AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was the hardest chapter to write so far. Writing 1V1 is tough, but writing everyone on everyone?
Former South St. Paul Airport
Minnesota Dead Zone, United States of Canada
3 May 2001
The crew chief clambered up the latter. "Sir, try it now!"
Adam Taurus powered up the Moonslice, and this everything came on the way it was supposed to. He threw the crew chief a thumbs-up, but before he could close the canopy, Sienna Khan dragged off the crew chief and made her way up the ladder. She leaned in so he could hear her better. "The mission's off!" she shouted.
"What?"
"It's off!" she yelled louder. "We lost all contact with the train, and all the fighters are gone! You go up there now, and you'll just get shot down!"
"I can do it!" Adam yelled back.
"I order you not to do it!"
Adam reached out, powered down Moonslice, and grabbed her by the front of her shirt. "I am better than all of them," he hissed.
Sienna slapped his hand away. "Beacon has everything in the air—Watts has been picking up their transmissions. You might get one or two, but the rest will kill you—and you're all we have left now."
Adam slammed a fist down on the side console, in frustration, because he knew Sienna was right. "Now what? Do we wait here until the Air Force comes and bombs us to bits, or when the Army sends in their strike force?"
Sienna shook her head. "Watts has found us another hideout. Do you have the fuel to make North Dakota?" The tradeoff for Moonslice's small size and amazing maneuverability was short range.
"I can make it."
"We're loading everything else in the helicopters. Right now the humans are dealing with the GRIMM. We'll escape before they know we've gone." She touched his shoulder in a rare bit of comradeship. "I'm sorry, Adam. It was just bad luck."
He nodded. "We lost the battle today, but hardly the war. Give me the coordinates."
Sienna handed him a note. "These come from our source in Beacon. Not only coordinates, but passwords—if they haven't changed them. We may have to fight our way in, but what else is new?"
Adam laughed humorlessly. "All right. Meet you there." To his surprise, Sienna gave him a quick hug, then dropped down off the ladder. Adam motioned for the crew chief to come back up. "What did you find on the aircraft?"
The chief lowered his voice. "Someone pulled some of the black boxes. They didn't damage them, just pulled them, in a way not easy to find. That's why it took so long. No fault of the aircraft or the ground crew."
Adam rubbed his chin in thought. "Who preflighted Wilt?"
The chief gave a quick look around. "Ilia Amitola."
Killbox Alpha
South of Winona, Minnesota Dead Zone, United States of Canada
3 May 2001
Lie Ren had been accused of being unsympathetic at best to other people's emotions, or even being emotionless himself. Neither was quite true: he just was not one to let people get to him, or one to wear his emotions on his sleeve.
At the moment, however, he was acutely aware of Nora Valkyrie's frustration, and shared it with her.
Below them, in plain sight, was the largest GRIMM army either had ever seen, and they had lived through the horror of GRIMM overrunning a town—and they were restricted from attacking it. He had counted at least fifty Boarbatusks, along with six Goliaths and two Death Stalkers. All of them were headed down the overgrown highway towards La Crosse, through dense woods, and that did not even count the two Nevermores on their way, along with several dozen Beowolves and Ursai, and the King Taijitu hugging the ground over the Boarbatusks.
And yet they had to sit there, orbiting at 15,000 feet, reporting on the progress of the GRIMM horde and waiting for reinforcements. Both of them, with a full load of ordnance. Ren resisted the urge to kick something, and hoped Nora hadn't put a hole in her own instrument panel yet.
"Ren, Cinder. Creamer Flight coming up at your one o'clock level." Ren looked in that direction, and saw the four aircraft coming in to joining up. We are certainly diverse, he thought to himself. Every one of the six aircraft were different—his J-10, Nora's A-10, Cinder Fall's F-15, Emerald Sustrai's Mirage F.1, Mercury Black's F-16, and Ruth Lionheart's Jaguar.
"Ren, Fox. Coffee Flight joining on your eleven o'clock level." Ren almost laughed: now he could add the two remaining aircraft of Coffee: Fox Alasdair and Velvet Scarlatina's Tornado, and Yatsuhachi Datchi's F-2.
"Roger," Ren acknowledged. "Who has command?" He glanced in Cinder's direction. She was a major, and outranked all of them.
"Ren, Cinder." She had noticed him looking at her. "You do. You know the situation better than I do."
Ren took a breath. She was right. Ozpin and Goodwitch had emphasized this in training, and now it was time to put it to good use. Rank didn't matter; knowledge did here.
"Juniper Three, Regency." The AWACS had been listening in. "You are designated raid commander Killbox Alpha. Relay from Beacon: BUFFs on the way. Engage and destroy all aerial GRIMM. Ground GRIMM to be engaged at discretion. Cardinal has CAP over Killbox Bravo. Sun, Ruby, and remaining Juniper Flight elements are on their way. Clear skies, repeat, clear skies."
"Roger, wilco." Ren understood: the Boarbatusks and Goliaths could not hurt the B-52s, but the flight-capable GRIMM certainly could. They had to clear the skies for the vulnerable bombers. "Vector to aerial GRIMM?"
"Ren, Regency—GRIMM are at bearing two-zero-zero, range now forty miles, speed five hundred, angels ten. Witch Lead has engaged Beowolves at rear of formation. Raid count is now two Nevermore, thirty Beowolves, eight Ursai."
Ren remembered another lesson, this one from Wing Commander Port: when placed in command, command. "Ren to all Killbox Alpha elements. Turn to two-zero-zero, wall formation; engage when in range and fire at discretion." He kept his voice typically neutral: some of the pilots would be nervous, especially Creamer, who to the best of his knowledge had never been in an actual fight before. Wall formation would mean salvoing their long-range weapons to kill as many GRIMM as possible before the merge. "Nora: engage Taijitu at your three o'clock low. Ruth, Yatsuhachi, you're Iron Hand."
"Roger." Yatsuhachi and Ruth both understood: they would be on flak suppression duties, trying to keep some pressure off Nora. He wondered if he were sending all three to their death. Then again, perhaps they were all going to die. Ren thought of his father, who commanded the local militia of his village, who died fighting GRIMM. So be it.
"Killbox Alpha elements, execute." He watched for a moment as Ruth's Jaguar and Yatsuhachi's F-2 peeled away into a shallow dive. Nora returned his gaze for a moment, put a hand on her canopy, then was gone.
Ren turned as well, to join up with his shooters. The five aircraft spread out in echelon. "Velvet, Ren," he radioed. "On you."
"Roger," Velvet sent back. In the backseat of the Tornado, she alone did not have to divide her attention between flying and watching a radar screen. She tapped in commands to the onboard computer, linking to the radars of the other aircraft. She watched the radar display. The GRIMM were now at thirty miles, already in range of the AMRAAM, but optimal range would be a bit closer. She locked her own radar onto four targets. "Stand by." The range closed quickly. Three seconds later, she told Fox, "Shoot!"
Fox pulled the trigger, four times. Four of the Sky Flash missiles nestled beneath the Tornado dropped away, ignited, and roared away, leaving thick white exhaust plumes. "Alasdair, Fox One."
"Cinder, Fox Three."
"Mercury, Fox Three!"
"Ren, Fox Three."
Only Emerald held her fire; her Mirage had older Super 530F missiles, which would need another thirty seconds to be in range. Even without her, there were now eight AMRAAMs and four Sky Flash heading towards the GRIMM. The GRIMM's warning recievers went off, and the drones began evasive maneuvers, switching on internal jammers and dropping chaff clouds. The AMRAAMs got there first: three Beowolves and three Ursai vanished. Ren's command began to lose cohesion as four of them began to switch over to Sidewinders and prepare for the merge; Fox held steady, as the Sky Flash were not fire and forget. The GRIMM tried to evade, but Velvet, with laserlike intensity, kept the radar locked onto them. All four of their missiles hit, downing four Beowolves. Now there were twenty-three Beowolves and seven Ursai. And the two Nevermores, Ren reminded himself.
"Tally-ho on the GRIMM," Cinder called out. Now the two sides were in visual range. They were at the merge: when both sides would meet each other head-on.
"Split and engage," Ren ordered. He climbed, both to gain advantage and to keep situational awareness. Mercury and Emerald both joined up, leaving Cinder to end up covering Fox and Velvet. The Tornado briefly slid into her gunsight, and Cinder ran her finger over the trigger, tempted. Not yet, she cautioned herself. There would be time in the dogfight for "accidents" to happen.
Emerald and Mercury were first to the GRIMM. An Ursa engaged Mercury: he fired a Sidewinder, but was forced to break away and dive when the Ursa returned fire. Emerald had better luck: she went between two Beowolves, throwing off their targeting solution, then fired both her wingtip Sidewinders. Two Beowolves behind the first pair were hit and went into fatal spirals, trailing flame. "Emerald, splash two." She lit her afterburner and climbed hard.
Mercury rolled upwards, lined up the Ursa, and fired another Sidewinder. The Ursa rocked with the hit, but didn't go down, and began turning towards him. He dodged its cannon fire. Emerald saw her wingman. "Mercury, extend out. I got him." Mercury wasn't too pleased about that, but a Beowulf was heading in his direction, and he didn't want to end up as the meat in a GRIMM sandwich. As the F-16 broke away, Emerald, humming tunelessly to herself, locked onto the crippled Ursa, and fired one of her Super 530s. She now had to hold it steady, because like the Sky Flash, the 530 was not fire-and-forget either.
"Emerald, Ren, you've got a Beowulf at your five low." She ignored the call, waiting a precious second. It paid off; the 530 hit the Ursa and blew it apart. "Break left!" That one Emerald didn't ignore: she broke hard to the left as a GRIMM missile sailed past, then turned to engage. She barely decoyed it off with a flare; her Mirage rocked with the near miss. Emerald kicked her tail around as the Beowulf closed in with its cannon. "Mercury, I've got one on me!"
"Cinder, Fox Two." The Beowulf exploded. Emerald blew out her breath as the F-15 flew past. "Thanks, Cinder. Good shot."
Nora spotted the Taijitu below. Named for the Taoist symbol of balance, it was the GRIMM version of the A-10: strictly meant for ground attack, it was straight winged and twin tailed, but instead of a conventional nose, the Taijitu used a catamaran fuselage with two noses, both ending in heavy cannon. The internal weapons bay bulged with heavy ordnance. They were also heavily armored. It was flying straight and level, but the Taijitu was not designed for dogfighting; normally it would be escorted by Beowolves and Ursai. This one was alone, but there were the two Death Stalkers below it.
"Nora, Ruth, let me get tied in first," Ruth Lionheart radioed; even in a situation as dire as this one, Nora could not help but smile at the Faunus' funny accent. "I'll do a bit of Guy Gibson here."
Nora had no idea what Ruth meant. "Go for it, Ruth!"
Ruth throttled up her Jaguar as fast as it could go, just edging past supersonic speed. She shot over the Taijitu and, to Nora's stunned surprise, even dropped flares. She was making herself a target. Nothing happened. The Taijitu flew on without so much as even a flutter, and none of the Death Stalkers' turrets turned to follow the Jaguar. "That's weird," Nora said to herself.
"Nora, Yatsu," Yatsuhachi said. "I think the Taijitu's out of position. It's not within the Death Stalkers' defensive sphere."
Oh yeah, that! Nora thought. Guess I should pay more attention in Port's class instead of writing love letters to Ren. "Roger that, Yatsu. Let's paste the bastard."
"Wait one, Nora. Let me try." Yatsuhachi accelerated, quickly leaving Nora behind. He positioned himself high and behind the Taijitu, where the GRIMM blocked the Death Stalkers, locked on, and let loose four AMRAAMs. All tracked into the Taijitu, which disappeared in smoke and flame. It came out the other end, and for a moment, Nora pushed up her own throttle and prepared to engage, but then the Taijitu staggered, one of its wings tore free, and the GRIMM spiraled downwards, where it landed on top of one of the Death Stalkers. The latter skittered to one side, but returned to course—minus the missile battery on its "tail."
"Yatsu, splash one Taijitu." He climbed back up to rejoin Nora and Ruth.
"Well, that wasn't a chore," Nora laughed. "Let's get back up top and get some more!"
Ren put the J-10 into a dive and fired an AMRAAM at a Beowulf that was angling towards Fox and Velvet; Cinder had left protecting the Tornado to save Emerald. The missile struck and destroyed the Beowulf. So many, he thought. There's more GRIMM than we have weapons. He had seen this before: GRIMM were not particularly bright, even for drones, but they killed by sheer numbers. They would swamp the defenses. "Regency, Ren. We need help."
To Ren's pleasant surprise, it was not the AWACS that answered, but Jaune. "Ren, Jaune. Pyrrha and I are in from the north. Where do you want us?"
Ren smiled. "Take your pick."
Jaune had already scored twice today, downing two White Fang MiGs, but it left him only with Sidewinders and his cannon left. Pyrrha was in no better situation. His eyes went to the fuel gauge; it was low, but with some luck they should be all right. "Pyrrha, I've got three Beowolves twelve o'clock level." He had the lead.
"Roger, tally-ho on the Beowolves. Defensive split."
Jaune waited for a moment. "Break now, Pyrrha! Fox Two!" He fired a Sidewinder at one of the Beowolves, then climbed hard, while Pyrrha fired and dived. Jaune rolled and looked down, and murmured a curse when he saw his missile go wide, chasing a flare. Pyrrha's hit, and another Beowulf headed for the forest below, trailing flame. One of the Beowolves suddenly climbed to meet him, so Jaune dived. The GRIMM was there and gone in a moment, but he turned hard, and remembering something Pyrrha had taught him, touched his speedbrakes just for a moment. The Mirage slowed, and the Beowulf, confused, ended out in front. He switched to guns as the Beowulf began to weave, trying to throw off his aim.
"Jaune, one behind you!" Pyrrha called out. Jaune could not spare a moment. He closed the range and fired. The heavy cannon shells pounded the Beowulf. It spun to the right, trailing smoke, but wasn't dead. He followed it down. "Break right! Break right!" Pyrrha shrilled. Jaune slammed the stick to the right, sensing rather than seeing the Beowulf firing at him.
"Pyrrha?" he called out.
"I'm on him; going to guns. Pull harder!" Jaune pushed the Mirage for all it was worth, grunting with exertion as he tightened the turn to nine-Gs. The GRIMM did not have to worry about hurting a pilot and stayed with him. He saw two cannon shells spiral past his cockpit. "Now would be a good time, Pyrrha!" He was in a tight spiral, and at the speed they were at, it was odds-on which would kill him first, the GRIMM or the forest below.
"Pyrrha, Fox Two!" Jaune strained against gravity and saw the Beowulf explode. He gratefully pulled out of the spiral and leveled out, trying to get his breath. "Pyrrha, you've got lead. Let's get back in the fight." He saw two burning fires on the ground, and wondered if the Beowulf he had wounded had gone in.
They climbed, but Jaune saw an Ursa turning towards them. "Ursa, one o'clock high."
"You're covered." Pyrrha dropped back, watching Jaune's tail while he engaged.
"Okay, big guy," Jaune mused, "let's see what you got." He found out a moment later when the Ursa's heavy cannon erupted in front of him. His hand and feet moved quickly, evading the shells, then opened fire himself. He exhausted the Mirage's ammunition, but it left the Ursa on fire. The tough GRIMM tried to turn as Jaune went past, only to leave itself open to Pyrrha, who finished it off with her own gun.
"Call that shared?" Jaune laughed in spite of the situation.
"Sounds lovely," Pyrrha replied. He could hear the smile in her voice.
Ren dispatched another Beowulf and watched Fox and Velvet splash an Ursa. Shooting the Beowulf had cost another AMRAAM, while the Tornado was down to its cannon now, all missiles having been expended. "Velvet, Ren, raid count?" He hoped she had been keeping track; he'd lost track.
"Ren, 15 Beowolves, four Ursai, two Nevermore. Tally-ho on the Nevermore."
"I see them." It was hard not to. The Nevermore loomed on the horizon, coming out of the clearing cloud cover. Ren climbed back to try and get control of the dogfight, but knew it was probably impossible at this point—and worse, he was taking himself out of the equation, having to settle on picking off strays. The radio was alive with radio calls; luckily the jamming had ended.
"Emerald, break right!"
"Watch for the Beowulf at nine o'clock low, Jaune!"
"Pyrrha here; I'm on that one."
"Cinder, splash two."
"Pyrrha, splash two."
Two more Beowolves. 13 now, Ren thought to himself. We're killing them, but not fast enough!
"Ren, Witch Lead, joining on your left." He looked over and saw Goodwitch's F-22 turning in, and his heart soared. A F-22 would do a lot to turn the tide.
"Witch Lead, good to see you."
"Same here, Ren, but I'm Winchester." Ren sighed involuntarily; Goodwitch was out of ammunition. "I got six of the bastards, but had to work my way around. I'll take over as raid commander; rejoin your flight." She paused. "Nice job."
"Thank you, Witch Lead." Ren spotted a Ursa angling in at the Tornado and dived to engage.
Goodwitch took a breath and switched frequencies. Ren had done a good job, but he simply did not have the experience in this sort of furball, the fighter pilot term for a giant dogfight like this. It was easy to get overwhelmed. Now that she was here—and with not even anything left in her gun—she needed to bring her experience to bear. "Regency, Witch Lead; taking command of Killbox Alpha. Release Cardinal from BARCAP Killbox Bravo, send them west buster. ETA on Sun Flight?"
"Roger, Witch. Be advised Cardinal is Tiger but low on A2A, bingo plus seven. Sun is sweet, ETA one minute." Goodwitch translated that as Cardinal was able to help, but short on missiles and fuel. She would have to chance it, anything would help now. "Relay from Winter Flight: when do you expect clear skies?"
How the hell should I know? "ETA on Winter?"
"Five minutes before they're in your AO."
"Fuck!" Goodwitch said without hitting the radio button. The Beowolves could probably be kept away from the B-52s, but the Nevermores would tear them apart. Her original plan was to let the Nevermores go and let the Mississippi River Barrier SAM crews take them on, but the B-52s had to be on station to destroy the ground GRIMM.
"Ren, Nora, we're coming up on your six low. Where you want us?"
Goodwitch heard the call and interrupted Ren's reply. She spotted the A-10, Jaguar and F-2. "All Juniper Flight elements. Engage that first Nevermore. Coffee, cover them. Creamer, Sun, Cardinal: continue engaging Beowolves and Ursai." Goodwitch let the radio go for a moment, then resumed. "Ruby Flight, location?"
There was no answer.