Speaking Too Soon and Misinterpreting Signals
Not many people talked to me on my way up to the hangar. I guess it was just my mood. Or maybe I was walking to fast.
I didn't know why I was in a bad mood other than this was a bad situation. Pop's sending in only one aircraft I could understand. While we were well rehearsed with flying close to each other as Kei had done numerous times before, one plane reduced any error by a factor of four. But the whole no weapons thing...
I was pulled from my brooding at the sight of the black plane commanded all attention again. Petra was already waiting by the dangerous beauty and was talking with Sylvia. Once she saw me, her fellow CSO fell quiet and walked off before I was within hearing range.
"What was that about?" I asked as I began to get ready to climb into the plane.
"CSO stuff you wouldn't understand," she replied quickly. Too quickly to be a normal response. I ignored it for now. We'd have time to talk when we had to have electronic silence weather Petra wanted to or not.
We launched just as easily as last time but as soon as I was in the air, I realized with a fair bit of panic that I would have to be doing another carrier landing. Trying to distract myself from the inevitable, I began to look for some of the surveillance systems installed on the plane for this mission. There wasn't a single thing different in the cockpit and I began to think we had launched in the wrong plane. Before I said anything, I looked out on the wing and sure enough, there was my number, 016.
"Petra? Where's all this monitoring equipment? I don't see a single button for it."
"You wouldn't," she replied. "I'm in control of it all. Could you imagine trying to control the plane while focusing and panning a camera? You're a great pilot, sure, but this time, I've got a larger role to play than your cuddle-buddy's extra pair of eyes. You've just got to make sure we aren't shot down. Or crash." I saw stupefied into silence. Cuddle-buddy?
"Where did-?"
"What's that?" Petra said quickly.
"'Cuddle-'?"
"Caden, you need to enunciate."
"Wedonotcuddle." I said as quickly as I could. The long bout of silence after my outburst told me that either Petra's equipment had just failed or she had just accomplished something she wanted and was reveling in the silence and Pop's didn't skimp on maintenance.
"Blaze, how you feelin'?" the aircraft maintainer said in a slightly concerned voice. For a moment, I briefly thought back to Reindeer squadron and their leaders' outbursts at his flight members.
"Outstanding, sir," I replied flatly, falling back to the response that we had been drilled to recite to any superior member of the military back when I was in college.
"Alright then," Pop's replied unconvinced. I just hoped there weren't any other people around hearing this back on the ship. "Take a look at your search radar. The enemy's radar range is marked out by those circles. Cooked up that software patch myself," he added with a hint of pride I couldn't help but smile at. I never realized just how many trades Pop's seemed to know a thing or two about. "Make sure you don't enter any of those circles, and fly to the east. Remember, the lower you are, the less likely you'll be picked up."
"Thanks," I told the man, beginning to cool down a little from my small outburst.
"Maintain radio silence until you reach the destination. I'll then explain the target and how to photograph it. Got it?"
"Yup," I replied as the edge of the radar began to show fuzzy circles. I began to drop my altitude and couldn't help the small childish grin that I got at seeing the circles getting smaller.
"Make sure you don't get caught within the coverage area of the enemy radar. Good luck. We'll go into radio silence in a moment. Hang in there until the next transmission." With the older man done giving his advice, my radio faded out into silence. We now had approximately ten minutes to guaranteed privacy.
"I'm sorry for yelling," I said. I then held my breath for a moment, not for Petra's answer however, but because I just entered the threshold of the radar coverage, squeezing between two of the large circular overlays displayed on my search screen.
"It's fine," Petra said while I continued to focus on keeping us out of the bubbles of doom. "I'm sorry for teasing."
"It's fine," I said, copping her response. We were silent a little bit longer before Petra spoke up again.
"So, you two seriously aren't..."
"No," I responded coolly yet swiftly. "Not that it's any of your business anyways," I quickly added.
"What else am I to do?" She asked a little exacerbated. "Everyone in this damn squadron is hooking up with each other and I'm left on my own trying to get juicy details that no one wants to give. I have told you that Sylvia made me throw out my romance collection, right?" She was quiet for a brief moment before she spoke up again. "And don't you try and go play match maker." I couldn't help but ask now that she had used 'you' so condescendingly.
"Not that I ever would, but why would it be such a bad thing for me to-"
"First of all," Petra said interrupting me, obviously knowing I would ask. "The notion of you knowing anything about a woman's wants, let alone mine, is laughable. Kei told me about that little run in you had with 'Dancer.' You're lucky Kei was watching your back. Besides, you didn't even know your own wing-mate had the hots for you, even then." Valid point. "Secondly, Larry is too old and mopey and just not my type, and Marcus..." she got hung up for a moment.
"What?" I asked, wanting to know what she had against the man.
"He seems to be just getting over something," she said, her mood much more toned down and reserved than the high-strung one she had been sporting a moment ago.
"What do you mean?" I asked. If anything, Marcus could be more jovial than Petra at times, and that was from the brief encounters I had with the man thus far. Who knew what he was like the rest of the time.
"I know when people are going through loss, if for no other reason than having gone through it myself," she said after a few short moments. Her voice was very... quiet. Eggshell walking time.
"I'm sorry," I said after another quiet moment. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?" The woman gave an unexpected blip of humorless laughter before speaking fairly quietly.
"Kei said you were one of those sensitive types." She then took an audible deep breath. "It's a conversation for another time. Besides, we're almost to the mission area. We've got to focus." She was right. The radar was starting to show a strange clearing just ahead. With as low as we were to the terrain, I couldn't see why until we rounded a hill that had been blocking my view. There was a long runway running from east to west with multiple buildings along its length. There was a small port-like facility that could barely be called that and a large mountain with a primitive road running to a concrete tunnel I could just barely make out from this distance. I held off from getting closer in fear of the enemy getting a visual read on me. Then the whole sneaking in thing would be pointless. My radio began to whine back to life before Pop's came over the channel.
"All right, you've arrived over the target area. Cancel radio silence." For a brief moment, I thought about the mission we had performed against the Hrimfaxi. Chopper had been all too eager to end radio silence on that one. "I'm monitoring your status with a low-resolution camera," Pop's said, pulling me from the bitter-sweet memory. "Something's being moved from the mine entrance to that transport plane." Wait, what? I glanced at the road leading to the mountain and sure enough, as soon as I squinted, I saw a couple of large military trucks with covers on their backs moving down from the mine. "Okay, let's get a photo with the mine entrance and the transport plane in the frame," Pop's told Petra. I followed her earlier advice and focused on making sure we remained undetected and in the sky.
"Photo received," Pop's said after a couple of seconds. After what I assumed was some silent deliberation, he spoke up again to give another command to Petra. "I see some 8492nd Squadron members, and some planes with the Yuktobanian Air Force mark on them." I nearly failed my one job. We had dealt with them over the mountains! How were they back here?! I had to resist ever fiber of my being that was screaming at me to inflict some form of damage to them. Only the smooth and calculating voice of Pop's lulled me back to my job as the pilot of this reconnaissance mission. "The Belken's are sending aggressors posing as allies over to Yuktobania as well. All right, let's get a shot of both counties' emblems next to each other for evidence." I continued my loitering tactic as Petra adjusted the camera on the modified F-14.
"Photo received," the older man said after a couple more moments. I was starting to get a bad feeling. It would only be a matter of time before we were spotted. Or heard. F-14's were one of the largest fighters in the possession of Osea. It had an audio signature to match. I didn't want to be the un-armed object of attention when over a dozen of Belka's top trained aces took off. "Now, before the two transport planes take off, capture both of them in one shot, got it?" Pop's asked Petra. We remained quiet as we had been the whole rest of the flight when he spoke up again. "Blaze, Petra, we're not under radio silence anymore. You can respond."
"Copy that," we responded in unison. Petra had the angle on the two transports within seconds and sent the photo. Before Pop's could acknowledge he had received it, however, the inevitable happened.
"Patrol to tower, we've got an enemy aircraft loitering out here! Unknown affiliation!" Within seconds, an air raid siren loud enough to be hard from out here sounded off. We needed to get out of here.
"The Grabacr guys are taking off," one of the ground personnel said.
"The enemy won't have time to attack. Ofnir four, go up in thirty seconds."
"Roger, Grabacr three, thirty seconds."
"Blaze," Petra said in a nervous voice. "I think we have thirty seconds to get out of here."
"This is just the evidence we need. Nice work you two. They're coming up after you. Shake them off and return home." I didn't need telling twice. I pulled up and applied full after-burner to get some altitude and speed in one shot with the tomcats massive power plants. If they hadn't heard us before, they heard us now.
"Did you see that?" one of the ground patrols we were picking up asked. "I've never seen anyone climb like that!"
"Yeah..." one of the people in the patrol responded. "That guy's something else..."
"Takeoff complete. Engaging the enemy," the enemy squadrons that were scrambling announced. I was already at 10,000 feet, but the enemy planes were much more advanced than the aging tomcat and were already meeting up with us. It wasn't looking good. "Enemy plane visually confirmed. Black body... Red tail..." there was an unanswered question in the pilots' voice, along with something else. I knew what it was, I had experienced the same sensation when I laid eyes on the fighter the first time. I was just hoping the dumbfoundment would last long enough for Petra and I to make an escape.
"Pixy, do we have anything we can use against these guys?" I asked in desperation.
"These cameras don't even have flash, Blaze!" she replied, her own fear beginning to become apparent. "We don't have any offensive capabilities." I was starting to maneuver around to keep from becoming an easy target for the aggravating fighters when I began to notice the plane being a little sluggish. I checked my panels and noticed the reason why almost immediately.
This had been a long haul mission, far away from where the Kestrel was. As such, we had been given drop tanks to extend our range. They were nearly empty and I was just about to release them when an idea came to me. A stupid idea, but one that would get the fighters off our tail none the less.
"Pixy," I called out, getting the attention of my frazzled CSO. "When I say so, be ready to purge the drop tanks."
"You still haven't dropped them?" she asked in bewilderment.
"Blaze," Pop's said over the radio in a warning tone that I was used to hearing from Kei when she heard one of my bad ideas. "Please tell me you aren't-" I cut the radio off before much more could be said. It was his fault we were in this situation. How hard would it have been to give me at least two sidewinders and some bullets, Pop's? It's not like camera equipment is heavy and bulky.
"There's an emblem on the body," one of our pursuers said as they began to gain on us. "I've never see that one before..." the plane behind us was suddenly joined by four others. I began to recite the plan in my head. It was a long shot but if it worked...
I pulled up with such suddenness, that even Petra let out a little yelp of surprise.
"Enemy pilot taking evasive maneuvers. Grabacr squadron, we're engaging."
"Copy that. Ofnir squadron is on stand-by." The planes behind us began to follow as I pulled up into the sky.
"Pixy, are you ready to purge the tanks?"
"Blaze, don't make me tell you how wrong that sounds," Petra said in a nervous voice that I knew she was trying to hide with humor. Almost like...
"Just do it when I give the command," I replied before I went on another trip down memory lane. The planes behind us were gaining even in this climb. I glanced at my altimeter. 18,000... 19,000... 19,500...
"PURGE," I ordered as I cut thrust completely for a whole second. I glanced at my screen between my legs to see the fuel state in the tanks quickly depleting. As the last bit of fuel left, I reengaged the engines to full after-burner, streaks of flames more than six feet in length jetting out the back of our plane. Luck was on my side today.
The Belken planes that had been following us were either confused as to what the greenish fluid was that was coming from my plane or just didn't see it at all. They were in a haze of kill lust. What they probably did notice was when my engines ignited the greenish fluid that was coming from my plane. They kind of had to notice it because they flew right through it. I certainly noticed it as my plane had a brief moment of uncontrolled acceleration followed by rigorous shaking.
"What the shit?!" one of the ground forces said before anyone. Then the yelps of surprise came from my pursuers. At most, the fireball they flew through would cause them to have an engine failure. At the least, they would be distracted for a precious few seconds. I made the fastest escape I could as the pilots regathered themselves.
"Was verrückte Hurensohn ist dieser Kerl?" one of the pilots asked in their language.
"Pixy?" I called out quickly. "Are you alright?"
"WHAT THE HELL!" she asked in a frenzy. Clearly she was in prime physical condition. Mental... I switched off her radio feed for a moment to keep from losing my hearing and dropped the now empty fuel tanks. I continued on a south east direction to get as far from this place as possible. I wasn't quite sure what I would do if I was perused again. I glanced at the radar behind me and saw only two of the four planes that had been following me still on my tail. Turning my radio back on, I was able to pick up why.
"-turning for repairs. Engine one is toast and the second is sputtering like mad. I thought you said he was unarmed!"
"He was sir! It was just a recon plane!"
"I swear, I'm gonna' report you for your negligence!" I couldn't help but smirk at the havoc my improve attack had caused but all too soon I was reminded it wasn't completely one sided.
"Blaze?! Did you just put me on mute?!"
"I guess the explosion had a temporary affect on our radio," I said coyly.
"Just get us out of here before another one of your suicidal ideas comes to fruition. I'm sick of Belka anyway." I couldn't agree more. We continued our egress and with the two wary pilots now at our six, we didn't have much trouble keeping out of range. It was a relief not having to worry about the radar on the way back. I couldn't imagine trying to fly as low as I had on the way in here to escape. We were just about to exit the area when I saw three signatures on radar that confused me to no end.
"Pixy," I asked as I continued to stare at my radar.
"What?" she asked, clearly still miffed at me but concerned none the less at my beckoning for her.
"Who are those signatures on radar, ten clicks out and right on the nose?" There was a tense silence as Petra worked on finding out who they were.
"I'm not getting valid responses back from them," Petra told me, causing my stomach to plummet to the ground over ten thousand feet below.
"-ze?" I quirked an eyebrow that no one would see at the surprise sound coming over the radio.
"-aptain, ..an you ...ear us?"
"Pixy, you picking that up?" I asked my CSO.
"Yeah, I hear it too. Trying to clear and boost the signal. Those Belken's must've activated some kind of jammer when they spotted us." As Petra continued to fiddle with the radio, the three signatures got closer and closer to us. No doubt about it now that they were on an intercept course.
"Captain Irving? This is Captain Snow. Please come in."
"Swordsman? Where are you? I've got three unidentified aircraft on an intercept course and I'm at fuel state Joker. I could really use some back up right about now."
"Blaze?" Kei asked almost immediately after my transmission. "Blaze, the three signatures are us. Grimm's with us too. We'll be escorting you back." Relief flooded me like a tsunami wave as the three aircraft came into visual range. They were all black bodied tomcats that quickly formed up on my wing.
"We thought we lost you there for a moment, Captain," Grimm spoke up, a clear amount of relief in his own voice. "Once Pop's said he lost radio contact with you, we feared the worst."
"Pixy," Kei said suddenly with a fire in her voice. "Did he do what it sounded like he was going to do?"
"If it sounded like he was going to ignite unspent fuel with frickin' after-burners then yeah, he certainly did just that. You crazy fool," she added at the end of her high strung rant. Her outburst was just a minor first degree burn on my pinkly compared to what I was expecting from Kei though. But my cringing turned out to be surprisingly unnecessary. There was a long drag of silence as I assumed everyone else was expecting an outburst as well.
"Well, at least you're alive. That's what matters." I lost control of what my jaw did as I heard Kei's statement. I must've died or something. This wasn't a reaction Kei was capable of producing. Suddenly, an even more troubling thought came to mind. Maybe this was indeed real life, but she was saving her real speech for a more... private moment. One where physical pain could be inflicted without destroying an aircraft. I was beginning to wish I had died. And that was before we were even near the carrier for a landing.
By the time we reached the carrier, I was running on fumes, so it was quickly decided that I would be landing first. I began to line up with the lights on the carrier as best I could, trying not to think of the very... very short runway. The air boss was giving me every command he could throw out to put me on the dot and I made sure to execute every single one of them as they said it. Once we landed on the deck, I couldn't get out of the plane fast enough. It was only through Petra reminding me we still had to be taken below deck that I remained in the plane for a couple minutes more. When the aircraft was safely stowed away, I hopped out of the cockpit quicker than I ever had before.
"Caden," Pop's said from not too far away. I glanced at the man to see him making his way over to me. "Good to see you're still alive. After I lost radio contact with you-"
"I didn't want another Kei yelling at me about 'bad ideas'," I told the man before he could complete whatever sly remark he had. "Anyways, did you get the intel you needed?" Pop's gave me a stink eye only older people are able to give before speaking again.
"Yes, but it's going to take some time to analyze it. There are some things that don't make sense. Or do, and are just too important to jump to conclusions with. Either way, it's going to be a day or two before we have your squadron deploy again."
"Sounds fine to me," Petra said as she pulled off her helmet and landed on the ground beside me. "This blooming fool tried to blow us up today and I'd prefer some time for him to get his mind straightened out."
"I think there is something else that's going to straighten his mind," Pop's said with a grin and a nod directed behind us. I took a look at where he had directed and saw a sight that almost put as much fear into me as our dark planes.
Kei was marching towards us with so much purpose, it would've put the Belken leaders during the Osean War to shame.
"Shit," I muttered before she got within striking range. Instead of a punch though, I received a grapple.
"Come with me, now," she said threateningly leaving behind a grinning Pop's and a panicked Petra. I glanced back at the duo as I trailed behind Kei. Petra just mouthed, 'Sorry,' to me with a sympathetic face while Pop's said something that looked like, 'good luck.' Or maybe buffalo. Probably good luck.
I didn't bother to speak a word as Kei lead us to our room. I wasn't sure what I could say without making the situation worse. She seemed to be in one of her moods where only time and groveling would make anything better. When she finally got us to our room, she opened the door and gestured for me to enter.
"In," she commanded. I looked at the opened door and then at her. I didn't want to. "Caden, get in that room."
"Kei, I think you need to calm down a little before we-" I stopped speaking as she lunged at me. But instead of receiving any kind of body blows I had seen her deliver to Hamilton or punches I was all but accustomed to, I was assaulted in quite a different way that I actually quite liked. Once she pulled away from my lips and got back down from her toes, she spoke again.
"Can we go into the room now?" I was at a loss as to what to say. This was a completely different outcome than I had been expecting and that fact alone was enough to pulverize my brain. The fact that what had just happened had been so amazing as to turn my pulverized brain into nothing but mush, it was a miracle I was still standing. I managed a faint nod as Kei continued to lead me into the room. Once we were inside, I was able to get enough of my thought processes back to for a few words.
"Kei, I'm sorry for-" she stopped me from saying much more as she kissed me again.
"Not right now," she said once she pulled away again. "Right now, I just need to know you're here." We ended up laying down on one of the small skinny beds together to rest our stressed minds and bodies. It was a tight squeeze, and at first I was nervous that I would be making Kei uncomfortable. But after she assured me she didn't mind, I was at ease enough to fall asleep.
When I woke up, I had a mild panic attack before realizing this was okay. Kei's small bit of laughter told me she found the sudden jump I had quite funny.
"Hey," she said without turning her head back at me, content to keep it just below my chin.
"Hey," I replied, turning slightly so I could respond without my jaw smacking her. Her hair smelled good. "I think we need a bigger bed if this is to continue," I told her as she continued to rest with me.
"I don't know," Kei said a little wistfully. "I kind of like it like this," she said, finally moving enough so I could see the large grin on her face. While I had to admit that I enjoyed being as close to Kei as I was, I wasn't sure I'd be able to sleep like this for the rest of the war. Even with the speed we were trying to end it, my back wouldn't be able to tolerate more than three consecutive nights like this.
"Not saying I don't like this arrangement," I told her as I voiced my opinions, "but these beds were made small for a reason. A reason we've all but defeated but they're putting up a good effort none the less." Kei's smile abated only slightly as she conceded my point, but didn't make an effort to get out of the cramped bed, instead deciding to get even closer to me.
"You're warm," she said, changing the topic.
"People who're alive tend to be that way," I responded. As a counter-proof to my statement, Kei put one of her feet up against my own. "Holy cow!" I said moving my feet away from the ice cold appendage.
"No, don't move," Kei complained trying to get even closer.
"Put some socks on or something," I told her as I continued to move my own feet away from hers. I looked down at Kei's face and from the half that wasn't buried in my shirt I could see she was enjoying herself. Her eyes were closed and her trademark smile wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I stopped my struggle and let the cold soles of her feet make contact. For a moment her smile vanished as her eyes opened.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she looked up at my own face.
"Nothing," I said with a smile as I looked down at her. "I just can't believe I got so lucky." Kei's smile came back in an instant as she rested her head against me yet again.