Final Fantasy VII
saving a world not their own
Prolouge - A New Enemy
If there was one thing Kent and Zack liked more than flying, it was blowing stuff up. That's why they joined the Air Force - they got to fly and blow stuff up. They couldn't quibble with that.
Well, Zack could. He was the backseater in the F-18 they shared, and Kent was known for doing some really crazy stuff. At the local air base, they called him 'The G Man". Normally, his tactics consisted of "outmaneuver the other guy", which worked, tied Zack's stomach in knots, and usually ended up crumpling panels on the wings, making him not so popluar with the ground crew.
This day, however, was a little different, and was about to get very interesting.
"Hey, Zack," Kent began. "You reading anything out of the ordinary?"
"Nope." Zack replied.
Kent sighed. They were on patrol duty over the pacific ocean, on a crossover program, putting him on an aircraft carrier. Which he didn't like one bit.
"Dragon two, say feul." Kent's flight leader called out.
Kent looked at his feul gadge. "Hoo boy," He began. "I've got five thousand pounds."
"I copy that." The flight leader said. "Go ahead and head on back. I'll be right behind you."
"I copy." Kent replied, and turned to head towards the aircraft carrier.
"I'm reading an SU-35 on radar." Zack said.
"Hmm. Dragon one, are you reading an SU-35 on your radar?"
"Negative, Dragon two. You must be seeing things."
"Copy." Kent replied. "Zack, you still reading it?"
"Yeah." Zack replied.
"Dragon two to ASCAP, I'm still reading an SU-35. Are you reading it?"
"Negative, Dragon two."
Kent shook his head. "This is wierd."
"Wait. . ." the ASCAP commander began, "Holy shit! I'm reading multiple bogies inbound! SU-35s and MiG-31's!"
"Shit!" Kent shouted. "I gotta bug out, I can't dogfight now. I'm bingo feul."
"I copy Dragon two, you get the hell outta there!"
"Hey, Kent, we're about to have some company!" Zack shouted.
"Great. . .we don't have the gas for this shit." Kent murmered trying to get a look at the enemy plane on his tail. "Where is he?"
"He's right on our six!"
Kent grinned evilly. "Ever do a landing without gas?"
There was silence in the cockpit. "No, Kent." Zack said. "Hell no."
Kent pushed the throttle to the max, selected afterburners, and rocketed almost straight up.
"Goddammit, Kent, how much gas we have left?"
Kent looked at his feul meter. "Not nearly enough to be doin' this shit. I'm keepin 'us alive."
"Not for much longer!" Zack shouted. "He's about to have our asses in his scope!"
"Then hold on!" Kent flipped the plane upside down and pulled up hard, sending their F-18, which was probably far too big for the aerobatics he was performing, almost into the water. He cut back on the power and grinned as the MiG-31 flew into his sights.
"Dragons, I've been fired upon!" Dragon one shouted.
"Beautiful." Kent murmered as he selected his sidewinder missiles. "Get me tone, Zack."
"I'm workin' on it," Zack replied. "Almost. . .got it. . ."
Kent heard the insistant sound of his missles having a lock on the enemy. He pulled the trigger and watched the sidewinder dance away from his wing and almost into the tailpipe of the MiG.
Kent looked at his feul and saw that he had already flamed out on his right engine. "Fuck! Flameout on engine two!"
"Flameout!?" Zack asked, ready to pull the handles.
"I've got it. . ." Kent murmered. "You farmiliar with the water escape plan?"
"No."
"You may wanna get really farmiliar with it real fast." Kent replied. "Dragon one, I gotta bring it down in the water."
"Just do it! I've got my hands full!"
"Shit, Kent, I'm reading three more on our tail!"
Kent looked about the cockpit. "This definitely isn't good. Red Crown, get me a chopper, I'm about to go in."
"I copy, Dragon Two." There was a brief pause. "ETA of Seahawk is two minutes."
"Copy." Kent said. "This is the time where we count our losses and. . ."
Kent's words got lost in the jetstream as Zack pulled the ejection handle. As his parachute inflated, he saw the Seahawk helicopter closing on his position.
"What's the word?" Kent asked, coming out of the shower.
"Nothing yet." Zack replied. Kent's roomate, Matt Johns, sat on the bunk bed. Plane crews couldn't fly together, so that if one went down or died, somebody had the grizzly job of writing a letter to the family. Zack and his roomate, Nick Mill, joined Kent and Matt in the undersized room.
"Man, Kent, you have to be the biggest dumbass I've ever seen." Matt replied. "Although flaming out in the middle of a flip is a pretty nifty trick."
"Yeah, yeah, I thought it was." Kent grinned.
"That has to be the biggest load of BS I've ever heard." Zack said.
"That, too."
The room erupted in laughter as the phone rang. Kent picked it up and listened into the reciever.
"Yeah, this is he. Yeah, Zack's here, too. I'll make sure to relay the news. Thank you."
"What's up?" Zack asked.
"You know that uber maneuverable two man F-22 they have under the deck?"
"Yeah. . ." Zack began.
"We're the pilots."
"Damn, man." Jeff said. "Where do I get one?"
"Just follow my fine example."
The room erupted in moans and groans.
"Okay, the guy said this thing is exactly like the F-18, and we aced the combat sims." Kent said. "You ready, Zack?"
"My ass groove's gone. . ." Zack groaned.
Kent sighed. "I'll take that as a yes. Trust me, after a day flying with me, you'll have your groove back, and then some."
Kent signaled to the catapult operator, then snapped a salute. Suddenly, he was hit with a force six times that of normal gravity. Before Zack knew what happened, the F-22 was climbing away from the aircraft carrier and towards the combat zone from three days ago.
After refeuling from the takeoff, the flight of F-18's plus one F-22 began their patrol. "I swear, I'm not gonna get used to this thing."
"What do our scopes say?" Kent asked.
"I'm not reading much of anything. . .hold it. . .I have four contacts, one for each of us."
"You guys hear that? Our playmates are back."
"I copy, Dragon two. My scopes read the same thing."
Kent grinned. "Let's get down. . ." Selecting his radar guided ammram missile he targeted the lead SU-35. "This'll piss 'im off."
"I'm reading a lock. Let 'em have it."
There was a slight vibration as the bomb bay opened, revealing their missiles as well, and launched an ammram missile.
"They're scattering!" Dragon one shouted.
Kent selected full afterburners and began chasing one of the MiG-31's.
"I'm reading MiG-29's, seven of 'em! They were waiting for us!"
"No big suprise." Kent replied, watching the MiG-31. "Get me a lock if you would be so kind. . ."
As soon as Kent heard the growling of the missile lock, he let the missile fly. Ahh, the wonders of fire and forget missiles. . .
"Looks like they just found us. . .opening those bays made our cross-section light up like a light."
"Shoulda been expecting that. . .how many on our tail?"
"One on our tail, two coming down on an attack chute."
Kent grinned. "Then let's dissapear." Gripping the stick, Kent pulled up as far as he could, which happened much faster than the F-18. Thank god for thrust vectoring, Kent thought as he riddled an SU-35 full of holes with his guns. He watched it go up in flames.
"Splash one." Kent said.
"Oh, shit! One of 'em has lock!" Zack shouted.
Kent ejected a bundle of flares and pulled the agile fighter to the left, trying to get behind the fighter. Zack watched in amazement as the missile, rather than explode in a firey malestrom of shrapnel, exploded into a blue orb of. . .something.
"Izzat a plasma yield weapon!?" Zack asked.
"Negative." Dragon one said. "I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's just. . .sitting there. Don't worry about it."
"I've got him. . ." Kent murmered. "I need a lock."
Zack commited the radar to the task of locking onto the MiG-31 in front of them. "Kent. . .there's two Fulcrum's behind us. . ."
"I see 'em," Kent murmered, referring to the MiG-29's on his tail. "Fox one!"
Kent watched as the Aim-9 sidewinder danced from under the plane and into the tailpipe of the SU-35 in front of them.
"They've got tone! I'm reading a missile launch! No, multiple missile launches!"
Kent hit the air brakes and pulled up hard. "Those things ain't gonna touch - "
In a sphere of blue and green swirls, the experimental F-22 dissapeared.
"-Us." Kent finished. "Hey, uhh. . .where are we?"
"I have no friggin' idea." Zack replied. "I'm reading absolutely squat."
"That's what I thought, although I am seeing some pretty heavy pollution of to the east. We should check that out, see if that leads anywhere. I don't know of any cities that give off green smoke, though. . ."
Three minutes passed before they saw the city. "Dude. . .are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Zack began.
"If you're referring to the huge pizza in the sky, yes." Kent replied. "I'm gonna duck undeneath those plates, see if I can's see anything."
"You're just doing that to see if you can, aren't you?" Zack replied.
"That, too. . ."
Kent lowered altitude and shot under the plates. "Luckily, there's not much here to kill us. . ."
"Except that exploding pilliar." Zack replied.
"What!?" Kent asked.
"Two o'clock."
Kent looked out the cockpit and saw a stone support pilliar beginning to detonate. On a metal control pilliar by it, four people fought, one of them with an incredibly oversized sword and another one with a gun grafted onto his arm.
"Dude. . .this slice is about to come down right on top of us!"
"Shit! It is!" Kent shouted, and selected afterburners. The plate began to buckle as its overhead supports broke. Kent swore as he felt the plate barely tag his rear tail.
Kent breathed out a sigh of relief. "Are we good?"
Zack checked behind them. "Our rear tail's bent about six inches from the end, but we look okay.
Kent sighed as they began to flame out.
"Dude. . ." Zack began, "Are we outta gas?"
"Nope," Kent dully began, "The smoke's smothering our mixture."
"We're just having all the luck, aren't we?"
Kent sighed, and flipped through his comm channels, only reading one signature - the Shinra Battle Net.
"Well, seems like this'll work. Shinra Battle Net, this is Dragon two, sending out a mayday."
"We copy you, Dragon two. . . Please state your emergency."
"I'm flaming out by some city with some wierd blue smog. . ."
"Which would be Midgar," The officer irritably responded.
"Right, I'm flaming out by Midgar, I've got some control problems, and I'm gonna need some gas, too."
There was a brief pause. "Once you get out far enough, could you please bring your aircraft in for an inspection. We've never seen something quite like your plane."
"Uhh, yeah. It's an experimental F-22." Kent replied, almost beaming. The engines began to kick up again.
"F-22, eh. . . alright, we're clearing a runway on Sector. . . four."
"Thanks." Kent said. "Dragon Two out."
Zack sighed. "Alright. What's the plan?"
Kent sighed. "I don't know how long they're gonna buy us being on their side. I saw two groups on that pilliar; the dude with the suit, and the others. I highly doubt that the guy in the suit is the good guy, 'cause I saw another one in a chopper, holding some girl. And it had the 'Shinra, Inc' symbol on it. Okay, the way I see it is we've got the most advanced fighter here, so we might as well help the resistance group."
"I got your thinking. . ."
"Dragon Two," the radio flared to life, "We're seeing that you don't have the Mako Drive installed yet. That could take a couple days."
Kent looked at Zack. "You remember how to fly?"
Zack grinned. "You betcha. I'll cover 'ya."
"Good." Kent said, as he spotted the small landing strip, with five arresting wires. Next to it, a landing officer with lights behind him appeared.
"This is Dragon One, I've got the ball."
