Chapter XXXVIII: Air to Air
09 Oct 0437 JST
Pacific Ocean, Just off the coast of Tokyo, Japan
Two American F-18 fighter jets neared closer towards the Japanese coastline as they continued to flee westward from the crushing defeat of the 7th Fleet. With the lack of GPS and worldwide alien interference still screwing with their onboard systems it had not been a straight shot to get here. After eluding a few beamers that had given brief chase to them following the battle the pilots had found themselves lost in over the ocean in the dead of night. While most of their systems were liable to fail or go on the fritz at random intervals the pilots' radios still worked at close range. "Joker Five systems check, can you hear me?" asked Lt. Nathaniel "Cobra" Warren confirming they still had communications with each other. "I read you loud and clear Joker Seven." answered Lt.(JG) Tiffany "Foxy" Fox. "Good, good. How are you doing on fuel Foxy?" asked Lt. Warren. "If this thing is to be trusted I'm down to about a quarter of my reserves." replied Lt. Fox. "What about you Cobra?" she asked. "A little less than that. We've got to find land soon, even if it means we have to punch out. We can't do it out over the ocean; no one's going to pick us up but those squidders." Warren replied. "Would be a shame to lose these planes though. I don't think they make 'em like this anymore." Fox commented. "I don't think they make them at all anymore." Warren added, stating the obvious. "I think I see something; look to your starboard side, 4 o' clock." said Fox after they had flown on a few more minutes. In the distance the dark reflective surface of the water changed to a thin strand of a dark opaque surface beneath the moonlight. Tiny flecks of blue light could be seen near the ground and slightly above it in the air. "I see it too. Land ho!" cheered Warren. The sight of land on the horizon was like an answer to their prayers, even if there were barely visible signs of enemy presence there at least now they knew they were heading in the right direction. The fighters banked gradually and turned towards the land as the outline of what Tokyo had become started to come into focus. Several dozen dimly lit alien towers were mixed in with the colossal skyscrapers of the Tokyo skyline, still largely intact following the initial worldwide bombardment. From these towers beamers, drones and small alien craft docked and departed. Above the city the pilots saw ribbons of twinkling lights forming the outline of a large disc shaped craft approximately 650-700 meters in diameter. "Whoa, Tokyo is looking like monster central here." Warren remarked, taken back by the apparent size of the occupation force there. "As if that's supposed to be something new." chuckled Fox. "Cut the crap Foxy." said Warren in a slightly more serious tone. "I guess we know why we lost contact with the GW before she went into the Straits of Tsushima." commented Fox as she stared down the ominous alien mothership parked over Tokyo. "It's a safe bet to assume the GW has been lost. We can still hold out hope though. Now what do you say we take these birds further north before going ashore." said Warren. "Aye aye Cobra." Fox replied. The two planes banked and turned north, moving parallel to the coast in order to keep the shoreline within sight on their port side. "You don't suppose they've spotted us, do you?" asked a concerned Lt. Fox. "I'm certain they have. They've probably spotted us long before we saw them. Heck, I'd bet they've probably been monitoring us since the moment we took off." answered Warren alluding to the fact he believed the aliens could be monitoring the movements of every single human being on Earth from orbit, something he and the other pilots onboard the Reagan had discussed at length before. "They see us; we've just got to make sure that they don't pay attention to us." said Warren.
The two pilots maintained radio silence for several minutes after the shape of the alien mothership had disappeared into the night behind them. Even though danger was just over the horizon the scene around the planes was serene. It was almost too quiet, despite the roar of the Hornets' engines behind them and the sounds of the sea far below them. The pilots' focus gave them a false sense of calm as they tried to harness their fear. In time their fear was actualized in the form of a steady blue light in the distance above and behind them. "Check your six. Do you see that?" Lt. Fox spoke up nervously breaking radio silence. "I see it." replied Warren. The light was descending and growing larger as it approached them. The planes turned slightly towards the coast as the alien fighter closed in on them. "Stay calm Foxy. We can't outrun them and we can't outmaneuver them so don't bother trying. What we can do is out think them." Warren told Lt. Fox. "Good thing is there's only one of them and two of us." Warren laughed trying to defuse the tension. The speed at which the beamer closed in on the two planes made it seem as the supersonic fighters were standing still. It was but a blue dot in the sky a couple minutes ago and now it was nearly upon them. "Remember our AMRAAM's are useless unless we can get right up on them so stick to guns if you can." Warren cautioned Fox as even a fully functional missile was incapable of getting a lock on one of the alien craft; they always seemed to shrug them off with the greatest of ease. If a hit could be scored on the beamers it didn't take much to bring them down so the best strategy had been, as counterintuitive to their training as it might have been, was for the pilots to get in close with the beamers and spray ordinance over as wide an area as possible in order to get that one chance hit by sheer luck and determination. As the beamer came at them fast the two pilots broke formation and attempted evasive maneuvers. The beamer bolted past the two fighters without firing a single shot from behind. It turned on a dime horizontally 4 kilometers in front of Lt. Fox and charged back at her at the same speed as it was traveling in the other direction less than a second before. She was not prepared for this at all, the G forces from that maneuver that would have turned a human pilot's body to mush and should have sheared the wings off the alien craft but for some reason didn't. The alien craft opened fire on the startled Lt. Fox who dove steeply out of the way of the bluish white plasma bolts. "I told you these things can be hella maneuverable when they want to be." said Warren as his plane came at the beamer from the side and opened fire. Not a single round hit but it turned the beamer towards him instead of Lt. Fox. Warren did a barrel roll out of the way of alien plasma fire and the beamer streaked by him and did another hairpin turn towards where Warren was going. Out from below Fox fired one of her AMRAAM missiles and hit the beamer just as it lined up with Warren. The beamer exploded into several pieces that showered into the ocean. "What did I tell you about missiles?!" was the thanks she got from Warren. "It worked though! I just aimed for you and assumed the bug-eyed bastard would be on your tail." Fox protested. "That's nice to know." sarcastically remarked Warren. She had taken a big gamble, if she had been wrong she could have hit her own wingman, but in the end it paid off and right now that was all that mattered. As the two planes were leveling off and regrouping another beamer broke through the surface of the ocean out from the deep directly below Lt. Fox's plane and fired two shots. The white hot plasma sheared away the tail of her plane, destroyed both her engines and caused her to go into a horizontal spin as she rapidly plummeted towards the earth. She managed to punch out before her plane exploded; the heat and the shockwave from the explosion wafted upwards into her chute and pulled her higher into the air. As she dropped down towards the ocean's surface she could see the land a mile away, maybe two or three at most. She tried to direct her descent towards the land for she knew there would be no rescue at sea. Below her however the aliens had different plans. The beamer, one of the larger ones was waiting below her hovering with its nose pointed towards the sky. It opened its front hatch and a darker blue light which appeared in a more "solid" form than the soft blue glow of its external propulsion system and running lights shone out ahead of it. The beam slowed Lt. Fox's descent and slowly pulled her in. Lt. Warren looped around and came at the beamer at an angle. There was no way he was letting them take his wingman and friend. He opened fire with guns which the alien fighter twisted to evade yet remained in place. He accelerated pushing the throttle to the max as if he intended to ram the alien craft then launched a missile at extreme close range. He banked hard right to avoid the resultant explosion as the missile collided with the alien craft and pulled up. As he circled back around he saw the wrecked alien gunship crash into the water along with the bits and pieces blasted away from it. He also saw Lt. Fox drifting down towards the ocean surface as well. There wasn't much he could do for her from inside his plane. She wasn't that far from land that swimming to shore would be out of the question either. "Swim Foxy, swim." whispered Warren as he made one last pass around the area as Lt. Fox splashed down. He then resumed his course north to northwest, heading over land himself to look for a place to touch down. He intended on returning to this area when he had landed safely to search the shoreline for his friend. For right now however she was on her own.