Part 2:
"Redemption"
Wild Weasel sat with his feet propped up on a desk in his quarters.
The timeline for the attack was looming near, but he felt uneasy for some reason.
He examined the technical readouts of the Behemoth, wanting to get more familiar with it. There was enough firepower to wipe out a small nation, and plenty of uniformed women, ready to obey Armada's every command.
He wasn't stupid. He had hacked into the computer systems and learned of their destination, for which Armada tried to keep hidden from him.
Cobra Island was the target. There was only one person for whom Armada had drummed up this much firepower for; she wanted to wipe Cobra off the face of the map, and Cobra Commander with it!
He didn't care. Ten million dollars had already been deposited into his Swiss bank account, and anything Armada planned, he was willing to go along with, even if that meant annihilating his former employer. Cobra Commander had fired him.
Attacking Cobra was a huge undertaking and this ship with its massive arsenal could handle it purely on automation control. But he sensed Armada had a secret agenda. Who was Armada's husband? And why had Cobra Commander ordered his execution? How important was he, that Cobra Commander feared him that he wanted him killed?
Armada's body language told Wild Weasel a great deal. She was a bitter women beneath that smiling façade; she put on a front for his sake. Revenge was foremost on her mind. But was there something more?
He put down the data pad he had been reading and glared up at the ceiling. The Behemoth was en-route to Cobra Island. They had launched soon after he assumed the Captain's position. Then he retired to his quarters and asked for hourly up-dates.
He thought of Armada. She was a gorgeous woman, and he had been attracted to her the minute he set eyes on her, when she entered his cockroach fitted apartment. It was a place, now, he could say good-bye to with ten million dollars in the bank.
"Keep your distance," he said to himself. "She's on a mission. The last person she'd be interested in right now is you."
The comm system sounded and he straightened in his chair to answer it. He pressed a button on the desk. It was Armada. "Wild Weasel, I need you to come to my quarters immediately. I have some important business to discuss with you before we reach our destination."
"On my way," Wild Weasel said, and left his quarters.
He arrived at her quarters within minutes, and as he was about to knock, he stopped, smelling a strange but pleasant aroma. Almost like incense.
Entering her quarters, he was hit by a thick cloud of smoke that filled the room. Stepping inside, the door slid shut.
"Armada, what is all this?" Waving his hand through the smoke, he saw a feint image in the distance. "Is that you over there?"
He approached her, and then stopped; gasped. She was naked.
"What the hell! Put some clothes on! We're about to engage in war!"
She took his hand and drew him deeper into the room. "I have something to show you. I detected your hack into my computer systems. You know we're about to attack Cobra Island. Now I wish to tell you why."
"But why are you naked?"
Then he saw it - an alter, half a meter high. On it stood two candles burning incense next to a human skull. Behind the alter was a costume, proudly displayed. It was a bird-like dress with its wings out-stretched. It appeared Armada was worshipping it.
"What's the meaning of this, Armada? I know that crazy costume. It belonged to Raptor, a former lawyer turned birdman for Cobra. He wore it to train birds to attack planes in the sky. Cobra Commander had him killed along with others for betrayal. Was he your husband?"
"Yes. And Cobra Commander will pay for his murder. He was left to die in a freighter with others on Cobra Island, buried, and eventually died of Botchlatism from food poisoning. It wasn't until Cobra troops found the freighter later that I learned his fate."
Wild Weasel began to feel light-headed. This was no mere incense, he concluded. It had a tranquilizer-like effect, that Armada seemed immune to. He staggered to the alter, but fell over, taking the alter with him. The skull of Armada's husband dropped on him, laying on his chest.
Then he felt the sensation like he was being dragged along the floor, and hoist onto a soft surface. It was Armada's bed. Armada laid him on his back. Then she began to unbutton the front of his uniform. Was she going to seduce him?
It was then that he saw another figure, the silhouette of a man standing over him within the incense. Armada stood next to him.
"The incantations have been spelled, the atmosphere is perfect - he is yours. . ."
"W-who are you?" Wild Weasel muttered.
Armada leaned in close to Wild Weasel's face; he looked at her in a dreamy daze. "I called you to my quarters to be used as a vessel for my husband to return from the dead, and with this incense and spells spoken correctly, I have made it possible for him to return. Native American and African tribes have been using his method for years to summon the spirits of the dead to communicate with. You should be honored," she then said. "With your body, my husband will live again and bring a new order to the world."
"I won't let you. . ."
Armada laughed. "You don't have a choice."
Wild Weasel awoke suddenly in his quarters, and fully dressed. Had it been a dream? He had been thinking about Armada just before. . .
"I must have dozed off," he said. He checked his watch, then jumped to his feet. The mission was about to begin.
"Approaching Cobra Island, all hands, prepare for attack!" A female voice alerted over the comm system.
He ran out of his quarters, and to the bridge.
Armada sat in the captain's chair. "I thought I was to be informed on an hourly bases of our progress?"
She vacated the chair, and the main view screen activated with a clear picture of Cobra Island.
"Island defenses have been activated!" a woman at Weapon's Control reported. "Missiles have been launched from the island!"
"Repel attack! Launch Drones!" Wild Weasel ordered.
"Yes, Captain!"
A swam of robot, bird-like, raptor drones, launched from the docking bay underneath the ship, and swooped down to eliminate the threat, firing laser beams that were built into their beaks.
Cobra was no match with these things, Wild Weasel knew. The attacking capabilities of these drones were uncanny and far superior to anything Cobra had, or even Destro could build. Cobra had weapon's munitions on every corner of the island, but within minutes, they were rendered to ash with the drones attacks.
They also repelled enemy aircraft and sea attacks.
Within fifteen minutes, the attack was over. And the island smoked, smoldered, after the brutal onslaught. The Drones had delivered a devastating blow to Cobra.
"Prepare to land," Wild Weasel ordered. "And order the Drones to capture POW's."
"Yes, Captain," a female crew member replied.
He looked at Armada and smiled. They had their victory.
The Behemoth touched down next to Cobra Island's main base of operations, on top of a high mountain peak overlooking the island.
Outside stood Cobra Commander, surrounded by Armada's forces. Before the ship had landed, a party of Armada's best soldiers took ships and joined the drones, capturing every one of interest.
Cobra Commander was in handcuffs when Armada stepped down the exit ramp. Wild Weasel followed her. He could hear Cobra Commander hiss in distemper as they approached him.
With clenched fists, Cobra Commander said, "What's the meaning of this?! Who the hell are you people? Why did you attack my island!"
Wild Weasel stood firm, his face hidden by a mask. Cobra Commander didn't recognize him in his new uniform. And as Cobra Commander had never seen Armada before, he didn't know who she was either.
Wild Weasel spoke. "As captain of this vessel, you are under arrest!"
"On what grounds?" Cobra Commander spat back.
"Murder!"
"You have to be more specific!"
Armada put up a hand, stopping him. "That's enough. Cobra Commander isn't stupid. He knows the clauses of war."
"I don't know you," Cobra Commander said.
"As you shouldn't, Cobra Commander. To you, I'm merey an insignificant pawn in the game of life, a pawn for which you murdered my king! You killed my husband!"
"Again, you have to me more specific. I've killed many men!" the terrorist leader said.
"My husband had a name, but you'd better know him as Raptor."
"That venomous traitor? He attempted to seize power when I was temporarily incapacitated from Cobra using an impostor to rule in my place. But I punished him and all who betrayed me!"
"Yes, and I'm here to settle the score!" Armada said. "And I've brought an old acquaintance to help me. He was instrumental in defeating your forces, providing holes in your defensive net for my forces to attack."
Wild Weasel removed his helmet.
"You!" Cobra Commander hissed. "I fired you!"
"Yes, Cobra Commander. You certainly did. But Armada gave me a new lease on life. To destroy you. I now serve under her as captain of this vessel."
"Once a Cobra, always a Cobra!"
"I owe you no allegiance, Cobra Commander. My goals were supplemented by greed, nothing more. And ten million dollars is a lot of money."
"I'll double it!"
"Ha! Cobra is defeated."
"A snake never gives up. He fights until the last hiss."
"It's too late for threats, Cobra Commander," Armada said.
One of the Twins stepped up beside Armada with something wrapped in a sheet. Armada then unwrapped it. It was Raptor's skull.
"Say hello to my husband."
"You sick woman!" Cobra Commander said.
Wild Weasel suddenly felt an agonizing pain and he grabbed his head. Then he heard a voice inside his mind.
"Kill Cobra Commander! Take your gun and point it at him!"
Wild Weasel unholstered the gun from his chest and held it aloft at Cobra Commander, but he struggled to pull the trigger.
The dream I had, it was real, he thought. Armada's husband, Raptor, possessed me!
"No! This wasn't the deal, Armada!" Wild Weasel shouted.
"I'm altering our contract! My husband's spirit will inhibit your body and live again!"
Wild Weasel thought, "The skull must be the medium Armada's husband's using between this and the spirit world. It must be destroyed!"
"Commander, forgive me," Wild Weasel said. "She conducted some ritual to resurrect Raptor's spirit inside me!"
"Resistance is futile!" Armada said.
Wild Weasel fired the gun. But not at Cobra Commander. Instead, he shattered the skull. Also killing the Twin who was holding it.
Armada screamed horrified.
The other Twin attacked Wild Weasel in a rage for her sister's death, but with another shot, he killed her too. Freed from Raptor's influence, he then pointed the gun at Armada.
Armada's anger filled her face. "You bastard! You betray me! And after everything I've done for you!"
"Kill her, and you're reinstated, Wild Weasel," Cobra Commander said. He pressed a button on his belt buckle, and suddenly Armada's forces were surrounded by Cobra troops. "You see, my dear, Armada, I always have forces in reserve for every eventually. I'm not stupid."
Wild Weasel shot a laser beam through the chain of Cobra Commander's handcuffs, freeing him.
"While I enjoy a little foreplay with my women, you, I'm afraid, Armada, are not my type," Cobra Commander then said. "You underestimate me."
"What do you intend to do with me?" Armada said.
"I haven't decided. But I will enjoy that fantastic ship you delivered into my hands. Once I learn its secrets, the world will be my oyster and Cobra will rule the skies, with Wild Weasel as Captain, of course."
"Never!" Armada spat out. "I spent my entire fortune building it for the sole purpose of killing you! I'd rather see it destroyed!"
"And how do you intend to stop me?"
Armada sneered a smile. "Like you, Cobra Commander, I, too, have a contingency plan." She rolled up her sleeve to reveal a computerized wrist control device. Wild Weasel had thought it was a watch when he first saw it, and thought nothing of it. On it, was an alpha-numeric display. And she quickly punched in a series of digits.
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INTIATIED. TEN MINUTES TO CORE EXPLOSION. A computerized voiced alerted through the device.
"You'll never have the Behemoth now! The explosion will destroy everything on the island!"
"Including yourself!" Cobra Commander said.
"It's a small price to pay for killing you!"
"Stop it, now! Armada!" Wild Weasel demanded, pointing the gun at her. "You don't have to do this!"
"You can die along with him, you traitor!" Armada pulled out a gun from a holster on her back and committed suicide, shooting herself in the head. Her body dropped like a stone before him.
"Now what?" Cobra Commander said insistently. "You better know a way to stop that countdown, Wild Weasel!"
"I can't. That system was Priority-One. Only she had the code. But there may be something else I can do." He grabbed the control device off her wrist. "It looks like this device has the ability to control the ship. I believe I can access Flight Control."
"And what will that accomplish?"
"If I can fly the ship into the ocean, the blast will be relativity controlled, and the ship will implode instead of explode, due to water's density. But there's no telling if we have enough time for that."
"Do it anyway!"
Wild Weasel holstered his gun back to his chest holder.
Escape pods were jettisoned as the ship was launched into the air. The crew were abandoning the vessel.
Wild Weasel used the device -- and crashed the Behemoth a fair distance from Cobra Island. Soon after, it imploded. The island rocked, shaking its inhabitants. And a huge tidal wave washed ashore. But as they were in the middle of the island, the water didn't reach them.
Cobra Commander padded Wild Weasel on the back when it was all over.
"Very good," he said contentedly. "Welcome back to Cobra, my boy. I only fired you because of financial concerns, but now that has been rectified. Twenty million dollars will be deposited into your Swiss bank account."
"Thank you, Cobra Commander. I'm pleased to be of service to you again."
With a quick grab, Cobra Commander snatched the gun from the holster on Wild Weasel's chest, and pointed it at his face. Wild Weasel gasped. Then he fired -- Wild Weasel grabbed his upper left shoulder, recoiled.
"But why, Commander?" he hissed out painfully.
"Call it a lesson. If you ever betray me, I'll kill you myself. Oh, thank you for the warning me of the attack. It helped me to prepare a contingency detachment to surround Armada's forces. Mores Code through an emergency frequency before the attack. Ingenious. And a nicely played performance when you disembarked."
"Thank you, Cobra Commander."
"Now clean up this trash."
"Yes, Cobra Commander," Wild Weasel said, with a nod.
Cobra Commander then walked away.
With blood seeping from the bullet hole in his shoulder, Wild Weasel crouched down next to Armada. "You were a foolish woman, Armada, to go up against Cobra, but thank you for the ten million dollars."
He stood up, then snapped his fingers. Two Cobra troopers picked Armada's lifeless body and threw it into a pile with others. Afterwards, they were all lit on fire.
It took two days for the smell of charred flesh to clear the island.
END