Chapter Seventeen: The Calm Before The Storm
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"So, what are they doing with those guys now?" asked John and he and Tommy got suited for their next flight.

"Well, after Kina and I brought them in, the MPs were all over them. They're probably just interrogating them right now."

John raised his eyebrows. "Torture?"

"I hope not. Never liked watching it done to anyone."

In the interrogation room…

"Oh, God…you guys are crazy! No wonder the boss wants you guys dead! You're all nuts!!"

The officer sighed. "Well, if you would cooperate, we could go easier on you!"

"…No deal! We're not talking!!"

"…I hate this part of the job…okay, Chief. Give 'em the hose!"

An MP, holding a long water hose, opened its nozzle. The two Hammerheads were doused by the resulting stream of water.

"AAAHHH!!! Jesus, that's cold! Stop it! Stop it!!"

The interrogating officer immediately made a "cut" motion with his hand, and the MP cut the stream off.

"Okay…okay…I can't take it anymore! I'll talk, I'll talk!!!"

"Yeah, this is too much! We give!!"

The officer sighed. "Thank God. Get that hose out of here. Now, what were you doing out there? From the beginning, please…"

Back in the air, Tommy, John, and the other Blues were going through their first of the patrol runs ordered by base staff after the massed attack.

"Yo, Tommy!"

"Yeah?"

"Check out your right side. You see that?"

Tommy looked outside. There was a large amount of wreckage strewn about the landscape.

"Whew…that brings back memories," said Tommy. "Bad memories."

"Yeah. I sure hope we don't have to do that again…"

They flew on, radars scanning away. Tommy sighed to himself and looked straight up into the sky. He thought back to just after he and Kina had turned in the two Hammerhead soldiers. Before parting again, they had spoken for a couple of minutes…
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"I guess that takes care of those guys," she had said with a small laugh. "What'll happen to them?"

"Depends. Hopefully, they won't do anything dumb and end up getting the hose…"

Kina cocked an eyebrow. "The hose?"

"It's a long story…" Tommy glanced down at the platform he was standing on. When his eyes returned to Kina's level, he saw something that startled him greatly. Kina had lowered her head and tossed back her hair. Now, seeing a normal-sized woman do that isn't usually much to speak of unless she has long hair or is very attractive. At Kina's size and at the very close distance Tommy was from here, however, it was an entirely different story. It's a very intimidating sight to see about 30 feet of shiny emerald strands fly up and backwards all of a sudden. In fact, Tommy actually took several steps backwards without realizing it.

Kina then turned to look at him. "Hey, are you all right? You look like you just saw a ghost!"

"Huh? Oh, uh…yeah, I'm fine. W-why?"

"Your hands are shaking," she said easily.

Tommy turned red with embarrassment. "Oh…don't worry, it's…nothing." He managed to get a smile out.

Kina was confused but decided to let it alone. "Okay. Y'know, that was a pretty cool trick back there, the way you saved me. You're a good shot!"

Tommy chuckled. "Thanks. Another thing you learn as a pilot is to think on your toes…though there was another factor, I must admit." He winked at her.

"Oh? Oh. I see." She giggled. "That's really sweet. What's that Latin saying, Amor vincit omnia?"

Tommy smiled. "'Love conquers all'. I think that phrase fits quite nicely."

Kina suddenly blushed a little, and then took one of her index fingers, pressed it to her lips, and then very gently touched Tommy's cheek with the tip.

"I…I love you, Tommy."

Tommy sighed, and then smiled. "I love you, Kina."
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"We'll always have each other, Kina. Always."

The beeping of Tommy's comm system broke his train of thought.

"Hey, Tommy! Are you there or not?"

"Oops! Sorry, John. What is it?"

"We're getting a contact dead ahead of us, about 80 miles away. Aerial."

Tommy looked at his radar screen. "Confirmed. One unknown right on the nose, 80 miles distance."

John changed frequencies. "Blue 1 to Control. We've picked up a bogey at 80 miles. Request permission to close in and ID."

"…Permission granted. If contact is found to be of Hammerhead origin, you have permission to disable if possible, destroy if necessary."

"Roger that. Okay, boys, let's go!" They sped up, covering most of the 80-mile distance between them within a minute.

"I've got a tally," said John. "Sending image to combat computer for ID check." The computer ran through its databases for a couple of seconds, and then gave him a result.

"What's the verdict, Lead?" said Blue 3.

"…Contact identified as a D-880 drone aircraft. And wouldn't you know it? It's got 'Head markings! The D-880 is a weapons-capable model, so heads up!"

Tommy gulped. "Don't those things carry lots of missiles?"

"Hey, at least it's not an X-9 Ghost. Relax!" They cut back on their throttles, making a steady approach on the drone.

"Hey…does anyone else have this field of interference at about 60 miles from us?" said Blue 2.

"Confirmed," said Blue 3.

"Me too," said Tommy.

"That's odd…but we can check it out later. We've got to get this drone!"

As they closed to within one mile, it suddenly broke away from the flight.

"Damn! The glitch is making a run for it!!" cried Blue 2.

"Stop that sucker!" replied John as he turned after it. The others quickly followed. John selected his gun pod. He aimed for one of the engines on the drone, and squeezed off a few shots. They hit, knocking the drone silly and sending it reeling.

"Nice shot, Lead!" cried Tommy.

"Thanks. Now, let's see if we can get this thing back to base so the tech-heads can find out where it's getting its signals from." Suddenly, however, all four Thunderbolts picked up a new signal.

"What the hell is that?" said Blue 2.

"Got me," said Tommy.

"I think it's…yes, it's coming from the drone!" Suddenly, their radar screens were dotted with contacts appearing out of nowhere.

"Oh, my God…" said Tommy. "This is NOT good…!"

John sighed. "Don't worry, man. This is just like the last time we faced drones. Don't sweat it!"

"…Okay. I can do this."

"How did they sneak up on us?" asked Blue 3.

"The interference field we picked up must've been ECM units mounted on the drones by the 'Heads. Let's take them out!"

Each Thunderbolt got locks on two drones with their high-maneuverability medium-range missiles. They immediately took the shots. Being fixed-form drones, the D-880s could only try to dodge the incoming attacks. It didn't work; all eight targeted drones were hit and destroyed.

"That's eight down and…oh, come ON…twenty-two to go…!" said John.

The drones all locked onto the four Thunderbolts. Tommy nearly had a heart attack.

"You're kidding me! Please say you're kidding me…!!" The drones launched their missiles. "They're not kidding!!!!!!" Blue Flight immediately split up, barely managing to avoid getting blown to bits by the more than forty missiles sent their way.

"This is crazy!" cried Blue 3. "They only launched a couple of missiles each; they could do that all day!!"

"Don't let those machines scare you. Like I said before, they aren't X-9s! 880s can dish it out but they can't take it…you read me?"

Tommy sweatdropped as he racked his jet around. "Um…not exactly."

John groaned. "They stink at avoiding missiles! Lock on and blow them to hell!!"

The group of drones had split up into several teams, trying to divide the Thunderbolts and destroy them one-by-one. Tommy had managed to get about six chasing him.

"Buzz off!" Tommy fired on them with his rear laser. They split up, allowing Tommy to turn back around and get behind two of them. He locked on with his short-range missiles, and fired. The shots hit their targets so easily that it startled Tommy a little. He didn't have much time to be startled, because more drones had taken up positions on his tail.

John, meanwhile, was having somewhat better success. He had gotten a perfect firing position on three drones, and fired missiles at all of them. They went down in less than two seconds.

"That's three! How are you guys doing?"

"Uh…I could use some assistance!" said Tommy. "I can't get these guys off me…aw, man! They're about to light my butt up! Do something!"

"I'm on my way!" John quickly caught up to Tommy. Four drones were hunting him down, and a fifth settled into position just as John got there. Tommy was firing shots from his rear laser, but this time the drones wouldn't scatter. John actually had to do a barrel roll to avoid getting hit by the laser fire.

"Tommy, go cold on your tail laser! I can't get into a good position!"

"Roger that, going cold." Tommy stopped firing, and John settled into a good missile position.

"You know the drill, man. When I say to, break hard."

"Right, but hurry! They've got missile locks!"

John waited for all of his targeting reticles to settle before giving Tommy the word. "NOW!" Tommy turned hard to the left as John fired, destroying all five drones.

"Damn, I'm out of missiles. Tommy, are you okay?"

"Yeah, but you're not! You've got bandits on your six, man!!"

John turned around. Sure enough, more drones had gotten behind him. He was about to pull away, but they managed to lock on and send some missiles his way.

"I don't think so!!" John converted to Soldier mode, spun around, and shot down all of the incoming missiles. He then fired on the drones themselves, managing to hit one before they scattered. "You don't mess with me! Tommy, how's your missile status?"

"I've got four left. That's it."

John sighed. "Don't waste 'em!"

Tommy was about to respond, when he suddenly got a missile warning. He quickly made a hard turn to dodge, but a couple of missiles stayed on him. He quickly readied his rear laser, and barely managed to shoot them down before getting hit. Tommy then transformed to GERWALK mode and spun around. Two drones were on him and about to fire again. He got a lock, and fired his remaining missiles at them, taking both down.

John sighed. "Man, I told you not to waste 'em!"

"Sorry!" Tommy transformed to Soldier mode and took potshots at another drone that was approaching him. It tried to dodge, but Tommy clipped the side of it and it went spinning into another drone, destroying both of them. Changing his Thunderbolt back to Fighter mode, he accelerated and turned back towards his wingmen.

The battle continued. At around eight drones remaining, all four Blue aircraft were out of missiles and were forced to rely on their guns.

"Come on, people! We can beat these guys!" John got behind a drone, and maneuvered into a clean tracking position. It didn't take long for him to make the kill. He then switched to Soldier mode to change clips. As he did, a drone rushed him. It didn't get far, though, as a quick burst of fire from Blue 3 stopped the attack.

"That's another, Lead!"

"Right. Six to go!" Suddenly, all the remaining drones began to emit signals, and then all exploded at once, each tearing itself apart in a violent explosion.

Tommy stared. "What the hell…they just self-destructed…!"

John sighed. "Must've been to keep us from capturing anything. We're getting close to Bingo fuel, so let's head on back. Good flying out there today, boys."

Tommy relaxed his shoulders and took a deep breath. "This has to be part of something bigger…it just HAS to be."

Meanwhile, back at the interrogation room at the base…

"An attack?! When? With what?"

"…We don't have that information. All we know is that our leader is planning a very nasty hit on this base soon. We're telling the truth!"

The officer sighed. "…All right. Take them back to the cell. We're finished here." The MPs guarding the door came in, and escorted the Hammerheads out. The officer stood in the doorway as they left.

"An attack…and it's coming soon… This isn't going to be simple…!"