Hey Folks, It's me again. It's taken me this long to get a idea for a new chapter. I had been hoping that some of the other authors for this series had written some new stuff, but nothing has changed. Hint Hint So I have taken it upon myself to continue on.

If any one reading this can draw, I wouldn't mind seeing some of this drawn, since I can't even get stick figures right.

I'm going to stop ranting right now.

Read and Review please.

Oh Yeah, I don't own anything-still.

CH.21

Crash and Burn

The night air was cool, the ocean calm. The skies were clear and the stars shined brightly. All of this was lost to Tim, as he was too busy fighting to keep the V-22 Osprey in the air. The bullet holes in the front windscreen followed by the missing side windows and panels, which led to a series of bullet holes leading up to the port Engine nacelle, which was currently streaming smoke and fluids. Every Caution and Warning light was lit, with the exception of the Master Caution Light, which had a Bullet hole from Tim's PPK. Every time he reset it, it would just pop back on, and with all the warning lights that were already lit, It was just a annoyance. The left engine was dead for all intents and purposes, with the right engine providing power through the transfer case to turn the rotor, not that it was much comfort seeing that you still needed oil in the system and with the indicator going all over the place, this would have seemed to be a opportune time to curse like a sailor. But Tim was leaving that to his studious co-pilot Jason, who was doing a pretty damn good job in that department, as well as helping Tim keep the wounded bird airborne.

Flashback

1 Hour earlier…

"One more ridge and we're home free." Tim shouted over the intercom.

" Yeah, Mission accomplished" Yelled Savanna.

" Almost accomplished you mean, we still didn't get Matt back," Said a somewhat somber Cassandra. " Have you had a chance to take a crack at those hard drives yet?"

" Yeah I did," Shouted Jason " But it looks like we need the computers back at base to crack the encryption on them."

" Well don't fret, one more ridge and 20 minutes of flat out running and we'll be at Howard's platform." Tim said.

Tim began a smooth climb that would have the tilt-rotor crest the hill at about 100 feet.

" Almost there, it looks like it's smooth sail… OH SHIT!" Tim yelled as he banked the Osprey into a hard right turn.

" ZOO'S, Three of 'em, 11 O'clock." Jason was yelling as a stream of tracers erupted from the nearest ZSU-23-4 Mobile AAA vehicle. Tim and Jason could only watch as the stream met the port nacelle and began to work it's way towards the cockpit. Tim felt a burning pain in his face as the side window exploded into fragments peppering the cockpit. His main concern was that the Nacelles had begun to auto rotate back to 90 degrees as a safety measure that was built into the computer system. This left the Osprey flying like a helicopter, which being in the firing range of a ZSU was not a good thing. Tim reflected on this momentarily as he struggled to get the nose down so that they could gain speed and get out of range while Jason tried to get the nacelles back down to flight attitude. Luckily the ZSU's had been operating with their optical systems instead of their radar's and the Osprey was able to slip out of range. A couple minutes later they were over the coast and out to sea. A quick verbal check had insured that no one was injured and that there was no need to ditch, which after what they had just pulled, was not such a good idea.

Fast Forward

One ridge and a hour later…

Tim could see the lights from Howard's platform in the distance, he just hoped he could get them there. The left engine was getting ready to blow, he could see the glow of over heated parts through the holes in the nacelle. They were less than a quarter of a mile from the platform when the gears seized up. Tim and Jason watched as the rotor just froze in mid air and the nacelle disintegrated in a ball of flame and hot metal. Jason threw the Throttle to full on the right engine, not caring if it overheated or not while Tim stomped on the rudder trying to compensate for the sudden left hand yaw. Tim and Jason looked at each other and then back at the approaching platform. Their eye's had met for a brief moment and had transmitted a simple message- This isn't going to be a landing, or even a crash, all we can do is auger it in and pray someone survives.

They watched as the deck rushed up to meet them.

The Osprey impacted in a tail high attitude and began to pitch forward and to the left, it then began to pinwheel on it's left side. When the right rotor caught the deck, it caused to again change direction and roll twice landing in a upright position. Tim could hear groans coming from the cargo area indicating survivors. He looked left and saw Jason was still showing signs of life as blackness began to wrap around his vision. His last thought before the darkness consumed him was: " OH Man, Not again."

Authors final thoughts- It's a bit of a short chapter, but most of mine are. I felt that it had been to long since I had added anything to the story. I should be regaining my will to write soon.