Chapter Thirteen: Scramble, Part One
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am getting really sick and tired of hearing these kinds of reports…!"

"I'm sorry, sir. But what can we do?"

"…I say it's about time we dropped this façade of sneakiness. It's time for an all-out assault."

"All-out assault, sir?"

"Damned right. I want you to gather up our most bloodthirsty VF pilots and send them after those U.N. Spacy losers!"

"Yes, sir!" The phone on the desk rang. The man sitting there picked it up.

"Yes? Oh…Mom. How are you? Yes, yes, I know I haven't returned your calls in a while." He covered the receiver. "You'd better go; this is gonna take some time."

"I understand, sir."

"…Sorry, what was that? Oh, come on! You know I haven't forgotten about you…!"

A while later, back on Sweetwater, Kina and Tommy were on their fourth "date". This time, they were sitting by the edge of a really short cliff. Well, it was short to Kina, as her feet nearly touched the ground at the bottom. To Tommy, it was still a long way down.

"…You're a fan of Mel Brooks' movies, too?" said Kina.

"You mean there are people who aren't?" replied Tommy. Kina laughed.

"Point taken. Hey, do you hear that?"

Tommy cocked an eyebrow. "Hear what?"

"Sounds like a car engine."

"Really? I don't hear anything."

Kina blushed a little. "Oops, sorry…Zentraedi hearing."

"Wait, now I hear it. Sounds like a jeep…hey, look!"

They turned around. A jeep was closing in on them at high speed. As it reached them, the driver hit the brakes and slid to a stop, parallel to the cliff edge. The driver jumped out and rushed to them. It was John.

"Hey, isn't that your friend?"

"Yes, it is. Hey, John!" John ran right up to Tommy.

"Whew…I caught you just in time…what were you doing here, anyway?"

Tommy smiled. "Just talking to Kina here. Kina, this is my friend and wingmate, John Peterson."

Kina gave him a warm smile. "Hi!"

John's eyes widened a bit, but it didn't take him long to find his politeness. "Pleased to meet you, Kina. Tommy, we've got problems."

"Problems?"

"Yeah! The Commander wants the entire squadron back at base ASAP!"

Tommy pursed his lips. "I see…" He turned back to Kina. "I'm sorry, Kina. Another time?"

Kina smiled. "Of course. But please take care of yourself."

"I will. All right, John, let's go."

Kina watched them leave.

"I hope he'll be okay…"

Upon reaching the base, and getting into their flight suits, they rushed into the briefing room. As usual, everyone else was already there.

"Okay, gentlemen," began the Commander, "we have a serious situation on our hands. We picked up multiple contacts outside the planet's atmosphere, all of which are headed right for us. They will enter the atmosphere shortly. We have not been able to identify them yet, but a recon aircraft and its escorting fighters near the predicted point of entry is working on that problem."

An officer walked into the room. He had the markings of a communications worker on his uniform.

"Commander Ironsides, the recon aircraft is reporting in. They've spotted the bogies."

"Very good. Let's tune in, shall we?" He pressed a button on the table near him, and a channel opened up to the recon aircraft.

"This is Pathfinder 10-6. We've got contact with the unknowns. The entry flames are obscuring them, but that should cease shortly. Hold it…they're cooling down…oh, hell…! They're all variable fighters, Hammerhead markings!"

John and Tommy looked at each other, then back to the screen.

"They're all heavily armed and…oh, no, we've been spotted!! We're under attack! Repeat, we are under-" The transmission was squelched, leaving only the hiss of static. The Commander immediately turned to the squadron.

"We've got very little time! Get to your aircraft and stop them!"

Outside the base, the air raid siren was wailing like no tomorrow. The flight controllers were barking orders over the PA system:

"The base is about to come under attack! Repeat, an attack is imminent! Scramble all pilots! Scramble all aircraft! Scramble! Scramble!!!!"

Tommy and John, now in full flight gear, hurried to their waiting VF-11s. Each aircraft was fitted with the max load of 20 short-range missiles. The Thunderbolts were marshaled to their takeoff positions as fast as possible, but the wait still seemed like an eternity.

"Damn it…we've got to get up there!" growled John. "The missiles will be plunging in any minute now!!"

"Yeah. This really sucks!" said Tommy.

Their anger was compounded when somebody shouted out the two words nobody wanted to hear.

"They're here!!"

Missiles suddenly rained down from the sky, slamming into targets on the ground. A pair of waiting Star Mirages was instantly turned into scrap metal. A cluster of fuel trucks was hit, sending a titanic fireball into the air.

"Son of a…we've got to get airborne!!" cried Tommy. Luckily, Blue Flight was the next to take off. Within a minute, all four members were in the air. Almost instantly, they all had missile warnings.

"Oh, jeez!" They scattered and barely dodged the incoming missiles.

"That was way too close," said John. "Okay, let's show these guys that they're not welcome!"

"Yeah!"

"Right on!"

"All the way, buddy!"

The incoming bandits were now within visual range of the base. It was dominated by VF-4 Lightning III fighters, but some VF-14A Hunters, VA-3A Invaders, and VF-11B Thunderbolts were also in the group.

"Okay, here's the plan," said John. "Try to target as many fighters as you can at once, then send your missiles after them. We need to thin out their ranks!"

They turned into the incoming swarm. As they got within missile range, they each targeted several enemies and opened fire. Other squadrons did the same. The resulting missile swarm created a huge panic in the enemy formations, causing breakaways and split-ups all over. A couple even crashed into each other. Others fell victim to the missiles, getting ripped apart by explosions.

"That did some damage!" cried John. "Come on! It's dueling time!!" The Hammerhead and U.N. Spacy forces met at the merge, and a giant swirling dogfight ensued in the skies a few miles short of the base.

Tommy immediately had a pair of fighters on him, a VF-14 and a VF-4. They each tried to hit him with missiles.

"Whoa!!" Tommy broke hard right, dropping flares all the way. The missiles detonated behind him, but he was still being pursued. Tommy decided to fight back, and opened fire on them with his rear-facing laser. He missed, but the Lightning was suddenly struck by three missiles and destroyed. The Hunter was hit by a fragment of its comrade, and its right engine started to smoke a little. Tommy managed to pull away. He wanted to try and come around to get the damaged Hunter, but then IT was hit by missiles and destroyed.

"Tommy, you still there?" said John.

"Yeah!"

"Tommy, I want you to try and pick off stragglers that fall outside the main fur ball. Get them as they try to re-engage!"

"Okay, I'm trying that." Tommy turned left, dodging a couple shots as he went, and took up a flank position on the edge of the battle. Almost immediately, another VF-14 spit itself out from the fight, making a nose-low turn to the left. Tommy turned after it.

"I'll get you…!" He worked himself into a good firing position, then locked on and fired six missiles at it. The Hunter tried to dodge, but was a bit too slow and took all six missiles right in its engines. The aircraft lit on fire, then exploded.

"Scratch one!"

John, meanwhile, was having his own successes. He got behind two Lightnings and a Thunderbolt.

"You three jerks are going to take a nice nap in the dirt!!" He fired his missiles at all three. The Lightnings were instantly toasted, but the Thunderbolt was only hit by one missile and stayed airborne. John closed in on it, and lined up a clean tracking shot. He fired in a long burst, nearly sawing the older Thunderbolt model in two.

"That's three more for me! Tommy, how are you doing out there?"

"Uh…I'm just fine…except for the guy crawling up my butt!" Tommy had a Thunderbolt on him. It fired bursts of its gun pod at his own Thunderbolt. Tommy rolled and banked to dodge, but he couldn't shake his tormentor. He tried the rear laser, but the other Thunderbolt simply did barrel rolls and stayed on him.

"Aw…give me a damn break… This is Blue 4. I've got a seriously ugly situation at my six o'clock! I need some help!"

"This is Red 1. I've got your six, Blue 4." Immediately, Red Leader rolled out behind Tommy's pursuer. He managed to get him to turn away from Tommy, then took him out with missiles.

"Your tail is clear, Blue 4."

"Thanks, Red Leader. John, are you still out there?"

"And that's another one! Yeah, I'm still going."

"John, how's it going in there?"

"We're kicking their butts, but something's weird."

"What?"

"These guys haven't tried to attack the base since we went up. They've been concentrating on us! And none of the Invaders I've seen in their group are carrying bombs!"

Tommy blinked. "What does that mean?"

"It means that these guys are NOT the point men! We're missing something, I can feel it!"

Tommy was about to respond, when a Lightning flew out in front of him. Tommy turned after it.

"You little… So what do we do, John?"

John sighed. "We take out as many of these guys as possible for now, and I'm going to ask the base to scan for any other air units behind this one. This is NOT good."

"Roger that." The Lightning he was pursuing was giving him a really tight aspect angle, so Tommy decided to try a quick snapshot. He got into position, and fired as the Lightning crossed his path. The shots hit home, and the Lightning was destroyed.

"That's another." Tommy decided to turn back into the big fight, dodging shots as he came back in.

About three minutes later, the squadrons were contacted by the base.

"All aircraft, this is Control. We've conducted a long-range sweep by request of Cavalier Squadron's Blue Leader. We've picked up more contacts headed our way…and they aren't little ones. Two flights of VB-6 Koenig Monsters, with escorts, inbound from the west. ETA is five minutes."

Tommy nearly went white. "…Koenig Monsters…good God, not those things! They'll level the base in one pass!!!!"

John's expression hardened. "Tommy, come with me. This is Blue 1 to all aircraft. I request at least five other aircraft to split off and follow me and Blue 4 to the location of the bombers."

Immediately, both Blue 2 and 3 and several other pilots answered his call. A total of nine were willing and able to go.

Tommy gulped. "John, I've never actually fought the Koenig Monster before…"

"It ain't easy, Tommy. The VB-6 is basically a destroid with variable configuration ability. They've got unreal armor."

"…I'm with you, John. All the way."

"Good. And we're going to need you. If we can't stop those bombers…a lot of innocent people are going to pay the price…!"