Chapter Five: Head of the Hammer, Part One
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"C'mon, Tommy, who was it? You can tell your best friend…!"

John and Tommy were on their way to the briefing room. John had been prodding at Tommy to talk about the "someone" he had mentioned before all day, and still was at it.

"Look, John, if I told you, you'd probably think I was full of it. Just drop it for now, okay?"

"Tommy, I'm not falling for that one…"

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Will you knock it off already?! Look, after we do…whatever we're going to do, I'll spill, all right?"

"…Fair enough, I guess."

Inside the briefing room, the Commander was addressing the entirety of Cavalier Squadron. The Squadron was made up of three flights of four aircraft each: Red, Green, and Blue Flights. As usual, Tommy and John took their seats in "Blue Section", the far right side of the room.

"All right, now that everyone's here, let's get things started. We've been trying to figure out just who it was that took control of those drones. Through a lot of signal-tracing and detective work, we've managed to come up with one name: Hammerheads." The name brought forth a large stir among the pilots. "People! Room, attention!" Everybody stopped talking. "Right. Yes, it's true. We have good reason to believe the Hammerheads pirate group is responsible for that incident. Be on your guard, gentlemen. We're going to run a sweep of the surrounding space in a couple of hours, using Green and Blue Flights. If ANY of you encounter something out of the ordinary, report it immediately, but do NOT attack unless attacked. Red Flight will be on standby in case things really go south out there. Any questions?"

A lone pilot, in "Green Section", stood up. "Um, sir…well, I've just been transferred in and I don't know much about this area of space. Exactly who are the Hammerheads?" Immediately, everybody else turned to look at him, embarrassing him to no end.

"Now, now, people," said Commander Ironsides, "we don't give new pilots a hard time here. That's an order. Would anybody care to explain things to the ensign?"

John stood up. "Sir, I'd be happy to."

"Proceed, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, sir. The Hammerheads are one of the gutsier pirate groups out there. They're a mixed team of humans and both sizes of Zentraedi. Basically, you take the meanest, roughest street gang walking the slums of the worst city on Earth or any of the colonies, and give them variable fighters and powered armors, and you've got the Hammerheads. Unlike most pirate groups, they're not out so much for getting rich as they are just for giving the U.N. government a headache. They've stooped as low as mere vandalism and gone so far as to raid and capture lone starships and frontier garrison bases. Pure chaos is their game. Exactly who his or her leader is, nobody knows…though it's rumored to be a full-sized male Zentraedi. Their colors are black and steel gray. That's about it, sir."

"Right. If there are no more questions…? Very well. Dismissed."

Meanwhile, at her home, Kina was trying to cook lunch.

"Let's see…heat in microwave for two minutes…that seems about right." As she pressed the buttons to start the microwave, she couldn't help but turn her thoughts back to Tommy.

"He was really nice. I hope I'll get to know him better." As she thought this, she failed to notice that her elbow had bumped the microwave controls, changing the time and heat levels. "Something was strange, though. I can't put my finger on it, but…I'm not sure if he's as happy as he seems." Suddenly, her train of thought was broken when she turned around and saw the package she put into the microwave expanding to critical levels.

"Uh-oh! Gotta turn it off!" She quickly pressed several buttons, and then opened the door of the microwave. "Whew! That was really close-AAAHHH!" The package burst just as she got the door all the way open, splattering its contents all over the inside of the microwave…and Kina's face. "Oh! Ouch! It's hot! It burns!" She ran around panicking for several minutes, even though she had instinctively knocked the hot food off of her face. After finally calming down she went up to the microwave.

"Darn you, why can't you work right for just once?!" She grabbed the door and tried to slam it shut, but the door latch didn't catch and the door swung back…hitting her in the face.

"Oww…" she said with tears in her eyes, "why does this have to happen to me…?!"

Back at the base, John and Tommy were getting prepped for the upcoming mission.

"So?" said John.

"So what?"

"Look, just tell me already! We've got two hours, so you've got time!"

Tommy sighed in defeat. "All right, fine. But you're going to think I'm out of my damn mind…"

"Oh, come on, Tommy. Give yourself some credit; I doubt you made THAT bad of a choice." They went off into a secluded corner of the locker room.

"All right. You remember that Zentraedi girl that almost turned me into a pancake by accident? I met her again. We talked; she's actually really nice. Now, what do you think of that?"

"…You're out of your damn mind!"

Tommy groaned. "Man, what did I tell you?!"

"Even so, it's crazy! Don't get me wrong; I've nothing against the Zentraedi personally. But what kind of relationship could you have? Micronized, no problem…but full-sized? I mean, that's…crazy!"

"John, for the love of…will you relax? As it stands, it's just the start of a friendship. After that…I dunno."

Now it was John's turn to sigh. "Well…I can't stop you from doing things your own way, my friend. Just…be careful, okay?"

"Always. Let's get set before people start looking at us funny."

When the two hours had passed, it was time for action. John, Tommy, and the rest of Blue Fight were in their VF-1X-Plus Valkyries, but they were now carrying NP-BP-10 FAST packs on their crafts' backs. With the transatmospheric capability they provided, the aircraft were soon in space.

"All right, ladies, let's get to work," said John. "Everybody set your radar to max range and max scanning width. If there's something out here, we'll find it."

About an hour into the patrol, they received a report from Green Flight (it was addressed to the base, but was broadcast on the open channel to allow Blue Flight to pick it up as well).

"This is Green 1. We've picked up an unknown contact on our radar. Request permission to check it out."

"Granted. Remember that you are authorized to open fire the second you're attacked."

"Understood, Control. Green 1 out."

A while later, Tommy was growing a bit nervous.

"Hey, John?"

"Yeah?"

"Something doesn't seem right here. Shouldn't the Greens have reported in by now?"

"Hmm…you know, I think you're right. Control, this is Blue 1."

"Go ahead, 1."

"Roger, uh…it's been a bit too long since Green Flight last reported in. Should we go over there and see if there's a problem?"

"…Negative, negative. Keep to your assigned route. However, be ready for any change of plans."

"Understood. Blue 1 out."

Tommy frowned. "I still don't like it, Lead."

"Neither do I, but orders are orders."

A minute later, there was finally a report from the Greens. "This is Green 1. Sorry about the delay, but we had a sudden bout of communications interference. No idea where it came from. We'll keep you…what the hell is that?! Oh my God…Control, this is Green 1! We are under attack! Repeat, we are under-"

"Green Flight? Green Flight, come in! Damn…Blue Flight, this is Control, come in!"

"This is Blue 1. We heard the whole thing," said John through clenched teeth. "I assume we now have permission to assist Green Flight?"

"You're damned right. Render assistance ASAP! Control out."

"You heard the man, people. Let's lend a helping hand!"

"This is going to be one of those really, REALLY bad days," thought Tommy.