- OFS Kestrel, Kirwin Island -

- December 19th, 2010 1200 hrs -

"The intelligence vessel Andromeda has picked up another encrypted transmission in Belkan. They changed the code on us, so it took a little longer to decipher the message. The content is as follows: 'N attack by A-Sat on Okchabursk to commence at 1400 hours'."

Nagase's heart skipped a beat when Pops read the translated message to them within the briefing room. Cipher made a slow head turn to look at her when the realization hit all of them with different effects, and he knew she was going to take it the worst. "N attack" easily could be inferred as nuke or nuclear attack, and the "A-Sat" part of the message could only mean one thing.

"I have this to say to you first, so that all of you can hear it for yourselves." said Pops before he pulled out a crisp piece of paper from behind his back.

He held it up and cleared his throat, before he started at the top and worked his way down.

"TOP SECRET. Today, information has been obtained that the nation of Belka has armed the high-atmosphere spacecraft, Arkbird, with a nuclear device(s), with the intent of carrying out a nuclear attack on the city of Okchaburks within the Union of Yuktobanian Republics. Additionally, intelligence has confirmed that the Arkbird will descend briefly once mid-flight to align with the target via atmospheric friction. Analysis of the scheduled launch timing and target coordinates has allowed us to determine the approximate location of this descent. All proximity fighter units are hereby ordered to immediately sortie and rendezvous at the specified Arkbird point of descent. Destroy the Arkbird before it re-ascends into the upper atmosphere at 1324 hours, and prevent an attack on the target city. An Osean Federation and Union of Yuktobanian Republics air force intercept is expected. You are cleared to engage and destroyed. There is only one chance to destroy the Arkbird. Godspeed."

Pops lowered the paper to his side and gazed at the baffled faces of the pilots, his heart heavy just as he knew their's were as well.

"Signed Osean Federation President, Vincent Harling."

Cipher was at a complete loss for words. The Grey Men, operating through Osea, had repaired the previously sabotaged Arkbird and were going to use it to deliver a nuclear weapon to Yuktobania. They were going to prolong the war even more. That alone was enough to paralyze them, but what really drove the stake into their hearts was that it was the Arkbird.

That beautiful bird was Harling's child of peace, a way of striving for world peace made by the Osean president for all. It was where the G7 summit was held in 2008, it was the satellite that contributed so much to removing Ulysses fragments from Earth's atmosphere. It had been created for the sole purpose of benefiting humanity, and to be a symbol of international cooperation and good will.

And now it was going to be used to deliver a weapon capable of devastating an entire city and kill numerous innocent people.

"With that out of the way, to the specifics of the briefing. Apparently, it would seem efforts to secretly repair the sabotaged Arkbird are now complete. We confirmed this by observing its orbit from the ground. We believe that a Belkan nuke has already been loaded onto the now repaired Arkbird."

Their worst fears had been realized yet again. Not only had the Grey Men pulled one nuke out to be used in Yuktobania, but a second one too for the exact same purpose. It was bad enough that they had brought one out, and every person there was thankful the resistance had gotten a hold of it and diffused it.

But it rang a different bell when it came to the Arkbird. Even the most peaceful of creations could be twisted into one of impending doom and destruction.

"In order for the Arkbird to attack Okchabursk, a city in Yuktobania, at 1400 hours, it must make one major correction to its orbital trajectory, as stated."
Pops pointed to the projector as it shifted to the Ceres Ocean, zooming in specifically on a section close by to a small collection of unknown islands. Cipher narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. So that was to be the area of interception, he figured.

"To do this, it must first drop into the upper atmosphere and use air friction to lower its speed. We have already calculated the time and location in which this maneuver will occur. Your mission is to destroy the Arkbird. This is your only chance. Dismissed."

The pilots nod their head solemnly and left the briefing room, Pops letting go of the breath he held in his lungs as she sighed. He had seen the pain in their eyes when he told them of the Arkbird's defection to the enemy; they were all going to hate having to shoot down such a magnificent creation, especially one for peace.

Pops looked down at the paper that Harling had signed once again and closed his eyes, wishing that it wouldn't have to come to this. But there was no other way. As soon as he presented their findings to the president, Harling paid no heed to second doubts. The decision to destroy the Arkbird had been made almost instantly.

So now, it had been put into motion. Operation: Game Bird was a go.

- Ceres Ocean -

- 21°18'36"N 158°16'33"E -

- December 19th, 2010 1309 hrs -

The flight to the marked area was a silent one for the Razgriz pilots and their AWACS. Larry, Nicolai and the Crow Squadron weren't there to help cheer them up either, it was just them five. James had kept a steady eye on his radar for when the Ark would make its appearance, and as soon as they entered the area the white bird made itself known.

"Arkbird spotted on Radar. Razgriz, begin your ascent and engage." ordered James. Cipher pitched his aircraft upwards and began to climb at a steady pace with his wingmen, their sights set on the Arkbird, the satellite craft visible in the distance high up in the sky.

Limits were going to be pushed with how high they had to take their aircraft, but they had to do so in order to prevent the deaths of millions.

"We were so close...it's like they're always one step ahead…" murmured Grimm. "No...no I can't think that. We can't afford to."

"Yeah, thoughts like that gotta be pushed out of your head, Grimm." advised Snow wisely, Cipher nodding in agreement.

Higher they climbed, passing by ten thousand feet in the blink of an eye, and still they went higher. The Arkbird, according to James' information, was close to their jet's service ceiling of fifty thousand feet, which would only make it even more difficult for them.
"Damn, it's gonna be tough reaching that altitude...you okay, Nagase?" asked Cipher, glancing at her to his right.

Silence was what he got before a heavy sigh came. "Yeah, I'm fine...wait, the Arkbird!"

All eyes looked straight at their great big white target high in the sky and just barely they were able to see a plume of white smoke emerge from its underbelly. The Arkbird had jettisoned something, and as they neared it that object soared past them at lightning quick speeds. It was an escape pod, but they didn't have time to worry about who could be inside and why it was launched in the first place.

"Adler to Schenze. He got away."

"It's the enemy!" whispered Grimm as they listened in, Cipher guessing whoever Adler was that he was stationed in the Arkbird, and Schenze was a Grey Men correspondent.

"The Osean astronaut?"

"Yeah. It's alright, we don't need him anymore...oh, dammit! He must've done something to the control system before he got away! Turn off that switch!"

Unsure of what the Belkans could have been talking about, the four pilots were thrown for a loop when the Arkbird began to rapidly descend far beyond what it was supposed to for its maneuver, getting slower and slower as more hair rushed along it's sleek body.

"Dammit, we're slowing down! We're diving deep into the atmosphere." cursed Adler when the controls were finally fixed, the Arkbird managing to level out at around twenty thousand feet.

It was such a dramatic loss of altitude that they were hoping it wouldn't interfere with their mission.

"Captain, this is Archer. Doesn't the Arkbird's approach path seem to deep?"

"Yeah, it does. And if what they said is any indication, whoever launched away in that pod made it a hell of a lot easier for us. Gun it!"

On his orders Cipher and his wingmen made sure to ruin that idea when they gunned it to reach the even more vulnerable Arkbird. As soon as they reached its backside, Cipher took the first shot by firing a pair of missiles that flew straight and true, striking the Arkbird's reinforced hull and rocking the entire spacecraft. While only leaving a few scratches and slight dents, the attack alone was enough to startle the entire crew.

"Adler to Schenze, we're under attack!

"What? The Osean army's supposed to be wrapped around our finger. Who the hell?"

Adler and the crew of the Arkbird looked to the external cameras on board to see who, or what, could've cause that attack, and as soon as they saw the four black and red fighters right on their tail they knew exactly who it was.

"Black bodies, that emblem, it's them! The 'Ghosts of Razgriz'!" in a frantic tone.

"Launch the VOGELs. Get rid of them!" he ordered to his lackey, Adler quickly putting the order into motion.

As Cipher was preparing to attack the Arkbird again, Grimm noticed hatches on the belly of the Arkbird slid open and launchers extend out with some kind of strange UAV with a triangular shape locked in. With two distinct pops, followed by the steam cloud, several UAVs were launched back to back from the belly of the white bird and into the sky below them.

They then sped up incredibly fast and turned to go right at the four pilots, Cipher cursing as the six UAVs forced them to leave the Arkbird alone in order to engage them.

"UAVs launching from the Arkbird! Take them down quickly!" ordered James once he became aware of the new enemies.

"Those launch ports weren't in the original design!" said Nagase as she avoided a burst of gunfire from the agile UAVs.

"Seems Belka made some modifications to it." said Snow with a growl. "Damn bastards, they'll pay for that!"

Cipher quickly analyzed the UAVs as they attacked his squadron and himself, and quickly he determined that because of their small and agile design he made the guess they couldn't carry any missiles whatsoever and only had their guns for attack. He grinned, this was going to be easy.

"They only have guns! Outrun and maneuver to engage them!" Cipher pulled hard to the right and got behind a pair of UAVs tailing Grimm, shooting one down with his gun while a missile brought down the other.

Nagase quickly followed suite with a kill of her own, while the Arkbird itself began to angle itself upwards towards the sky.

"Schenze to Adler. Do whatever it takes to gain altitude!"

"Roger! Countdown to booster ignition!"

Nagase looked back quickly at the Arkbird and saw a faint blue glow begin to come from the rear of the massive spacecraft, and judging by the angle it sat at through the air she knew exactly what it was going to do.

"The Arkbird's going to attempt to climb higher into the atmosphere!"

"What? How do you know?" questioned Grimm.

"I know all about the Arkbird. I was in love with it...so much that I used to stare at the blueprints all the time. That big engine in the middle is a booster designed to give it enough speed to escape the atmosphere. If we destroy that, it'll never make it into space again."

"Roger that." replied Snow, his hand tightening a little on the flight stick.

"We're gonna destroy the Arkbird...are we sure about this?" Grimm looked from one person to the other around them, hoping to catch their gaze from his cockpit.

"We have to do it, Grimm." stated Cipher with a heavy heart. "There's no way around this."

Right then a countdown was made by Adler to the crew of the Arkbird before the huge booster engine was started, a wide blue flame coming from the back of the Arkbird as the aircraft lurched upward slightly, it's speed picking up drastically.

"Destroy that booster!"

The Razgriz began to attack the Arkbird en masse once Grimm destroyed the final UAV, their missiles striking the body of the Arkbird and inflicting steadily growing damage to the spacecraft. Soon enough smoke began to emerge from the booster engine as its electrical system began to fail, and with a final strike from Nagase a devastating explosion rocked the Arkbird as bits and pieces flew away from it.

Cipher and Snow quickly maneuvered to avoid any of the debris and shrapnel from striking their planes, while the Arkbird had to level itself out with the loss of its primary booster engine. With its destruction, there really was no way for it to escape the wrath of the Razgriz demons on its tail. Because of that fact, Schenze made a decision for Adler.

"Activate all weapons, and launch a second wave of UAVs. If you can't escape from the Razgriz, shoot them down instead!"

Adler relayed the orders and Cipher was thrown for a loop when the rear mounted A-Sat laser the Arkbird was fitted with for the war glowed bright and opened fire on them, narrowly missing Nagase when she veered away. Anti-air missile pods began opening fire on them as well, and with a second volley of drones that launched from the Arkbird's belly, their job just got a whole lot harder.

"I heard Ofnir was destroyed by those guys…" spoke one of the Belkans aboard the Arkbird.

"Don't worry, the Arkbird is invincible."

"Fox three, fox three!" bellowed Grimm as he fired four of his special missiles into the A-Sat laser module, damaging it considerably.

As he flew away from the Arkbird a second rapid-firing pulse laser atop its dorsal section opened fire on him, one shot grazing his left wing with a loud sizzle.

"Second laser module spotted! It's there, atop the dorsal section!"

"Roger, Grimm!"

Snow hopped right on it, flipping over the few first laser bolts before he poured bullets and a pair of missiles into the pulse laser, effectively destroying it and leaving a unsightly scorched blemish on the white body of the Arkbird. At the same time Cipher gunned it to outrun the Arkbird laser as he shot down a pair of UAVs and turned sharply inward towards the craft itself, destroying the launchers so that they couldn't make any more allies for themselves.

Pitch black smoke was now coming from the once majestic spacecraft as the Razgriz hammered at it, eventually destroying two more of its five engines, causing it to lose even more altitude after trying to use them to gain some distance away from the four pilots.

"Dammit! We're falling again!" cursed Adler.

"Adler, you are aware of the backup plan, right?" questioned Schenze from over the radio, a moment of silence persisting between the two Belkans.

"I know...we'll detonate the nuke over Okchabursk ourselves."

"Your sacrifice will never be forgotten." replied Schenze with a honorable tone in his voice before ceasing all communication.

Adler quickly ordered the activation of the last two engines they had left, the two large combined cycle engines, in order to enact their final plan.

"It's still going! What do we do Captain?"

"Aim for those engines to stop it permanently! Then all it can do is glide its way to the water!"

Before they could act on his words however, James noticed several new radar signatures ping his map and he was quick to report the update to the others. Cipher looked to his radar after the update to see four fast moving enemies approaching the airspace and looked that way, his eyes narrowing when they became visible.

Four F-22A Raptors, the same they saw over Avalon. He bet they were the exact same pilots too, and he readied his squadron for them.

"Adler, this is Alpha. We're approaching from your twelve. We'll escort you to your target."

"Not on my watch!"

Cipher led the charge against the unknown fighters, Snow right beside him with Grimm to take them head on while Nagase was left alone to take down the Arkbird by herself. The decision for her to be the one to take it down was made silently and practically unanimously, it was only right that Nagase, who loved the Arkbird so much, had to be the one to take down the white bird.

She felt morally obligated to be that person because she didn't want the Arkbird legacy to be tarnished with the destruction of an entire city. And so with traces of tears in her eyes she pressed her attack on the Arkbird, dodging its weaponry as she destroyed its A-Sat laser with several missile strikes and moved on to the AAMs.

"Your mission was distorted by human treachery. Your days in the air are over!" proclaimed Nagase after destroying the AAMs, her sights moving to the engines.

Snow caught a glimpse of the white bird as he avoided a missile from one of the Raptors and he felt his heart tighten up from the black smoke coming from the Arkbird. It used to be so beautiful, and now it's white skin was turning black, the same as the souls of those who corrupted it.

By then, even when they had basically only just gotten there, the flight lead for the squadron of Raptors realized that the Arkbird had no chance of making it to Yuktobania and quickly bugged out without so much as a calling card left behind. Rather then pursue them, Cipher let them be and he, Grimm and Snow resorted to watching Nagase.

"Combined cycle engines destroyed!" she announced victoriously when two explosions rocked the Arkbird, sealing its fate.

All of its engines were destroyed, and without them, the giant aircraft was nothing more then an oversized glider. Even Adler realized there was no hope for them now.

"Carrying out the backup plan may be impossible under these conditions...altitude dropping, controls malfunctioning…"

The Arkbird descended towards the Ceres Ocean below, the sparkling waves almost calling out to the white bird, to take it within its watery hold so that it could rest. They formed up on Nagase to watch the Arkbird from above, and as another smaller explosion emerged from its hull, Snow shook his head disdainfully.

"What a pitiful sight."

"Yes...and humans are responsible for it." replied Grimm sadly.

The Arkbird lost control of itself and began to twist around in the air, its nose coming up to face the sky as fire and smoke consumed its body. With his final breath, Adler cursed the Razgriz before the white bird crashed into the waves in a massive plume of water, sinking below just below the surface before a mushroom cloud of water sprung upward by the Arkbird detonating with a muffled blast.

It was over. The symbol of peace, fallen from grace...had finally died.

^^^^Debriefing Message^^^^

We succeeded in halting the Arkbird nuclear attack on the city of Okchabursk in Yuktobania. The Arkbird crashed into the middle of the Ceres Ocean after attempting to detonate the nuke within itself over the city, after the plane to drop it failed. Miraculously, there were no ships near the area of the crash site. According to our investigation team, there is currently no evidence of radiation fallout in the area.