Note: Well, those of you still with me salutes you deserve more praise than the pilots in Black Magic Squadron. There will soon be more conflict in the story, I've just got to decide where and how to have it happen. I'm hoping to use the views of Blizzard and Terrain at least once sometime soon, so for readers interested in those two characters will have to wait. There are no new ranks again, I think I'm only going to be using the ones I've already posted, but if there are new ones I use I will continue to add them to the list. I've given character examples in the ranking section now, so that's a change I've done; also, the "Nuggets" term is referring to the nickname for Cadets and Recruits, that nickname has also been added to the ranking. Enjoy!
Base Commander (ex. Harris Layda)
Captain (ex. Swordsman)
Second Lieutenant (ex. Flame or Blizzard)
Chief Master Sergeant (ex. Terrain)
Senior Master Sergeant (ex. Tornado)
Cadet (a.k.a. Nuggets)
Recruit (a.k.a. Nuggets)
Chapter 4: The Snow Will Fall Red
(Second Lieutenant Jean, a.k.a. Flame)
As the rest of my squadron andI went through take-off checks, I sang a tune my daughter used to hum when I was last with her before joining the Air-force, "And the seas will run red, as the last bullet flies; somewhere far away, a widowed mother cries. It was too late, and in all his pride, the man had sung this song, and now, somewhere across the seas…a widowed mother cries." She'd learned it in school, from who I did not know.
I lowered my head solemnly as my thoughts turned to my beautiful little girl, a child in elementary, but then Blizzard questioned over the radio, "Flame…Flame…is your F-14 all squared away?"
I cleared my head before calling back over the channel, "Everything's a go. How's everyone else? Sound-off…"
The other two, not including Blizzard, took a few moments before they said anything. First was Tornado, he clapped his hands a few times before explaining, "It's all fine over here!" Apparently he'd forgotten the fact that I'd snapped at him not even twenty minutes ago in the barracks.
Terrain took awhile to answer, and I was beginning to get worried. A grumble of displeasure was heard over the radio before Terrain broke the bad news, "I can't fly…in that last flight over St. Hewlett Naval Port, a Yuke jet fired on me and popped one of my gas valves…"
I took away my mask and rubbed my eyes tiredly, collecting myself before finishing, "It'd be too dangerous for you to take-off with us, stay behind on this one. But Tornado and Blizzard, that means I want you to work extra hard, you both got that!"
I could just see Tornado salute before he mocked me, "Yes, sir, wouldn't want to disappoint you, sir." Ignoring his rude comment, I awaited Blizzard's reply.
He also had bad news to drop on me, "I'm a no-go, captain. Apparently, I've got a fuel leak in the back; you'll have to go on without me. I didn't realize it until just now."
At that, I popped the top on my jet and shouted to the top of my lungs to the technicians stumbling around, "What the hell were you guys doing! You're the technicians; you're not being paid to screw around! Get off your asses and fix those jets!" It was irrational to yell like that, but I was now without two of my pilots, leaving me with only one other. I closed the canopy on my jet again and put my mask back on, saying to Tornado over the radio, "You take-off first, I'll follow shortly afterward." He didn't reply, but I knew he understood every word I said.
Tornado was soon off into the air, and I trailed behind him a short while later on the runway. Once I too was in the air, I searched the surrounding airspace for any sign of Yuktobanian jets. My sights caught onto one straggling jet, and I made him my first target. His movements lacked quite a lot, and I shouted into the radio before shooting him down, "Flame, engaging!" It was a little late to be saying that, but I figured protocol could be pushed aside momentarily for the problem at hand. Tornado had completely skipped it altogether, immediately heading for Yuke fighters.
He was flying recklessly, so I cautioned him as I shot down the first Yuke jet, "Tornado, careful! You're being sloppy!" Radio silence over the channel…as I was about to call again my eyes caught the sight of Tornado's jet going into a freefall.
Popping the canopy, he ejected and apologized as he floated to the ground in his ejector chair, "Sorry, Flame…it's just you now."
Something wasn't right, his jet hadn't been shot at a single time…I knew, I was watching him the whole time. His jet had been sabotaged; maybe what he'd heard from the Recruits and Cadets had some truth to it.
This was futile now, I was the only pilot up in the air, and as I shot down a few more Yuke jets I sang the rhyme my little girl had sung, "And the seas will run red…as the last bullet flies; somewhere far away…a widowed mother cries. It was too late, and in all his pride…the man had sung this song, and now…somewhere…across the seas…a widowed mother cries."
I continued to sing it, unaware of the open radio channel, and after a few moments Tornado commented, "Morbid song, Flame, sweet, but morbid all the same…I don't mean for you to stop…keep going…I like it…"
Forcing a smile onto my face, I shot down yet another jet before I chose to hum the song instead. Out of nowhere, a missile caught on to the back of my F-14, and I tried my best to dodge it. I hadn't gotten the chance to tell the technicians to refill my missile diverter, so that idea was out this time.
The lock-on was too good; eventually the missile clipped the back of my jet and blew up. As I tried to slow down, I attempted to pop the canopy…it didn't work. While I flew along and got ever closer to the ground, I thought of my daughter's face once more and sang, "And the seas will run red, as the last bullet flies; somewhere far away, a widowed mother cries…"
Transmission for both Second Lieutenant Jean Arian and Senior Master Sergeant Guile Willard Lost
News Report on TV a Few Days Later…
"The search for pilots Jean Arian and Guile Willard still continues; Base Commander Harris Layda was baffled by the ordeal. Sources say the F-14s were found in their respective crash-sites, but no sign of the pilots could be found. We can only pray that the remaining two pilots of the Black Magic Squadron can pull together and fight for Osea until the other two are recovered. If you find any information regarding their whereabouts, please contact the nearest Osean military installation immediately. Now in other news…" TV cuts off with a static-like noise
End-note: Well, yet another chapter for "DYBiM?"…comments anyone? I know it may've been strange, considering I didn't add a lot of information concerning the problems with the F-14s. I tried to take this chapter in a different direction than the others as you can see with the ending. For those of you who miss Blaze, Chopper, and Edge; don't worry, I'm hoping to get them back in soon. I am too praying that both Jean (Flame) and Guile (Tornado) come back safely. It all depends on how my mind tells me to go with this…strange how their lives hang on the balance with only two outcomes: live or die and my mind is the only thing that can save them XD. Well…wait for the next chapter; it should be quite interesting if I do it just right. R&R please!
