Save the Last Dance

"Attention all pilots," said Anderson over the squawk. "The enemy fighters are now on long range. Get to your fighters on the double!"

"It's time," said Rapier. The Omegas set to work getting ready for launch. One-by-one, they were then picked up by the crane and carried to the drop bay. Once launched they formed up on Rapier's wing. "Okay, everyone. You all know the drill."

"Roger, Omega Leader," said Bitch.

"Copy that," said Tracer.

"Princess?" asked Rapier. "Have you found our Ace yet?"

"He's in the middle of the pack," responded Princess. "He has two Devil Rays flying on his wing."

"Thank you," said Rapier.

"My pleasure, sweetie," said Princess.

Rapier thought to himself while they flew towards the oncoming Nephilim fighters. After careful consideration Rapier turned on his COMM to address the rest of the Omegas. "Okay," he began. "This is how it's going to go down. Tracer, you and Wabo are on his port wingman. Princess, you and Bitch are on his starboard wingman. Midnight, Chameleon, and I will engage the Ace himself. Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Waborita. "You buying the first round when we get back?"

"If we live through this," answered Rapier. "Sure."

"Cool beans," said Chameleon.

Silently they moved about in their formation to prepare to engage their proper targets. "Distance is 75,000 meters and closing," announced Princess to the others. Silently they all waited for her next update. She looked at her instruments and watched intently as the distance between them continued to diminish. When at last they had reached formation-breaking distance she signaled them again. "Distance now 35,000 meters."

"Okay everyone," said Rapier. "Break up and engage."

Tracer and Waborita spun away from the formation first. "Moving to engage enemy, Omega Leader," said Tracer. "Wabo, you're on my four."

"Roger that, Tracer," said Waborita.

Princess and Bitch did a lateral move and headed for their target. "Moving to engage our target, Omega Leader," said Bitch. "We'll kill 'em quick and back you up presently. Princess, you're on my eight."

"Copy that, Bitch," replied Princess. "You have the lead."

Rapier turned to look out the side window of his cockpit. "Midnight," he said. "Stay on my nine."

"Roger, Omega Leader," said Midnight.

"Chameleon," said Rapier. "Stay on my three and above."

"Copy that, Omega Leader," said Chameleon. "Just don't hog the shots."

"Wouldn't dream of it," replied Rapier.

The Ace sped towards the oncoming Omega Squadron with his two wingmen right behind him. It looked at its controls and saw that it was on a collision course with the Rapier's Cobra. It switched on its COMM and let out that piercing scream. Most pilots instinctively moved their hands to their ears to try and block the noise.

"What the HELL was THAT?" said Tracer to the rest of the Omegas.

"I think it's either pissed or REALLY unhappy," replied Waborita.

"Gee," said Bitch. "Ya think?"

Rapier and Midnight switched to their Infrared Missiles and tried to get a lock on the Ace. It let out another scream and buzzed past all three of them before they could do anything. "Damn that thing is fast," said Chameleon as she came about to pursue. The Ace's wingmen broke off from the Ace's wing and headed in their own directions. Tracer and Waborita chased after their target while Princess and Bitch pursued theirs. Rapier's missile lock alarm sounded suddenly, so he banked hard right, and released a decoy.

"That was too close," he said. "Where is he?"

"I can't see him," said Chameleon.

"I got him," said Midnight.

Tracer and Waborita hit full throttle and chased the Devil Ray. It moved about a lot, preventing any missile lock from being possible. "He's heading for his own Corvettes," said Waborita. "Be careful of their fire."

"Copy that, Wabo," said Tracer.

Elsewhere, Bitch and Princess's Devil Ray was also headed for the Corvettes, just from a different angle.

Rapier and Chameleon followed Midnight as he pursued the Ace. It was literally running circles around their Cobras. "I want to meet the guy who designed that ship," said Chameleon. "C'mere and get squashed BUG!"

The COMM crackled for a bit then the Ace spoke, "Put up or shut up, Chameleon."

All of the Omegas got wide-eyed at the same instant. "Palau, did you get that?" asked Rapier.

"Affirmative, Rapier," said Anderson.

"What's going on?" said Chameleon.

"A COMM trick," said Midnight. "Everyone, get focused!"

Elsewhere, the other ConFed pilots had their hands full with the rest of the Nephilim fighters. Casey let loose a missile and blew a Manta in half. "Here's some blackness for ya!" he said.

"Yoo-hoo!" said Maestro as he hammered a Moray with his guns. "Mr. Ugly!"

Maniac pulled the trigger and shot down a Moray with ease. "I've still got it," he said to himself.

Midnight was chasing down the Ace. His gunfire lit up the night sky as he tried to score a hit. However, the Ace was just too good and too fast. Suddenly, Chameleon flew past him with her afterburners locked and came right up on the Ace. He dodged and she followed. She switched to her full guns and fired on the Ace. He dodged most of her fire and she switched to her friend or foe missiles.

Waborita and Tracer were almost within missile range of the Devil Ray. It was definitely headed between the two Corvettes. Waborita fired his guns to try and dissuade it away from its current course, but the Devil Ray maintained its path. Tracer kicked in his afterburners and got barely within Infrared Missile range. He fired once he had a lock, but the Devil Ray popped a decoy and the missile was distracted.

Bitch and Princess had gotten within firing range of their Devil Ray and were firing their guns. The Devil Ray was rapidly losing its shields, but would not stop from heading towards the Corvettes. It would dodge and weave, but its overall flight-path was still in the direction of the Corvettes.

Zero and Spyder broke off their engagements to pursue a few Mantas that had broken through the wall of defense and were headed for the Palau. Zero locked on a missile and let it fly. The Manta deployed a decoy, but the missile impacted its aft anyway. The Manta was very badly damaged, but was still flying. Spyder hammered the rear shields of his Manta with his guns. It cursed at him and swerved about, trying to lose him.

Chameleon fired her missile and it sped towards the Ace. To her surprise, the missile actually impacted the port side of the Ace's ship. However, to her dismay, it was not destroyed by the missile. "You're going to pay for that, Chameleon," the Ace said to her menacingly. Then it laughed out loud at her. "You're going home in a box!"

Through all the COMM chatter and trash-talk, Maniac heard the Ace's threat. He knew instantly that it was no COMM trick. That was really him. "Blair?" he said. "Chameleon, what's your location?"

"No time to talk, Commodore," said Chameleon as she dodged the return gunfire from the Ace. She unlocked her afterburners to try and save some fuel. The Ace continued to fire on her with his guns. Fortunately she was able to dodge most of his fire. "Hey, are you two guys sleeping? Get this asshole off of me!"

Midnight opened fire on the Ace and hit his aft side. The Ace just let out his piercing scream and broke off pursuit of Chameleon.

Wabo and Tracer's missile lock alarms sounded and they had to launch decoys. "Tracer," said Waborita. "The incoming fire from the Corvettes is too much. We have to break off contact."

"Give me a few more seconds," said Tracer. "I can nail him."

"Don't risk it!" said Wabo. "That turret fire will chew us up and spit us out."

"I can handle it!" shouted Tracer.

Bitch had to break pursuit of the Devil Ray to shake two Skates she had picked up. Princess was capable of keeping up the pursuit. "Eat missile, Bug!" she shouted into her COMM as she fired. The missile hit it in the aft and the Devil Ray shook violently. It cursed and swore and it was very evident that its ship was almost done.

Zero shot down his Manta and it cursed and swore at him as it blew up. Spyder's Manta fired a torpedo at the Palau and broke off its run. Shortly after, Spyder struck the Manta with a missile and it was destroyed. Fortunately, the torpedo was destroyed by the Palau's heavy turret fire before it had the chance to strike its target. Spyder let out a strong sigh of relief and returned to the dog fighting.

Rapier finally destroyed the two Morays that had caused him to have to break off his pursuit of the Ace. He kicked in his afterburners and sped towards Midnight, Chameleon, and the Ace.

The Ace launched a missile at Midnight. Due to their close range, Midnight's decoy did not fool the missile and his starboard bow was hit very hard. He had to break contact for an instant to try and recover. Chameleon fired another friend or foe at the Ace, but his decoy distracted it. The Ace broke away from Midnight and maneuvered about. "Now, Chameleon," the Ace said. "Where were we?"

"What's your hard-on for me all about?" she said back to the Ace. The Ace did not say anything in return, but simply fired a missile that impacted on her aft port. "Ouch!"

Waborita broke off pursuit to engage one of the Corvettes. Tracer continued forward. The Devil Ray he was chasing entered the gauntlet between the two Corvettes. "You're not getting away from me, bug!" he said and charged forward into the gauntlet, firing his guns as he went.

Bitch circled around and began pounding the other Corvette. Princess was able to continue her pursuit of her Devil Ray. The both of them were about to enter the gauntlet from underneath the two Corvettes. The Devil Ray turned slightly and suddenly hit its afterburners.

Rapier was almost on the Ace, but he could not stop it as it opened fire on Chameleon with its guns. Its fire was hitting her hull directly and her cockpit shook violently. "I can't stay with you guys," she said. "Gotta bail." With that she pushed the ejector button and her escape pod flew away as her Cobra broke up. The Bug screamed out in hate over having been robbed of a kill.

Maniac was homing in on the Ace's location. Unfortunately, he found that he had to fight his way through heavy contacts to do so. Bugs were flying all around and occasionally being blown up by a ConFed pilot or two. ConFed pilots were dropping left and right as well. Fortunately, two out of every three was able to eject in time. "Maniac to the Palau," he said.

"Go ahead, Commodore," said Anderson.

"We really need you to launch a few SAR's and get these ejected pilots back inside," said Maniac.

"Signaling the SAR to launch now, Commodore," said Anderson. "Just keep those enemy fighters off of it as it does so."

"Will do," said Maniac. He sighed audibly over having to change his plans. But he knew that protecting the SAR was more important than finding out what was up with that Ace.

Anderson had two SAR's launch to begin picking up the ejected ConFed pilots.

The Ace rammed Chameleon's escape pod. She tumbled through space and the Ace screamed again. "Time to have some fun!" it said.

"Not if I can help it!" shouted Rapier. He opened fired with his full guns and launched a missile. The Ace dodged and flew away from Chameleon to avoid the missile. It screamed again.

The Devil Ray that Princess was chasing down had turned again and aimed straight for Tracer. Princess hit her COMM and said, "Tracer, bank hard port!"

Before Tracer could do anything, the Devil Ray opened fire on Tracer's ventral side and rammed right into his bow. It exploded with a great fury and sent Tracer spinning out of control. His bow was smashed and his Cobra began to leak badly.

"Shit!" he yelled as he tried to reach for his eject button. The gunfire from the turrets began hitting him hard. Before he was able to depress the eject button, his Cobra exploded and he was gone.

"Tracer!" screamed Princess. "NO! Tracer!"

The world stopped for the Omegas. Their minds blanked and all they could think of was that Tracer was dead. Rapier recovered first and turned on his COMM. "Back on the clock, everyone!" he ordered. The Ace capitalized on their momentary pause and slammed a missile and a lot of gunfire into Rapier's side.

"I'm going to kill every last one of you Omegas!" the Ace threatened. Midnight came back into the fray after fighting off two Lampreys to fire his guns at the Ace. The Ace screamed and returned fire on Midnight.

One of the SAR's was being hammered hard by a couple of Morays. Casey and Stiletto managed to shoo them away long enough for the SAR to pick up the last Pilot that it could before heading back. They escorted it until it was well within the Palau's protective cover fire. Then they returned to the fight. Maniac and Maestro were flying escort with the other SAR and they were rapidly approaching Chameleon's escape pod. "Hold on, baby," Maestro said to Chameleon. "He won't get you."

Princess had regained her senses and was tearing off after the other Devil Ray. Waborita and Bitch finished off the two Corvettes and had to zoom away as two Skate clusters tore into their Cobras with their laser fire. The Devil Ray swung back and opened fire on Princess's Cobra. She turned away and the Devil Ray sped past her. She came about and returned fire. The Devil Ray cursed and jeered her and she increased her speed. Then, suddenly she was blind-sided by two Mantas from each side. "Son of a fucking bitch!" she shouted as she hit the eject button. Her escape pod tumbled through space for a few seconds until she came to a stop.

"Princess!" shouted Bitch. "Are you all right?"

"Shaken," replied Princess. "But not stirred."

"My kind of woman," said Waborita.

"Can you guys keep that Devil Ray off of me?" asked Princess.

"As long as those damn Skate clusters don't get us first," said Waborita.

The Ace was playing with Midnight and Rapier. However, when he saw the SAR approach Chameleon's pod, he screamed and headed straight for her. By the time he got within range, the SAR was already beginning to pick her up. He screamed again, switched to his projectile gun, and opened fire on her pod.

Maestro sped over to the Ace and opened fire with his guns. "Get away from her, you piece of shit!" he yelled at the Ace. It was enough to get the Ace to stop firing and maneuver away.

"Come get some, Maestro," challenged the Ace.

"Blair?" Maniac said over the COMM. "Is that you Blair?"

There was silence from the Ace. Then it just turned about and headed back to strike at Rapier and Midnight head on. Maestro started to pursue, but Maniac signaled to him over the COMM, "No, you got to stay with your girl. I'll deal with Blair." With that he left Maestro to escort the SAR back to the Palau while he chased the Ace.

Waborita and Bitch were being fired on by the Skate clusters and a Manta while the Devil Ray hovered over Princess's pod. They tried their best to get to Princess, but the Skates and the Manta were playing very good defense. The Devil Ray engaged its tractor beam and began to pull Princess's pod in. Princess began pushing a sequence of buttons on a side console. "Have a shot for me, guys," she said. "I love you all."

Waborita and Bitch began firing at the Devil Ray as best they could. "No!" said Bitch. "We'll stop him. Just hang on!"

Princess kept pushing buttons. "See you guys on the flipside," she said as her pod was pulled into the belly of the Devil Ray. Bitch and Waborita kicked in their afterburners and sped away. Princess just looked out of the window at the Nephilim that were walking towards her pod. "That's right wankers. This is how I spell relief." She pushed one final button and the whole bay lit up. Waborita and Bitch looked at their rearview cameras and saw the Devil Ray explode from within.

"When we get back to Pilot Country I'm getting very drunk," said Wabo, his voice choked up with emotion.

The Ace was chasing Rapier and firing at him just enough to keep him from trying to turn about to come back and fight. Midnight plotted an intercept course and came at the Ace head-on. The Ace fired a missile at him and it slammed into his bow. Midnight's Cobra tumbled away as the Ace continued to pursue Rapier. Rapier could hear his missile lock alarm sound and he popped off a few decoys. Midnight regained control of his Cobra and sped back into the fight. His damage was very severe, but he knew that he had to stay in the fight to help his Wing Commander. He could see a missile from the Ace speeding towards Rapier and he locked on his afterburners. "Lieutenant Johnson it has been the honor of my life to fly on your wing," he said to Rapier, but not over the COMM. He turned and headed towards Rapier's direct aft. Rapier's missile lock was still going off. He switched to his rearview camera and saw the missile getting closer. That's when he saw Midnight barreling down upon him. His eyes got wide as he saw Midnight purposely put himself in front of the missile to take the hit. Rapier's alarm ceased and he saw Midnight's Cobra spinning away, out-of-control. His COMM crackled and Midnight's face came up on the screen.

"End all, be all," he said very calmly. Then his Cobra exploded and he was gone. He never even tried to eject.

Maniac had finally reached the engagement area where Rapier and the Ace were. "Blair!" he shouted to the Ace. The Ace heard Maniac's voice again and he screamed out in pain. Its fighter spun out of control. Its mind was filled with so many images. Images from his past. They came at him so fast his brain hurt and his soul felt a stab of pain. "I know that it's you, you stupid idiot. What have they done to you?"

Rapier locked onto the Bug with his last missile. "No!" ordered Maniac. "Not yet!"

"Christopher Blair is who I used to be," said the Ace as its fighter recovered. "But not anymore. They did this. The Nephilim. They turned me into one of them to make me kill the ones I loved. And it worked. But your voice has freed me. Reminded me of the real me. But it won't last." The Ace felt the Nephilim's control returning and it let out a scream and turned about to face Maniac and Rapier.

"Commodore," said Rapier. "I don't know if I'll get this shot again."

"Don't fire!" shouted Maniac. "That's an order!"

"Let him kill me, Todd," said Blair as he fought to maintain control. "It would be better for everyone this way."

Maniac got all choked up. Then he barrel rolled away. "Do it, Rapier," he said.

"One last thing, Todd," said Blair. "Make sure you recover what's left of this ship when it's all over. You may find a few things that could be useful. I'm ready, Rapier."

Rapier pulled the trigger and let his missile fly. It struck Blair's fighter and exploded. The fighter sat there for an instant, shuddering. Then it exploded in a great white light. Rapier turned about and headed back to the Palau. "Form up on my wing, guys," he said. Bitch and Wabo flew in and got into formation.

"I know that that wasn't easy for you, Rapier," said Bitch.

"You have no idea," said Rapier.

Other wings were flying into the hangar ahead of them. None of them could speak. When at last they had landed they just sat in their cockpits for a very long time just staring at their consoles. Then, one-by-one, they exited their Cobras and walked to the debriefing station. They couldn't even look each other in the eyes. Once they had debriefed they finally looked at one another and came together in a group hug.


Maestro rushed into the Medical Bay to see how Chameleon was doing. A medical officer stopped him. "How is she?" he asked. "I want to see her. Let me see her."

The medical officer took him aside. He let out a deep breath before saying, "She's in a coma and in critical condition. When the bug shot at her escape pod, a few of the projectiles penetrated its hull and hit her in several vital areas. She was lucky that she was already in our tractor beam at the time because by the time we got to her she had lost a lot of blood. If she had had to wait, she wouldn't have made it."

"Will she recover?" Maestro asked.

"We don't know," said the medical officer. "We've currently got her on an IV and she's receiving blood transfusions to replenish what she's lost. She's also going to need a lot of surgery to repair the damage she's sustained. After that, all we can do is wait until she wakes up. That could be in a day, it could be in a week."

"Or it could be never," said Maestro.

To be continued…