(Verstand tanzt)

Dances of the Mind

Bourrée: Hot Stepping

Chapter 2: "Brawls of Steel"

            "This is BARCAP patrol, Eagle One reporting in.  You got anything, two?"

            "Dammit, can't you just call me Tailhook?"

            "Stick to the plan, two."

            Conway Miles, also known as Eagle One, silently laughed from the cockpit of his Super Hornet.  The Autobots still only grudgingly adhered to the human idea of military efficiency.  And perhaps they had a good point, too, but the system was already in place, and what could you do about it?  He made a leftward glance at Tailhook, who was in loose formation with his flight.  At a glance, he looked like a modified F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, but you had to look closely to note the subtle differences.  For instance, the Cybertronian steel had a somewhat different sheen to it, and was only slightly dulled by the standard paint job.  The biggest giveaway, though, was that on the tail, where there should have been an American flag, there was the Autobot insignia.

            "Just a few more klicks, Tailhook, and you'll be home free," Conway said into the radio.

            "Good.  I hate to ruin this new paint job."

            He's young, Conway thought to himself, smiling.  After a few more years, he'd be a vet like the others, and then he'd put on a new face.  For now, though, he was who he was.  Conway shook his head.  How many pilots—and transformers—have he guided from green to mean?  Though it was always the same, he still found it enjoyable.  It was refreshing to see in others that youthful flare that his own commander must have seen in himself when he was in training.  He glanced at his instruments and frowned.

            "Hold up," he said into the radio.  "Ah, command, we have two bogeys at fifty miles, heading two eight six point nine.  Please advise."

            The radio was silent for a moment, but then it crackled to life.  "Roger, we read you.  Proceed to maximum visual range.  Do not engage."

            "That's affirmative command, over."

            He switched his radio to the squadron channel.  "Hear that Tailhook?  Got some unidentifieds out there.  You know the drill."

            "Yes sir," the Autobot replied, increasing speed.

            For things like this, humans were not adverse to letting the transformer do the job.  It was not that the humans were inferior to them in any way, but merely that the transformers came equipped with all sorts of sophisticated gadgetry that the generals and the media loved to see in action.  Besides, at maximum zoom, their enhanced optical systems beat human vision by more than a few hundred to one.  "Switching to range while scan; passive monitoring systems fully functional.  You got anything on the EM scope, Tailhook?"

            "Nothing out of the norm, Conway.  Just your usual IR signature."

            Conway sighed and watched their range diminish.  Keeping an eye on his electronic map display, he radioed, "Break off this run, Tailhook.  Look s like our fight come another...."

            An explosion bucked the jet, causing Conway to veer wildly to the right.  "Shit!" Conway heard over the radio.  Glancing to his left, he saw a large scorch mark on the rear half of the fuselage.  "You okay there bud?"

            "Yeah, yeah don't worry about me.  Watch the six!"

            Conway turned around and frowned.  He checking his instruments.  "I don't see anything..."

            "I'm sure there's one back there!  Those other guys are too far away, and besides, it came from the wrong direction."

            "Looks like we got a cloaker.  BARCAP patrol to command and control, you might have one heading your way.  We have one bandit unaccounted for.  He's behind us and cloaked."

            "We copy.  New orders, patrol.  Engage at will."

"Roger that!" Tailhook replied enthusiastically.

"Hey Hook, you got any of those magic flares of yours?"

"You mean the EM-sensitive ones?"

"That would be them."

"Don't leave base without 'em."

"We'll do a turnabout.  We can get the other monkeys later.  After the turn, launch one flare at the ten o' clock low and one at two o' clock high, okay?  On my mark."

"Roger that."

"Break!"

Though Tailhook did indeed look like an Super Hornet, he performed nothing like one.  The first reason would be the obvious: he was a Transformer.  He was a natural, quite literally, at flying; it would be like running for humans, or maybe swimming.  All the technical numbers—air speed, heading, corner velocity, turning radius, altitude, and what not—he could feel them and respond to them instinctively and intuitively.  He can execute a maximum speed turn in the same way that a human body knows how to reposition itself to balance the proper forces when changing direction.  There was some amount of envy exuded from humans towards transformers in that respect, but Conway supposed that the transformers were equally fascinated at the assortment of positive and negative feedback loops that make up the human nervous system.

A split second after he came out of the turn, two bright pinpricks of light shot off into the distance.  Just as Conway spotted a shimmering patch of sky near a cloud, a beep on the radar told him that his radar warning receiver had picked up a target.  He immediately let loose with the M61 and watched with satisfaction as the 20-mm tracers found their way to their target.  After a only few dents and sparks, the decepticon uncloaked and dropped with incredible speed.

"Form up!" Conway radioed by instinct.

"This one's mine," Tailhook said, diving down past Conway.  In one fluid motion, he let loose a trio of AIM-9Xs and transformed.  In response, the decepticon transformed and spun around while continuing his downward trajectory.  A short burst of laser fire and the missiles were destroyed, allowing the decepticon to dive further.  Conway shook his head and switched to his AIM-120 AMRAAM.  "Drop below him Hooker.  I'm coming on the top.  Keep your fire to his underside so he can't land."

Slightly disheartened at his missed opportunity, Tailhook replied, "Sure thing.  You're the boss."  He immediately pitched into a downward spiral at an angle of attack of roughly eighty-five degrees.  It was amazing the kind of loads that transformers could take, but he supposed it was all in perspective.  They were made of metal—something that a carbon-based life form like him would have to get used to.

Conway kicked in the afterburners and accelerated, trying to maintain a steady lock.  The decepticon, however, jinked with an uncanny clairvoyance, but again, it was just instinct.  By then they had dropped from fifteen thousand feet to roughly six thousand feet.  The rugged terrain was beginning to look mighty close.  A flurry of red coming from Tailhook and the decepticon immediately pulled up into an Immelman turn followed by a J-turn.  That brought him only slightly below Conway but coming straight at his twelve o' clock.  He was six nautical miles away, but in air-distance, that was close.  Almost too close, Conway thought, smiling, but not close enough.  He pulled the trigger and watched the AIM-120 Slammer plow forward with supersonic speed.  The decepticon executed a turn carrying a G-load no human could withstand, and was immediately perpendicular to his original flight path.  A few glistening flickers indicated that he had dispensed chaff; the missile exploded harmlessly short of its target.

"Let me handle this, buddy-boy," Tailhook said, shooting past Conway.  "Never send a human to do a transformer's job."  Conway smiled and shook his head.  This is going to get ugly, he thought to himself.

Conway had seen some pretty rough-and-tough "brawls of steel" in his time, but this one was one for the records.  Tailhook accelerated recklessly forward, probably putting forth a heat signature that a thermometer could pick up from across the Atlantic.  Conway could only stare at his HUD and watch the small blips dance about each other.  They were both transformed and hovering about each other, trading shots and, if Conway knew Tailhook correctly, insults.  When Conway came into visual range on a slow approach, he made certain to pass from above.  Then suddenly the two steel forms collided together and dropped from the sky in a mass of flailing steel.  "Tailhook!  You all right?"

"I'm a little (grunt) busy (a metallic screeching sound) right now!!!"

Conway dived down after them, but could only do so slowly, or he would suffer red-out.  On his new instrument panel, Conway tapped a few keys experimentally and was rewarded with a display showing the fight from Tailhook's point of view.  He drew back slightly as a fist grew very large and suddenly the clouds shot into view.  In the lower right hand corner, a four digit number was counting down very rapidly–altitude.  "Uh Tailhook...down below?"

"I (grunt) know *mpphhh* what I'm doing.   Gahhh!!!"

Shortly, there was a massive cloud of dust on the ground.  Conway had made it to a thousand-feet by then and tried his best to spot Tailhook.  His radar was receiving too much interference from the ground and the dust too be of much use.  "Tailhook!  Tailhook are you there!"

No response.

"Tailhook!"

Silence.

Then suddenly, his plane shuddered and began to descend awkwardly.  The surprise would have made Conway hit his head on the cockpit, had it been possible.  Looking at the rear-view display, Conway saw a steel form peeking into the back of his cockpit while grabbing a steady hold of the fuselage.  Tailhook waved a hand at him and smiled.

"Geezes shit, Tailhook, what're you trying to do, tear the plane apart?!"

"Don't worry, silly hooman.  This plane can take a lot more than you think. Trust me."  He patted the glass cockpit, causing Conway to tense in anxiety.  Tailhook laughed.

"Oh did you want to fly?" Conway asked sarcastically.

"Well, now, that's not a bad idea..."

"Tailhook!"

The transformer laughed again.  "Oh before I part with you and the two of us cease to be one, let me just tell you one thing.  We Cybertrons play by our own rules.  Remember that.  Learn the rules and maybe you'll live in this game of war."

Conway knew there was truth in that, but he couldn't let him get the last word.  "Honkey-tonk coming from a rookie like you!  Wait 'till you go up against a squad of Mirage F2000s, or whatever the hell they've got out there.  We humans have our rules too."

"Well said, my friend," Tailhook responded.  He glanced over his shoulder.  "Looks like the other two live to fight another day."

"Have you been reading, Tailhook?"

Tailhook "blinked" blankly.  "No, just watching TV.  Why?"

"Never mind."