"Despite the loss of both of his commanding officer's, sustaining heavy damage to his aircraft by hostile ground fire, and no experience in leading a formation of combat aircraft in a wartime setting, Second Lieutenant Derek C. Hernandez demonstrated extraordinary heroism while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States by continuing to engage hostile forces while simultaneously taking up command of the remaining Pilot's in his squadron despite the long odds of the situation. On top of this, upon the conclusion of the battle the Second Lieutenant led his squadron back to the air base they were stationed at and remained airborne until the last of his squadron landed. Only then did he land his heavily damaged aircraft that was dangerously low on fuel." - excerpt from Colonel Marcus A. Holland's letter to the President requesting that 2nd. Lt. Derek Hernandez of the 253rd Fighter Squadron should be awarded with the Air force Cross for his actions during the Battle of Mission City.
Chapter 23: Who I am Pt. 2
Outside the warehouse
6:00 AM
"So" Derek began, "Before I get into this crap, is there anything else you'd like to know about my family?" Barricade shook her head. "Nah, it's pretty obvious to even someone like me that your family had a strong bond."
"Alright," he replied, "Um..I don't know if you've got the HUD tape from that day somewhere, but having that would help with a lot of describing what happened." Barricade tapped the side of her head, "Got it in here, along with a few other files on you." Derek nodded with the slightest hint of amusement "Ah well, alien robot from outer space, makes sense you could download that kind of stuff." Barricade smiled "Perks of being a Cybertronian." She then reached over and opened a storage compartment on the inside of her right forearm and pulled her dashboard-mounted computer from it's storage space on her bi-pedal form and handed it to Derek. "I already got it setup, all you have to do is hit play. I'll watch it on my HUD." Derek nodded while taking the computer and then opened it up to double-check everything was set up correctly. The starting frame of the tape seemed to be right after Derek got the jet fired up and just before Col. Johnson made the radio check, if he was remembering everything correctly. He looked up from the computer "You know any of the context to this prior to the tape?" Barricade shook her head "Jack slag.." He nodded "Hm, alright. Guess we got another round of story time before I start the movie." He then looked off and held his chin in his right hand, "Gimmie a sec, I gotta remember how this crap went down...well before everything went to shit..." Barricade waited silently as Derek remembered the events of the day before his squadron was scrambled.
"Okay, got it." he said. "So we were supposed to run a training flight with some new JTAC's. And if you're wondering, JTAC stands for Joint Terminal Air Controller, so basically they're the guys that call us in and give us targeting data and locations whenever there's a fight going on and someone needs air support. We were supposed to be attacking simulated enemy heavy armour at the weapons range we were going to, so our jet's were loaded up with an anti-armour focused loadout: Four AGM-65's, Two MK 82 five-hundred pound laser guided bombs, and even a load of 1,174 shells of Depleted Uranium for the gun."
"Wait, Depleted Uranium shells are those ones that were specifically designed to penetrate tanks, and are slightly radioactive, right?" Barricade asked curiously. Derek nodded, causing another question to spill forth. "How powerful are they?" A slight grin appeared on Derek's face since he had been asked about the GAU-8 he loved to fire so much. "You know what a T-72 is?" Barricade nodded, allowing the Pilot to proceed. "Well.." Derek said with a mischievous glint in his eye, "we could punch through those things like it was nothin'. Think of the phrase "Like a hot knife through butter", except that instead of a hot knife, it's a freakin' Energy Sword from Halo." Barricade took a second to remember what the Energy Sword from Halo was, then shot off a bewildered whistle. "Fraaag that's a lot of heat." "Yeah..." he replied quietly. His tone suddenly became very dark and sadistic as he ground out the next sentence through clenched teeth "Hot enough to eviscerate that COCKSUCKER that shot my fuckin' flight lead out of his goddamn chute!" Barricade whipped her head around as a flood of concern shot through her spark at the sudden and drastic change in her brother's demeanor. Derek had his head down and his fist's tightly clenched. From what she could see, a cold, calculated look of unbridled fury was plastered on his face, along with his upper body seeming to rise and fall with heavy breaths. "Derek?" she asked quietly. The previously still Pilot snapped out of his trance. He took in deep breaths, uncleaned his fists, and pounded the top of his flight helmet twice with his left fist to clear his head before relaxing and looking into Barricade's concerned gaze. "I'm..good" he sighed "Just some bad memories coming up"
"You're scaring me bro, are you sure you're okay?" she asked, her voice still full of concern. He sighed again. "Alright, maybe...maybe I'm not completely over what I'm about to tell you about...just..trust me, alright? I'll live." Barricade slowly nodded. She then brought her left hand up, wrapped it around Derek in a kind of hug, and moved him so she could gently put her head on his shoulder. "I'm here for you bro." she cooed to the Pilot. Derek leaned into the warm and comforting metallic touch, "Thanks sis." The two sat in the embrace for a short period before they released. The Pilot flicked his visor down to shield his eyes from the rising sun that was now illuminating the desert landscape.
"So uh, as I was saying. Our jet's were loaded up for the training with the JTACS. We were actually just about to head for our jet's when the alarms started going off. Personally, I had just finished checking the seal on my oxygen mask when the klaxon went off on the other side of the room. An announcement to scramble was soon made over the base PA system, and we all finished getting our gear situated before sprinting out of the door to hop in the squadron's vans and get to or Hog's. The whole base was a a flurry of activity as we blasted down the road's and over to the hangars. The sounds of aircraft roaring into the sky, the engines of vehicles, and the wail of sirens and alarms filled the air around us. It all sent a shiver down my spine since I was still pretty new to combat, and had never had something like this happen anywhere."
"What all went up?" Barricade asked trying to keep Derek's mind from wandering back into that enraged state. Derek listed off everything he had seen as he got to his hog, "Um, six Raptor's, an E-3 AWACS, probably eight F-15C's and E's, and about twelve or so F-16's, and that was only what I saw before the eight A-10's of my squadron got up. Pretty much every combat aircraft we had at the base was launched that day."
"Oh slag, that's a lot of firepower." Barricade exclaimed. Derek nodded "Yeah, anyone who could carry weapons went up with weapons that day, and I'm not saying a handful of cannon shells, I mean a full combat load of missiles, rockets, bombs, and a full load of ammo for the gun. I think I even heard something about some guys in an AC-130 coming in with a full load of SABOT's for their 105 and 40 millimetre cannon's, and a full drum of AP for their 25 millimetre Gatling gun." The Decepticon's optics shot wide open at what Derek said. "Thank Primus I didn't get completely caught up in all that."
"Completely?" Derek asked. "Were you there?" Barricade nodded, "Yeah I was there, but only at the beginning. I and a few of my comrades were chasing that Prime and his group lackeys since they had something of great value that Lord Megatron wanted." Derek tilted his head a little in curiosity "Yeah, I kept hearing the guys on the ground who were with them keep referring to something called the "Allspark." I'm guessing that's what you were after?"
"WAS what I was after" Barricade corrected with a grumble. "So what happened?" the Pilot questioned. The Decepticon snarled before answering. "That fragging brute Ironhide rammed me off the highway we were on. I fell forty feet down, but managed to transform and not completely get offlined. I broke the fall as best as I could, but my legs took quite the beating. I saw some abandoned factory near where I landed and hauled my sorry aft over there since I was in no shape to go back into the fight. I was stuck hiding out in that warehouse for a few days while my body got healed up. Honestly I'm a little relieved I got knocked out of the fight. I heard your military's aircraft overhead the entire time raining an ungodly amount of pit down on whoever was unlucky enough to be targeted." Derek grunted with a slight nod before answering. "Yeah that was the most intense fighting I've been in. My Hog' was running on fumes when I finally landed back at base, and I think I only had thirty rounds left in the gun, everything else had been shot off." He then glanced over to Barricade. "You know, if you didn't get rammed off that road...I probably would've been the one who killed you." She perked up an optic ridge "Why do you say that?" The morning sunlight illuminated the serious look on Derek's face under his visor. "My squadron was tasked with protecting Prime and his group. We rained hell on anything that threatened them...well..as much as we could. So if you hadn't been taken out of the fight, we undoubtedly would have engaged you." Barricade silently nodded her acknowledgement of what Derek said, she probably very well would have been offlined that day had she not been injured given how many human military assets had joined in the fight. The Pilot's attention returned to the HUD tape on the computer screen. He waved a hand towards it saying "We should probably get to the tape now that everything before the tape's been covered."
Barricade nodded before looking off into the distance briefly and returning her gaze to Derek. "Hold on to something. I think both of us would prefer to not have the Sun boring into our optics." Derek silently nodded as he closed the computer and held it close as he braced to move. Barricade wrapped her left arm around Derek and cautiously got up before moving around the rock to sit back down with the sun at their backs. Derek relaxed from his bracing position once they were settled and slid his flight helmet's black-tinted visor back up before re-opening the computer. "So what happens if he comes?" Derek asked with a flick of his right thumb towards the warehouse. "If "he" knows what's good for him, he won't." She answered with the slightest bit of hostility in her voice. Derek slightly nodded and moved his hand over the computer's touchpad. "Alright, I think this is just before we started moving. You ready?"
Barricade nodded before deploying the visor of her battle mask. Two silver-tinted armored lenses deployed from above her optic ridge's and slid down to cover her optics. To Derek they looked like some kind of sunglasses. "Nice shade's, I'll have to show you mine sometime." he casually shot off after the lenses were fully deployed. The Decepticon smirked at the Pilot, "Thanks bro, and you better." Derek returned his focus to the computer. "Let's do this, I'll speak up if something needs to be explained..." He dragged the mouse over the play button and tapped the touchpad to click the command.
The high-pitched hum of the hum of the recording's audio output that Derek was so used to hearing from analyzing his flight's poured forth from the computer as the tape began. Derek's voice filtered through the speaker's from his oxygen mask, "Today's the uh 7th of August, name is Hernandez, Helldiver 1-6. Currently getting scrambled, not sure what for though." The hum filled the quiet space of the recording, only interrupted by the occasional radio transmission or Derek's breathing through his mask. About a minute later a new voice filled the recording, "Helldiver 1-1's up and running, gimmie a radio check people." Derek paused the video and spoke up, "That's the voice of my squadron's lead, Colonel Mark Johnson." Barricade nodded as Derek hit play. A string of confirmations from the rest of the pilot's filtered through the radio in response to the Colonel's command. There wasn't much that happened for another minute as the eight finished up on getting their aircraft prepped for takeoff. After about a minute and a half, the A-10's were given clearance from the Tower to taxi and takeoff. Johnson acknowledged the command, "Tower, Helldiver acknowledges. Cleared for One-Seven Left. Taxi right Alpha, turn on Foxtrot. Once airborne contact Ghost Eye on freq. 139.75." The eight Thunderbolt's quickly got moving and headed for the runway. The tape recorded the ground crew marshaling Derek out and right from his hangar as he joined the other A-10's. The video would occasionally bounce slightly as the jet rumbled down the taxiway's with #5 out in front. Soon the pilot's in front of Derek could be seen turning their jets onto the runway, or turning and holding short on the runway threshold as the aircraft in front of them took off. Soon enough it was Derek's turn to hit the runway and take off. He brought his jet onto the runway and immediately locked the breaks while bringing on full power. The nose of the jet squatted down a little as the TF-34's spun up to full power and radiated a high-pitched, metallic growl. Derek could be heard muttering "Alright, good pit'. Here goes." just before dropping the breaks and beginning his take off roll, calling his status as he began to move down the runway and readied himself to eventually pull his heavy jet into the sky.
Soon enough the eight Air-Superiority Grey A-10C's of Helldiver were all up in the air and in an eight-ship formation ready so figure out what was going on, and where they needed to go. Derek focused on keeping his place in the formation, whoever he allowed himself to glance at the world below him and would occasionally look through the segment of the canopy between the left front strut and the left side of the canopy bow, and over to the two most experienced pilot's in his squadron. Colonel Johnson, or "Hogfather" as the squadron had nicknamed him, and Lt. Colonel Stevenson. Those two were father-like figures to the younger pilot's like Derek. They always knew what to do in any situation they found themselves in. They had given tons of invaluable info to Derek since his posting to the squadron. Truth be told, this would be his first taste of actual combat. The only thing that even came close to combat for the then young, twenty-three year old Second Lieutenant was the live-fire training missions over at the weapons range back when he was on deployment in South Korea a few months ago. He had of course informed Barricade of this as the segment in the tape where he had just gotten in the air and was on his way to form up played. This surprised her since she knew how bad Mission City had gone after she was able to link up with her comrades in the aftermath of the battle and hear about what happened, on top of seeing what was published on the internet by various media sources of individuals who took photos of film of the event.
The voice of Johnson briefly poured through the recording's audio: "Ghost Eye, this is Helldiver. Flight of eight A-10's entering your airspace now at angels 3 on bearing 3-4-5. We're loaded up and ready for tasking." The voice of the AWACS's then filled the radio: "Helldiver, Ghost Eye. Situation is as follows: Friendly ground forces are transporting precious cargo from the Hoover Dam to Mission City where they will transfer the precious cargo to friendly rotorwing's for transport out of the area and to a secure location. A hostile extraterrestrial force of unknown size has been picked up on. Their goal seems to be intercepting and capturing the precious cargo. The situation is very fluid right now since we have a significant number of assets moving into the area, however your tasking is to protect that precious cargo and the friendlies transporting it." Johnson's voice poured through the radio once more: "Ghost Eye, Helldiver acknowledges. Interrogative: What's being done about the civilian's in the city?"
"Ghost Eye to Helldiver, other air and ground assets have been tasked with the protection and evacuation of civilians. I need you to prioritize the protection of that precious cargo, however if there is a significant threat to civilian life in your area, you are cleared to protect them by any means necessary." A breathlessly said "Oh shit." rang out from Derek's voice in the recording, this was accompanied by the Pilot's breathing becoming a little more shallow and quicker. The tape also captured the slight twitch in the controls of the jet as Derek's inputs and focus slackened for a few seconds when the reality of the situation came crashing down onto the young aviator. The slight twitch of Derek's A-10 was picked up on by by Lt. Col. Stevenson while Johnson was replying to the AWACS. Upon the completion of the conversation, he checked up on the newest member of the squadron: "Two to Six, don't worry too much about what's going on. Just think of it like training, kid. We'll be alright." Derek's voice went back to his normal composed tone upon answering, "Six is green, just some pre-action jitters. Thank's Two." The tape was paused again, although it wasn't Derek who did it this time.
Barricade's voice rumbled from his left "You were scared, weren't you?" Derek's eyes remained glued to the computer screen, however his voice floated off into the air with a somber tone, "I was scared shitless...I wasn't lying when I said this was my first taste of combat." He then lightly laughed in this weird way that made Barricade feel uncomfortable before he made another comment, his voice now taking on a dark humored and lighter tone. "Out of the frying pan and into the fire, except the bastard's didn't even let me get warmed up in the pan before they chunked me right into the inferno of war with a species I'd never met yet, and who had been going at it with itself for thousands of years." The Pilot tore his focus from the computer screen and calmly turned his head around to face Barricade. "Funny thing fate is, you know? It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, or even if you're ready for what could happen, it'll plop you right down where it decides to put you and sometimes the only thing you can do is hold on and get through the ride." Barricade nodded with a quietly replied, "Yeah." Under her battle mask's visor her optics were beginning to widen in horror from the reality of Derek's situation at the time. He probably wasn't picking up on it, but she could feel the exact same things he was feeling while he was reliving his experience of the battle. She could feel that volcano of boiling molten hatred and rage that was burrowed deep in his soul, locked away and waiting to explode at the next slight from a Decepticon. Knowing her brother had that in him scared Barricade. Maybe he was just a human, a small being compared to the towering mass of a Cybertronian, but something told her that he was capable of unleashing a wrath that would even shake Unicron himself right down to the spark.
Derek returned his focus to the computer and unpaused the recording. Radio chatter from other aircraft and friendly forces began to pick up as the eight Thunderbolt's continued pushing towards the city. Most of it was consisted of various assets and units getting briefed on the current situation, however a few transmissions were requests for close air support of transport for civilians. Helldiver stayed their course, however the situation quickly deteriorated as the city became a full-on warzone. The calls for close air support ramped up as various units clashed with the extraterrestrial enemy. Ghost Eye continued to vector people to where they were needed, however the crew of the AWACS also gave status updates of useful pieces of intel whenever possible.
They relayed the progression of various civilian evacuations, gave status updates on unit's, explained what the Cybertronina's were, and briefed everyone on the two factions. It was a lot to take in, but it was greatly appreciated as many questions had now been answered.
The tape went on, the Warthog's continued flying towards the city, the radio transmissions continued spilling off in the background. The eight aircraft of Helldiver had now been up in the air for around thirty minutes now. They continued on for five more minutes until they got their call to action as calls for air support picked up a few more notches.
"Ghost Eye to Helldiver, we're getting multiple calls for Urgent CAS. Multiple reports of troops in contact. Altitude restrictions lifted, you're cleared to drop altitude. I need you to get to Mission City as fast as possible." Johnson acknowledged, "Helldiver 1-1 copies, we're about ten minutes out. Flight, let's split into two elements: Two you're in charge of Helldiver 2, take six, seven, and eight and get low once we hit the city. You other three are with me, everyone squad up and go balls to the wall." The airspeed readout on Derek's HUD began to drop as he reduced power and slid back to get into the new formation. #4 pulled away from Derek and shifted left as #2 pitched up offscreen before his A-10 was picked up sliding right and taking up position in the new formation. Derek's airspeed increased as he moved to join up on his new flight lead's right wing in the number two position. Once everyone was in their places, all eight pilot's brought their engines up to full power and screamed for the city off in the distance.
The Thunderbolt's quickly got to the city and began to answer the calls for Close Air Support. Despite his fear, Derek's breathing calmed as he joined the action after the two groups had split off and headed for their own parts of the city. The Pilot's flying had also tightened up as he got zoned in and mentally switched on for combat.
It had been a few minutes since the eight aircraft had split up into their respective groups Helldiver 1 had switched to a different radio frequency while Helldiver 2 remained on their original frequency. The four A-10's had now dropped their altitude to under 1,000 feet as they began to visually scan the city below them for any signs of units in need of CAS. The world outside of the cockpit suddenly rolled to an almost inverted state as Derek joined his flight in banking over into a dive after #1 had spotted a heavy firefight going on in one of the streets below. It looked like there was a group of four friendly Cybertroninan's with a squad of infantry hacking it out with six or so hostile Cybertronian's, one of them looking like a strange cross between and Abrams and an AA gun. The four jet's screamed in between buildings as they passed the firefight and banked away to make their presence known to those below. The infantry below made contact with the four Air Force pilot's and quickly got them situated and provided with a target. The four jet's rolled in on their target, all four pilot's mutually agreeing that they would need to volley their missiles off at the tank if they wanted to kill it since it would undoubtedly try to swat the missiles out of the air with it's AA guns. A green box appeared on Derek's HUD and quickly encompassed the tank to signify that a Maverick was locked on to the target and ready to fire. The four jet's quickly shot their missiles off, however it was agreed that Derek would remain in the run just in case the tank didn't get destroyed on the first try. The circular gunsight, and relevant data values and symbology of the GAU-8 appeared on the HUD as Derek quickly switched over to guns upon firing off his Maverick. The box painted over the target blinked and went away as the missiles streaked in and got hit's, however the tank remained operational. At half a mile from the target Derek fired.
"Helldiver 2-2, guns guns guns!"
The vibrations from the gun turned the video portion of the recording into a blurred mess as the gun's buzzsaw report was picked up over the microphone of Derek's oxygen mask. The screen blurred for two seconds before clearing up to show a large explosion from where the tank had previously been. The HUD snapped from a 35 degree dive to an attitude of 10 degrees nose up as Derek pulled out of the dive and cranked the jet onto it's left wing as he pulled away and dodged some buildings, eventually bringing the nose up to 25 degrees as he made his way back into formation, now victorious with his first kill. Barricade felt a wave of satisfaction and pride wash through Derek's side of the bond as he relived that first victory, however a sense of dread began to slowly leak into the background.
The four Thunderbolt's were cleared to keep their attack up and gladly obliged with a few more gunrun's and Maverick shots as the rest of the hostiles were mopped up. After ten minutes the four broke away and ascended back into the sky to go answer the next call for CAS.
Soon the new request came through, however the subject of this call wasn't a normal squad of mechanized infantry or an isolated squad of Soldiers or Marines, it came from the team transporting the precious cargo.
The man on the radio had to yell over the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions in the background to get his message out, "This is Warlock Actual! We are transporting the precious cargo and are pinned down under heavy fire! Any air assets in the area, please respond, over!" Stevenson's voice rung out over the radio in response "Warlock Actual this is Helldiver 2, flight of four A-10's on station and at you service, orbiting at angels 1. We've got ten times AGM-65, eight times Mk 82 JDAM, and about a full load of DU for the guns, over."
"Helldiver 2, Warlock Actual! Green smoke marks our location! We are on South Remington Avenue with a bank about twenty-five meters directly to our Northeast! Call contact once you have visual, over!" A small box overlaying the feed from Derek's LITENING pod appeared in a blank space in the right, bottom corner of the screen. The pod was slewed around for five seconds while the four pilot's individually scanned the city below before before settling on the location of the NEST team and their Autobot allies taking cover wherever possible once everyone got on the same page.
"Helldiver 2, contact."
"Alright, everything to our south is hostile! There's a few of these bastards out here, gotta all be danger close! We'll light them up for you! Request Maverick's and gun's!"
"Helldiver 2 wilco! Flight, weapons free!" At that the four pilot's began their attack with an initial volley of four Maverick's. A six second countdown appeared in the top, left quadrant of the targeting pod's screen after the pod feed momentarily snapped to black as the missile was launched. The target, what appeared to be a Cougar H MRAP, was standing out in the open right in the middle of the street firing on one of the Autobot's. Once the countdown hit "0.0", the white, streaking form of the Maverick slammed into the street right in front of the target, tossing the whole thing up a few feet into the air and wrenching it's left leg off. Two of the other three target's ate their missiles center mass and were quickly turned into scrap, however the last target managed to jump out of the way in time to dodge it's Maverick. The "lucky" one who dodged it's missile was rewarded by taking a shot from an Autobot's plasma cannon right in the gut that promptly offlined it and made it fall back and smack the ground with a tremendous whack. The four A-10's were about to let loose with another volley of Maverick's, however a radio transmission suddenly poured through the recording, the man who was transmitting screaming into the radio with his voice cracking with complete horror.
"THIS IS THE SOUTH PLAZA EVAC SITE! WE ARE UNDER AN IMMENSE VOLUME OF FIRE! WE ARE COMPLETELY FUCKING COMBAT INEFFECTIVE! WE ARE BEING OVERRUN! THESE BASTARDS ARE SHOOTING GODDAMN CIVILIAN'S! BROKEN ARROW! I REPEAT, BROKEN ARROW!"Derek snarled an enraged, "MOTHERFUCKERS!" through clenched teeth over the recording, joining the multitude of transmissions across the individual unit frequencies as a collective mass of indescribable wrath overtook every individual who heard the transmission all together. At the same time, the same feeling of molten fury exploded from Derek's side of the bond and smashed into Barricade like an enormous rogue wave. She physically flinched, sucking a horrified gasp of air through her vents. The Pilot's body visibly tensed, his fist's clenching tightly, muscles tightening, his whole body seeming to visibly shake with anger and almost radiate an intense heat. She tried to send a wave of comfort to her hurting brother over the bond, however it was immediately flash-evaporated once it hit the inferno that had overtaken his being.
A torrent of radio transmissions answered the call as any available fixed-wing and rotor-wing asset in the air turned their attention to the evac site, and their fury of the attacker's.
"Shark 2-7, Broken Arrow acknowledged! Flight of four F/A-18's inbound with Mk 82's and guns!"
"Gunfighter 4-8, flight of two Apache's inbound with Hydra's, Hellfire's, and guns! Hold on guys!"
"Windhover 1-1, flight of six F-16's packing four times Mk 82 and a full load of API for the gun! We're here for you!"
"Deadly 2-1 inbound with Hydra's, Hellfire's, and guns! You've got two Cobras ready to rain hell!"
"Jester 1-1 answering the call. Flight of six F-15E's inbound and heavy with Maverick's, JDAM's, and guns."
"Warhammer 3-1 on station and in the turn. Gunship has you on our sensors. Full load of 105 SABOT, 40 mike mike SABOT, and 25 mike mike API. Give us the target, we'll unleash hell on these fuckers!"
"Helldiver 1-1, flight of four A-10's rolling in with Maverick's, JDAM's, and 30 mike mike DU. We've got your back."
The calls kept coming as more aviators who were free to help threw themselves towards the evac site. Derek wouldn't get that satisfaction though, right after Johnson shot his status off he radioed Stevenson and told him to keep focusing on giving CAS to the transport unit.
Back in real life the inferno within Derek had slightly let up. Not much, but just enough for Barricade to squeeze her way over to his side of the bond. What she found behind that curtain of hellfire took her by surprise. What she saw were two different versions of her brother standing on opposite sides of the same room: On the right side of the room stood the form of Derek that she was used to. The Pilot had his flight gear on, however his mask was partially unclipped and hung freely to his left side. His visor was also retracted. Beside that, his gear was the current mix of standard issue and custom flight gear she had grown use to seeing the Pilot adorned by. He stood with his foot propped up against the wall behind him as he leaned against the wall with crossed arms while his attention was on the HUD tape. This version of the tape mirrored the actual one in that he had continued to provide air support for the transport squad. This version of Derek was level-headed, logical, laid back, and caring. This was the Derek she knew.
On the other side of the room stood a very different version of Derek. He wore a standard issue, Olive Drab Nomex flight suit, along with green and grey Nomex flight gloves that retained the fingerless cutouts for his index, thumb, and middle finger. He wore black combat boots, and wore a non-modified flight helmet that lacked the helmet wrap and HObIT module. Although that wasn't what caught Barricade's optic. This version of Derek was literally on fire: his clothing and gear smoldered and glowed with burn marks while small flames and glowing ash blew from his body. His oxygen mask was clipped in, and his visor was fully deployed, however his eyes seemed to be glowing a faint orange under the visor. This version of Derek was tensed, hostile, fueled by an immense wrath. He stood away from the wall, his body tensed up while he tightly held what seemed to be a miniature version of the GAU-8 in a readied position by his waist, prepared at any moment to swing the barrel of the gun forwards to unleash hell. In this version of the tape, Derek had shot off from the formation to unleash his wrath on those why were attacking the civilian evac site. This version of Derek is what she had felt after the Broken Arrow call, and what she felt before that after she had asked if he was scared during the battle. This is the side of he kept locked away from the outside world, the side of him scarred by what he experienced during, and in the aftermath of Mission City. This is the side of him that came out whenever someone he cared for was threatened, or harmed by another. Barricade knew why this side of him had been created, however she hadn't yet seen why it had been created. Something told her that would change soon though.
Her attention snapped from subconscious thought back to reality as the recording continued on. Helldiver 2 continued to provide cover for the transport team while Helldiver 1 provided cover for the evac site and aided in the obliteration of the attacking enemy. The evac site was quickly cleared. A few aircraft, including the AC-130, remained overhead to provide cover for the battered defenders until they could finish evacuating the civilians. The rest of the group split off to go to other parts of the city as they returned to their assigned part of the airspace. Helldiver 1 rejoined Helldiver 2 to aid in covering the transport team as they continued to fend off heavy resistance.
By now the enemy had realized what kind of a threat the eight Air Force Thunderbolt's were. The sporadic ground fire the eight pilot's initially encountered now turned into a a veritable wall of fire. The Warthog's countered by extending their distance from their targets on their runs so they would have more time to react to any incoming fire. Despite their best efforts though, sustaining damage of some kind was inevitable. That however didn't stop them, that A-10 was built to take damage while continuing to dish it out, after all. The eight pissed off aviators continued to lay into the enemy with a hurricane of missiles, bombs, and cannon shells. Many hostiles were taken out, however Helldiver's luck eventually began to run out.
Derek had just pulled out of a gunrun when a rapid ticking tone began shooting through the recording. "Helldiver 2-2's spiked!" The A-10 was rapidly banked away from where Derek had strafed, however a new sound quickly shot forth. Seven high-pitched, rapid chimes were emitted from the A-10's Radar Warning Receiver, signifying that an enemy missile was locked on and had been launched at the Lieutenant's A-10.
"Helldiver 2-2's defensive!" he hollered into the radio as he threw the jet around while pumping out chaff packets and magnesium flares to spoof the incoming missile's targeting system. The Pilot continued thrashing around until the warning tones shut off, allowing him to get back to going on the offensive. This was short lived though as multiple missiles were quickly launched at the group of Warthog's. Everyone went on the defensive and began the deadly dance that would either end with a missile harmlessly exploding, or an unlucky pilot having to eject from a crippled aircraft. The unlucky one was Col. Johnson. Despite defeating multiple missiles, the Colonel was forced to drop his altitude and had to eat a wall of hostile ground fire that killed his right engine, shot his avionics, and wrecked one of his hydraulic systems while crippling another. Multiple calls for the Colonel to eject were shot forth, however he only responded with: "Negative..."
Panic filled the squadron as their leader, instead of bailing out, put his jet into a screaming dive right at the bastards who had shot him in what could only be seen as a final "Fuck you and die!" to the enemy. The recording showed Derek abruptly level out from the orbiting turn he was just in. The Pilot's breathing suddenly hitched as his vocal tone shifted from panic to disbelief.
"No. No. No! What the hell are you doing One?! Get out of there!"
Johnson gave off one final calm transmission before his crippled A-10 smacked into a group of Decepticons at over 500 knot's while his cannon let off an unending roar: "It's been an honor, Helldiver 1-1 out."
"JOHNSON!"
Derek's voice was coated in a thick horror as he watched his squadron lead kamikaze into the enemy group offscreen. Any bearing the remaining pilot's had flew out of the window upon seeing their squadron lead killed. Even Lt. Col. Stevenson was unable to remain calm as he fired off a string of curses and enraged orders to "Vaporize every last hostile alien son of a bitch!" The seven remaining Thunderbolt's unleashed their complete fury on any hostile that crossed their sight. A new spike of anger shot through Derek's side of the bond to accompany what was happening on the tape. He could be heard growling off insult's or curses as the recording showed another attack run from the HUD or strike from the targeting pod feed. Despite the continued torrent of attacks on the enemy, another A-10 was critically damaged. Derek had been in formation with Lt. Col. Stevenson while Helldiver managed to get a small break in the fight to recollect themselves and get back in the right mindset for their mission. A bright explosion flashed offscreen from the general direction of Stevenson's jet off to the left and in front as Derek suddenly snap-rolled over and threw himself away from his flight lead.
"One punch out!"
"Ejecting!" was Stevenson's reply as he grabbed the ejection handle between his legs to shoot himself out of the wrecked A-10 that was on fire and in an uncontrolled roll after a missile had exploded right on him and sheared his right wing off, along with turning the rest of the right side of the fuselage into Swiss cheese and gutting the right engine. The recording whipped back around, the crippled Warthog plummeting out of the sky towards the bottom of the screen with a large tail of fire and smoke trailing it. A figure was flung out from the cockpit of the jet before a parachute opened above one form while another object shot away. Derek passed the parachute where the form of a human pilot quickly materialized under the chute in a harness.
"Helldiver 2-2 here, Helldiver 2-1 has ejected. I've got a chute."
A pulsing tone immediately swept through the recording that was sure to grab anyone's attention just after Stevenson ejected.
"Ghost Eye to Helldiver, we're picking up 2-1's ELB transmission. We're alerting SAR as I speak. Can you provide cover?"
"Helldiver 2-2, stand by." Derek switched over to Warlock's frequency. "Helldiver 2-2 to Warlock Actual. 2-1 has been hit and forced to eject. Are you able to hold your own until 2-1 is picked up by SAR?"
"Warlock to Helldiver. Don't worry about us, we'll call someone else over so you can focus on 2-1."
"Helldiver acknowledged." Derek switched back to the AWACS. "Helldiver 2-2 to Ghost Eye. We can cover 2-1 till he's picked up. Warlock said he'd have someone else take our place."
"Got it Helldiver. Interrogative: with the loss of 1-1 and 2-1, who's in command?"
"Ghost Eye, stand by." The young Second Lieutenant keyed his squadron. "Guys who's running the show now?
"5 to 2, I'd say that's you bud."
"6, ditto"
"7's got your back kid."
"8 here, lead the way 2."
"3's with them"
"4, it's all your's 2."
A shaky breath filled Derek's microphone upon hearing his squadron's response. A new sound that Barricade recognized as Derek pounding his flight helmet blasted the recording before he snarled at himself. "Come on damn it! Step up you fucking wuss, Stevenson's relying on you!" He sighed before keying the mic. "Okay, cover Stevenson. Blast any bastard that tries anything funny, got it?" A string of confirmations answered his question as the other Helldiver's took up the defense of their squadron XO. So they dived into the fireworks and tore up anything in the path of their comrade's descent. It was going pretty good. Everyone thought Stevenson would just have to deal with some bruising and soreness from his ejection and landing, pretty soon a transmission was made that the SAR helo would be in the area within five minutes to retrieve Stevenson once he landed.
And then that all-too-familiar inferno rose up again...
Derek had just finished up dropping his last JDAM when a blood-chilling call rung out across the net.
"Oh my god they're firing on him!" The HUD targeting pod feed snapped around and locked onto the aviator as he drifted down in his chute. White streaks blew by him from the ground: ground fire.
"KILL THOSE BASTARDS!" Derek seethed over the radio. The jet was thrown around into a dive as Derek lined up on a target, then it all just stopped...
The recording wasn't finished, it was paused...by Derek.
"Derek?" Barricade quietly called to her brother. He didn't answer. Instead he sat there frozen for a few seconds. He then slammed Barricade's computer shut and set it down, causing her to flinch at the sudden violence of the action. He then threw his visor down and climbed off of Barricade's frame before moving away to slowly pace back and forth with clenched fists. He then abruptly turned punched the side of the rock the two were leaned up against while unleashing a bloodcurdling roar of primal fury.
"Those scum-sucking motherFUCKERS!" he snarled with a wicked edge to his enraged voice. "What ha-" she started to ask before Derek cut her off with full fury and hatred coursing through his voice.
"THEY FUCKING SHOT HIM OUT OF HIS FUCKING CHUTE CADE'! I SAW MY OWN GODDAMN XO GET TURNED TO FUCKING PINK MIST RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY OWN EYES!" The Pilot snapped around and began wailing on the rock while screaming curses with each blow. Barricade instantly reached out and pulled him away despite his best efforts to thrash out of her grasp. "LEMME GO DAMNIT YOU BUCKET OF BOLTS! I'M NOT FINISHED POUNDING THE EVERLIVING FU-" Derek was thrown into a shoddy bear-hug and forced to quiet as he ate a facefull of Cybertronian chest plate. "You keep that up and you're going to break something Derek. Cease! Fire!" she growled, "That's an order." He shoved himself away with fire still burning in his eyes as he began to snarl "You're not my fucking commanding offi!-" Barricade slammed him forwards to shut him up and struck back with some of her own edge laced into her tone. "No, but I'm your fucking SISTER, and I'm not about to let you do something STUPID because of what happened in the past you short-sighted, arrogant, egotistical, fighter pilot of a human older brother!"
Something got him to stop flailing and go quiet. Be it her tone, or her insult's, it didn't really matter. She pulled him away and forced him to look up by placing the thumb of her left hand under his chin. "Calm the pit down, and talk to me. If you frag something up right now, right before your jet is fully repaired, I'm going to shove my entire pede up your fleshy aft, you got me?" He snarled something off under his breath and glared at her under his visor, earning a shake in response. "I'm sorry, I don't speak mumble! You want to run that be me again fleshbag!?" He grounded out a clenched "Nothing!" before slowly untensing and letting the fire within him flicker out a bit. Barricade set him back up on her left shoulder and retracted the visor of her battle mask.
"Now." she started, "If you're done trying to outdo me in the temper department, I still don't know what happened after you lost your XO."
"I'm not watching any more of that damn re-"
"I'm not going to make you watch anymore of it, calm down before you blow a gasket."
Derek sighed and retracted his visor, the fury now beginning to fizzle out and be replaced by sadness. He sat there for a few moments as he tried to compose himself and talk instead of falling back into another fit of scalding rage. With a final deep breath to calm himself. Derek got to it, his tone now quiet and reserved instead of sharp and ablaze.
"After we lost Stevenson, we basically lost it and butchered anything we could put our gunsight's on. We kept on going, and continued to tank damage as we covered the transport team, however we lost two more aircraft to ground fire. 3 an 8 bailed out and were thankfully able to be recovered by SAR. (Search and Rescue)
Eventually the battle ended with all the hostiles retreating after their leader was killed, probably that Megatron guy you mentioned. Our bloodlust was of course not quenched though, so we continued to chase the enemy away and pound them into fuckin' dust until we had to stop after being ordered by the AWACS to turn around and get back to base. We were all banged up pretty badly, and had basically fired off the whole load of munitions we arrived with. I led everyone home and refused to land until everyone else touched down, despite the damage to my jet and being dangerously low on fuel. We debriefed and then got cleaned up before heading to our squadron's room to figure out what the hell we were going to to after losing our CO and XO. That didn't last too long though, the base commander came by and said we had a month and a few weeks of leave due to what just happened. He said that it would get figured out and that we didn't need to worry about it, said' that we should just focus on getting through what happened."
"So what did you all do then after that?" the Cybertroninan asked.
"We uh-" he paused to cough before continuing on "-we initially just stood by and waited for the other two to get back to us after getting picked up and having to get looked at by the docs, after they got back we got together and started dealing with the aftermath of the battle. The first thing we did after getting back together was attending the funeral that happened three days later for Johnson, Stevenson, and all the other men and women we lost in the battle. It wasn't some grand thing like you'd see in the movies where there's this big crowd out in a field somewhere, this was really just something to help us brothers and sisters in arms get some closure in regards to the friends we lost. There was a speech, a symbolic flag ceremony, and a twenty-one gun salute for those lost. That's not to say that this was it though, the real funerals would be held once..well..if the bodies had been recovered and returned to their respective families."
"What do you mean IF they could be recovered..?" Barricade asked with a worried look.
Derek bit his lip and tensed uncomfortably as the offputting truth of what the answer was hit him. "Look, human's aren't like you. Our bodies...can't handle the same forces as your's can. If we get shot by a Cybertronian weapon, hell, if we take something like a fifty cal. We...well...it's...it's messy, alright?" He shook his head and looked away, as if he had just seen the aftermath of what he was eluding to. "I..I'd rather just not talk about it..." She looked at him, initially confused, however it eventually became a look of horror as she gradually imagined the consequences of what Derek eluded to. "That's...oh Primus. Derek, that's horrible..."
He slowly nodded as more images from the battle's aftermath unconsciously drifted into his mind like some kind of tormented slideshow from hell. "Once the news started to hit, thing's got worse. The civilian death's just kept climbing and climbing. I think the final total was over a thousand civilian's killed. It was bad, it was even worse when we saw the images that the news sites wouldn't put up." He shivered, blood running cold as his eyes went wide while his voice became very tense and breathless. "People killed after being pinned by rubble, people missing limbs, some completely unrecognizable due to fire damage, other's...just bit's and pieces...and blood...fuckin' blood everywhere..." He shook his head in an attempt to wring the mental images out of his mind. "It screwed up the new guys like me pretty badly. The older guys told us to not focus on that stuff or think about it since it would just turn into a vicious cycle of horror. So we either stopped looking at that stuff, or looked at it so much that we stopped thinking about the reality of those pictures. Thing's began to brighten up a smidge after we got that advice...and then the base commander stopped by my room one day. He was flanked by the base XO and third in command, all three of them with a grim look on their face. He asked if they could come in. I said yes and let them in, then he asked if I could shut the door. He looked at me and he said he was sorry. He said.." Derek grimaced and forced himself to hold back the tears that threatened to pour forth. His voice went sharp as he grounded out the next sentence.
"He said that my mother, father, and sister had been killed after an F-22 had been shot down and careened into their car that was trapped on a highway as they were stuck in traffic trying to get out of the city. He said that the pilot had refused to eject and fought the whole way down to pull the jet away." Derek slowly brought his hands up and looked at his open palms like they had been covered in blood. "He said it wasn't my fault, said' that there was nothing anyone could do, said' that I had done a tremendous job taking up command after my superiors were lost." Derek quietly choked a shaky laugh. "Best part is that later on I was given the Air Force Cross for what I had done that day. Everyone said that I had done a great job, and that what I did was amazing." He slowly closed his hands and clenched them tightly as his tone took on a darker edge, eventually snarling in rage while beginning to cry as he went on. "Yeah, what a DAMN good job I did. Lost my fuckin' CO, almost lost two more of my squadron after I had taken up command, couldn't protect my fuckin' XO after he had to eject! Hell I couldn't even protect my own GODDAMN MOTHER, FATHER, AND FUCKIN' SISTER THAT JUST TURNED TEN THE WEEK BEFORE!" His voice dropped down to just above a whisper as he put his head in his hands. "Yeah, what a damn good job I did, huh?"
A familiar warm, comforting metallic touch enveloped Derek as his sister wrapped her left hand around him and gently rubbed his back with her thumb as he quietly cried "Derek there's nothing you could have done. What happened, happened. Don't beat yourself up about it, alright? Do you really think that's what your family and squadronmates would want you to do?" she murmured to him. "No!" he started, "But DAMN IT! After trying to talk to the psychologist, then almost becoming an alcoholic as I tried to escape the pain when they couldn't help, then almost killing myself after that! After my squadmates pulled me from that ledge, and talked to me! Even now, do you really think there isn't a week that goes by where I DON'T ask myself what I could have done to save them, after having those faces seared into my head and having endless nightmares?" he whimpered. The "hug" around him tightened a little more. "I don't expect you to do that Derek, I just don't want you to beat yourself up about what happened. I want to help you bro, it's what they would want." she murmured before lifting her voice up. "You've already come so far Derek, just look at yourself! Johnson, Stevenson, and your family would be proud to know that you've taken command of your own group, and have become the leader you are today. They'd be proud to know that you'll go as far as you do to help other's, even IF it means you take a hit to save someone else. They'd be proud that you changed someone like from what I was into what I am now. They wouldn't want you to let the past drag you down, Derek. They wouldn't want you to forget about them either, they'd just want you to keep moving forwards, and to keep improving."
Derek slowly untensed and began to calm down. He slowly raised his hands up and wrapped his arms around the top of Barricade's hand around him. He leaned his head against the warm metal. "Thank you." he croaked, "Emily would be proud to know she's got a sister like you now." Barricade grinned from the praise and faintly felt like there was a second person also hugging her. Maybe it was a glitch, but she swore she heard the voice of a little kid faintly in the wind say "Thank's for being an awesome big sister." 'Thank's for being an adorable little sister, Emily.' she said to herself, and to that cute little voice she heard. Whatever presence she had felt slowly drifted away with one final hug, along with a ghostly whispered "Play Juke Box Hero, that's his favorite!"
Derek remained still for about a minute before he released his grasp and wiped the tear marks from his face. Barricade released him to give him some space and threw some more music on to help lighten the mood. 'I'm thinking...this one.' she though to herself with a subtle smirk. She lightly poked him, "I heard you really like this one Derek..." He perked up and instantly had a smile spread across his face as he recognized the start of Foreigner's Juke Box Hero. "How did you...?" Barricade chuckled and brought the volume up louder. "How did I know this is you favorite song? Ohhhhhhh you know..." She shrugged innocently and looked at him mischievously. "A little birdie told me." Derek laughed, his eyes lighting up as he listened to his favorite song. He started to quietly sing the song to himself, to the great amusement of Barricade who started to quietly snicker like a little kid on a sugar rush as he was actually singing louder than he though he was...not that it sounded bad though.
About halfway through the song Derek took his flight helmet off and set it down in his lap before he started reaching for his shirt, grabbing the Decepticon's attention in the process. "Keep it going." he said with a wave of his left hand, "I want to show you something." Barricade silently nodded and curiously watched to see what he was doing. Derek reached down and grabbed the bottom of the front of his shirt before he lifted it up and eventually over his head where he pulled his left arm free before letting it drop back down with his right arm still in the sleeve, the dog tags he kept tucked away under his shirt clinging a few times from the movement. The Pilot's buff physique was on full display, not that that's was why he was partially taking his shirt off though. Derek pointed to his left shoulder with his right hand. "This is what I wanted to show you. I got this towards the end of our leave after my squadron helped me out with dealing with the loss of my family and our commanding officers." Barricade looked to where his finger was pointed and had her optics land on a tattoo...the only tattoo he had on his entire body. The tattoo was a black-and-white, top-down silhouette of five A-10's in a "Vee" formation. Above the formation was inscribed a cursive: "Into the wild blue yonder..." in black ink. Each Thunderbolt had a name inscribed under it in black ink. From left-to-right they read: "Mark, Marcus, Emily, Rodney, Elizabeth."
Derek pointed two finger's at the two on the left. "These two are my squadron CO and XO-", he then pointed to the two on the right. "My dad and mom-", he then went to point at the jet leading the group, but Barricade beat him to it with a pointed index finger. "And last but not least, our little sister, right?" Derek nodded and chuckled "Ha! Yeah...honorary Hog' driver right there in my eyes, honorary flight lead too!"
"Hm, I got a title for her too."
Derek raised an eyebrow "That being...?"
"Honorary Fleshbag." the Decepticon decreed.
Derek choked a snorted laugh and shook his head. "You're somethin' else sis..."
"Well of course I am, I'm an autonomous robotic organism from a different planet." she stated matter-of-factly in response. Derek shoved the side of Barricade's head, deadpanning "Smartass..." She smugly beamed at him while leaning back after placing her hands behind her head. "I get it from you." He merely looked away, uninterested in giving Barricade anymore satisfaction. "Mhm, yeah, course' ya do four eyes..." he mumbled uninterestedly. She glanced over "You say something?"
'Yes.'
"No, just talking to myself." he answered with a wave of his hand. The Decepticon nodded and looked away. For a moment Derek thought he had been made, however he gave a relieved sigh internally after it became obvious his comment wasn't actually heard. The two sat there for half a minute until Derek coughed to get Barricade's attention. "Sooo uh, we're caught up now by the way. I'm done with telling the backstory of my "insignificant existence." Everything else from here forwards is probably stuff you already know about. You know; got promoted, became a flight lead, picked up by NEST and got a badass new paintjob for my jet, then continued to do Warthog things until I got sucked into a hailstorm and got kidnapped by you after crashing."
"Ha! Yeah, sound's about right to me." Barricade then clapped her hands together "Welp! Now that you're done boring me with your puny little lifestory, I think it's my turn to tell you about me, although mine isn't as complex as yours." Derek took his flight helmet off and set it in his lap before getting settled in. "I'm all ears." Barricade raised an optic ridge and gave him a confused look "What do you mean? You only have two auditory receptors..." Derek smiled with a shake of his head "It's just a phrase, it means "I'm listening", it's not supposed to be taken literally."
"Ah okay. You're going to have to help me with all that earthspeak, there's still a good amount I still don't understand." she answered. Derek nodded "Yeah I gotcha'. English is a pretty complicated language on it's own, and that's WITHOUT all the little things. If something trips you up, just ask me, alright?" She nodded "Thank's bro." she answered. "Now shut up so I can tell my story!" she added with playful hostility. Derek made a hand gesture over his mouth like he was zipping it shut, then locked the imaginary lock, and finally threw the key away before giving a thumb's up.
Nosferatu News: Another cliffhanger for another long chapter. I figured this would be a good place to stop so thing's don't start getting obnoxiously long, although I WAS originally planning to get it all finished up in this one. Thing is, I don't exactly know how long Barricade's storytime session will be. If thing' s look too short once I get that segment done I'll probably fluff something in, maybe a gaming session, maybe Starscream trying to talk to Derek and saying some things about his own past.
Oh by the way, besides Helldiver, every other callsign and aircraft (with the exception of the F-15E's, cause those guys actually were modeled flying F-15C's) is a direct reference to an air unit from other media. PM me where each one is from if you think you know, I'll tell you if your right or wrong. How about it eh?
Also, and this is something I'd like to come from y'all...Right, so Barricade's got a nickname for Derek nailed down at this point. (Fleshbag) I'd like if y'all could pass me some ideas for a nickname Derek could call Barricade by, like an actual nickname, not just shortening her name...she doesn't actually have to like it by the way. (evil snickering)
Last thing: Please please PLEASE PM me or leave some reviews with what y'all think of the story so far, and/or your suggestions or ideas for things. I'm enjoying writing this thing out and throwing it up for y'all. However, way I see it is: If there doesn't seem to be much interest in this, there ain't much point in continuing to do it.