Chapter Twenty-Two: Shining Wings
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"It's time."

John had been successful in getting the squadron assigned to the mission. As Tommy walked out to his FAST pack-equipped Thunderbolt, his brow was dotted with sweat.

"This is it. There really is no turning back now…I can do this!" As he climbed into the cockpit, he looked over at John's aircraft. John had already closed his canopy. John turned his head in Tommy's direction, and gave him a thumbs up. Tommy smiled, and gave John a salute. He then got his TLS helmet on and closed his canopy.

The Sweetwater asteroid belt was close enough to the planet to allow for a VF to reach it without needing a support platform. However, it was still a long enough trip that it would be insane to expect the pilots to be able to stay awake for the whole flight. After setting in a predetermined waypoint sequence on the autopilot, all twelve Cavaliers activated a timed gas system that allowed the pilots to sleep during the trip. Tommy turned his on with some trepidation, as he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to permit himself to relax at all. However, once the sleeping aid took effect, he found the relaxing sensation to be more welcome than he had expected.

Meanwhile…

"So, this is it? Very well. Guard, open the cell."

"But, sir, I-"

The man lowered his sunglasses. "Ahem…?"

"Right away, sir!" The guard slowly opened the door, and his superior entered. Kina was still crying, and didn't notice anything at first.

"Um…pardon me? Hello?" Kina didn't look up. He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly.

"Huh?! What?! Aah! Who are you?!"

The man took off his sunglasses again. He wore the same leather jacket/uniform as the rest of the Hammerheads, but his was much more stylish than the others. Five white bands encircled the sleeves.

"My name is Var Bekran. I am the leader of the Hammerheads."

Kina wiped the tears from her eyes. "Leader?"

Var rolled his eyes. "Um…commander, head honcho, guy in charge, how many more synonyms and equivalents do you need?"

Kina put her hands on her hips. "Hey! That's not very nice!"

Var sighed. "I apologize." This made Kina raise an eyebrow. "I've been under a lot of pressure lately. Let's just call it…family problems. Anyway, to business."

Kina gulped. "You're not going to…"

Var regarded her for a second, and then his eyes bulged. "GAH! No! Jeez, my mom would have my head…!" He mumbled the last sentence.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing! I'm here to try and get you to stop driving my men crazy."

Kina blinked. "What?"

Var shifted uncomfortably. "It's sort of hard to-" Suddenly, another soldier came rushing down the hall.

"Sir! Sir!"

Var turned around. "What is it?" he said, exasperated.

"Sir…we've got a problem. It's…your mother."

Var turned pale white. "No…she isn't VISITING again, is she?!"

"Negative, sir." Var's face regained its color. "But she does want to talk to you. Now, sir."

"Now?! You're kidding me. Please say you're kidding me!!"

"I'm not, sir. Sanders is putting it on audio now."

Var gulped. "No, not now! Ix-nay on the audio-ay! Ix-nay on the-"

"Var?! Where are you? Are you off playing games again? I'm your mother, for crying out loud! Why won't you talk to me anymore!? Don't you love me?!"

Var slowly shrank down into a corner, his face blood red. Kina didn't say anything, and just watched him.

"…and this is the thanks that I get?! How could you do this to me…"

Var made a gesture to one of the soldiers, who nodded and rushed off.

"…for eighteen years, my son! Do you hate me? Is that it! I'm your mother, you can TELL me these things-" The transmission cut. Var slowly stood up, his dignity partially restored. Suddenly, a stifled giggle broke the silence. It was Kina. She bit her lip to avoid losing it, but failed and started to chuckle. The chuckling grew into full laughter, and the laughter grew to sidesplitting magnitude.

"I don't…believe it…!" she managed to choke out between laughing fits. "The guy…behind all the problems…we've been having…is a mama's boy!!" Tears streamed out of her eyes, and she grabbed her sides. "It's…just WRONG!"

Var's visage grew darker every second. "You…you…KILL HER!"

The sight of weapons pointed at her stopped Kina's laughing. "AAAH!!! Don't, please!"

"…Wait! Never mind." He walked right up to Kina, and looked her dead in the eyes. "Get this straight. I am NOT a mama's boy! Since when is it a crime to care about one's mother?!"

Kina sweatdropped. "Okay…I take it back, cool?"

"Frozen. Guard!"

"Yes, sir?"

"I'm all done here. Lock the door behind me, will you?"

"Right!"

As he walked out, he looked back over his shoulder. "Oh. And if you must cry about something, please keep it down. The men can't stand it."

A few hours later, the effect of the sleep gas wore off, and all the pilots were awake.

"Whew…that was a nice nap," said Blue 3.

"Everybody up and around?" said Red 1.

All twelve pilots checked in.

"I dreamed that I actually came back from this one," said Green 2.

"Okay, that's enough of that," replied Red 1. "We're coming up on the danger zone now. Everybody start scanning. Watch yourselves!"

"This is Blue 1," said John. "I suggest one flight scan each asteroid. We can find it quicker, and there'll be less traffic to get caught up in once it comes time to bug out."

"Well, Blue Leader, doing this was your idea, so I suppose there's no harm in letting you pick the way we'll do this. Take your boys and make a run over SF-2000-A. Green Flight gets SF-2000-B, and we'll take the last one."

"Roger that." Blue Flight broke off. As they turned towards the asteroid, they increased speed as much as they could without going too fast to pull into a safe orbit. They scanned the surface with their sensors, going for as wide a scanning radius as possible.

"Nothing. It's completely…hold it!" cried Tommy. "I've got something. Vector two-five-zero."

Everybody looked over. The outline of a base was visible on the horizon.

"There it is…All Cavaliers, this is Blue 1. Hammerhead City spotted on SF-2000-A. Repeat, their base is on SF-2000-A, Gamma Sigma Epsilon sector!"

"Roger that, Blue Leader. Good work."

"We're pulling back to-" Suddenly, contacts appeared all over the radar. John's eyes went wide. "Bounce! It's a bounce! We've got…damn, about ten contacts…no, fifteen! Fifteen contacts headed for us! Get your butts over here!"

"Understood! We're on our way!"

The Hammerhead group charged in, all Renegade powered armors.

"This isn't going to be easy…" said Tommy.

"We can't escape. We're going to have to fight until we can get away from them!" snarled John. "Get as many as you can!!"

The battle that followed was intense. Tommy had missiles after him almost before he could blink. He made a sharp turn to avoid the incoming attack, flares dropping all the way. The missiles exploded behind him as they struck the flares. Tommy then got a lock on the nearest Renegade. He waited for the tone, and sent four missiles after it. One missed, but the other three struck dead center and destroyed the armor.

"One down!" he cried.

"Keep it up, we've got to get enough down to get away!" replied John. He had another armor dead in his sights, and opened fire with his gun pod. The bullets pierced the body of the armor, causing it to smoke, then burn, then explode. "And another one bites the dust!"

"Sorry we were late!" That was Red 1. The rest of Cavalier Squadron entered the battle, missiles leaving the racks of nearly all of the incoming U.N. fighters. Several Renegades were struck, either exploding instantly or receiving debilitating damage. The odds turned against them, the Hammerhead machines began to fall.

"That's another!"

"Renegade shot down!"

"Eat that!"

"Ooh…wouldn't want to get shot there, dang!"

After about 75 percent of the enemy vehicles had been destroyed, a new problem emerged…

"This is Blue 4. My radar's out!" cried Tommy.

"So is mine," said Blue 3. Every pilot confirmed this.

"There must be a jamming field coming from the base!" said John. An alarm sounded in his cockpit again. "Oh, hell…I've got a singer low at 4 o'clock. They were saving some defensive emplacements when we got close enough!" The alarm rose in pitch. "Singer high! Missile alert!!" John quickly made a break turn avoid to dodge the approximately 20 missiles headed his way. Most of the other pilots had to dodge as well. Suddenly, something odd happened. Another volley of missiles lifted off, but instead of targeting one of the U.N. Spacy aircraft, they simply flew up into the flight and detonated in a blinding flash.

"Flash missiles!" shouted Green 1. "They're trying to blind us!" More flash missiles lifted off.

John switched his comm system to a secure channel.

"Tommy?"

Tommy received the signal and switched. "What?"

"This is the chance. We've drifted to within ten miles of the base. On the next flare detonation, we go."

"…I read you."

The flare missiles reached their predetermined height, and detonated, releasing another blinding flash.

"NOW!" shouted John. The two pilots turned towards the Hammerhead base, and pushed their throttles to maximum speed.

Tommy took a deep breath. "Alea iacta est…"

"'The die is cast'. We really have crossed the Rubicon now…" said John with a sigh.

Tommy nodded. "But…will we make it back…?"