Fly Like An Eagle
Chapter 2: Dog Fight.
Rinoa had just began to doze off after more or less an hour of calm flying. She got dizzy trying to watch the fighters flying around outside. They seemed to be circling her jet. Guarding it against unknown and unseen enemies.
"Alright, now entering Galbadian airspace." Lionheart said on the radio.
"Alright Ms. Ambassador," Cid said to her, "These are our best pilots as I explained before. I've ordered them to bail out if they take more than 50 hull damage, in short, if things heat up too much, they'll evacuate, and we'll... surrender if necessary."
"I'm not backing out" said Lionheart through the radio. Cid seemed to be addressing the pilots as well as her.
"You will if you want to remain squad leader." Cid said firmly.
"C'mon Mother Goose, you know I don't give a damn about being squad leader, I've been leader 3 times, and lost it 3 times. This time is no different." Lionheart replied arrogantly, yet still maintaining his respect for Cid. Rinoa wondered how someone could have two completely different tones at the same time. She would not grow tired of this mans voice.
"Looks like company, how many you got on your radar Kid?" West asked through the radio.
"Just one, think he's a single?" Kid answered.
"He's a single. Kid, stay here, West give me cover, I'm going head to head." Lionheart said. Rinoa watched as the plane in front and to the left of her accelerated. She began to hear a beeping from the terminal in front of her.
"What's that?" Rinoa asked Cid.
"That's our bogey, ghostrider 01-00, we'll see what he does when our boys go head to head. You can watch from here if you like." he said indicating the copilots chair. Rinoa got up and went over to the seat she'd been offered. She saw what had been beeping. It was a large circle in the terminal in front of her that had a light from the center and extending to the edge going around in circles. She looked to the top of the radar and saw a red dot, two yellow dots closer to the center, and another one to the right of the center. She realized that the two yellow dots were West and Lionheart, while the one to the right was Kid. Each time the light passed over the dots, the red dot moved toward them, and the 2 yellow move toward it. They were engaging.
"Sir, do I have permission to fire?" West asked, sounding nervous.
"Do not fire until fired upon." Cid said. Rinoa was still watching the radar. The light had crossed the dots, and while the yellow had stayed the same, now there were two red dots.
"Shit! There's two of 'em." Lionheart said. Rinoa watched as the planes paired up with one of the opposite color, and began flying around chasing each other. Not a shot had been fired, although...
"God damn it, he's got missile lock on me... I can't shake him" West almost cried into the radio.
"On my way, hold on" Lionheart told him. Rinoa watched him chase the red dot away for a moment and headed over to where the other red dot was following Wild West closely. Lionheart was in close pursuit of the other bogey, ghostrider 02-00.
"C'mon on baby, lock on, c'mon" Lionheart said as he coaxed his system, as though it would help. "Got'cha!"
"Thanks Hero," West said, relieved as bogey 02-00 flew around to come in for another pass. Rinoa wondered for a moment who he was talking to, but then remembered about Lionheart having many nicknames, none of which he approved of. 'Hero' must have been one of them.
"Karate Kid engaging." Kid said as he accelerated into the battle. Rinoa watched as the five of them flew around each other struggling for missile lock, but none wanting to be the first to fire.
"We got three more, coming in fast." West said breathlessly. Sure enough Rinoa saw three more red dots approaching labeled 01-01, 02–01, and 03-01. Rinoa understood. They were part of another squad. The three new bogeys approached in tight formation going toward Kid. To Rinoa's horror she saw another dot on the radar, smaller than the planes, white, and moving much faster.
"Incoming! Kid! Watch yourself!" Cid barked. "Fire at will boys."
Kid had just managed to avoid the missile. It exploded behind him, missing his engine by mere feet. Rinoa saw another white blip and looked to see that Lionheart had fired. It made contact and the red dot vanished.
"Ghostrider 01-00's dead." he said, his voice no longer containing arrogance, but focus, and concentration.
"Nice shot Hero." Kid said.
"Please don't call me that."
"Too bad, you've saved our asses a lot more'n we've saved yours."
"...Whatever"
"Are you two ladies finished, I believe it's still 4 on 3 and I've taken 38 hull damage from 01-01. He decided... to be a prick. But unfortunately he's a prick with a machine gun." West said.
"Machine gun?" Rinoa asked Cid. "I thought they used lock on missiles."
"They do. But sometimes you get too close for a missile shot. If you fire too close, you'll take a good bit of damage too when you fly into their explosion. So, at close range, you use guns." Cid explained.
" Here he comes... yo ass is mine bitch!" Zell said as he fired his guns, but was hit a few times in return. He turned around sharply and fired a missile without waiting for a lock. It made contact, and, though it wasn't a direct hit, It blew it's wing off and it spiraled to the ground.
"Ghostrider 02-01's out of the game." He yelled happily into the radio.
Rinoa watched as the six planes circled each other occasionally firing a missile that was dodged and sent flying off into the distance. Nobody seemed to making contact until she saw a missile fly right toward one of the yellow dots.
"Oh shit! I can't dodge–" the radio went static. It was Kid. It didn't seem to be a direct hit. Every now and then she'd hear 'Mayday!' or 'I'm going down!' and she truly hoped he'd be ok. She didn't know if he'd had time to eject or not.
"Bastard!" Lionheart shouted, his voice now full of rage. "Which was it!"
"Ghostrider 02-00. Lionheart, don't be stupid." Cid said cautiously into the radio.
"Congratulations 02-00, you now have my full attention" he said as he turned sharply to fly toward bogey 02-00. Both fired guns damaging each other badly, but Lionheart fired a missile at the last minute, and only just avoided the explosion as he swerved away.
"Lionheart report in, what's your status?" Cid shouted.
"Pissed off and really beat up. Hull damage is well over 80 and I'm down to 1 missile, and had to shut off my right engine so it wouldn't explode." he said.
"And you West?"
"Overall, not too bad. 56 hull damage, 2 missiles, and a slight brake problem, I think they severed the connection from my brakes to my right wing. Both engines functioning normally."
"I want you both to bail out now" Cid ordered them.
"Not a chance fatso. We can take 'em" Lionheart said.
"Oh cmon man, be polite." West said as the four remaining fighters regrouped in their groups of two.
"You're right, sorry, I meant not a chance fatso, sir, we can take em, sir." he corrected himself. "This isn't about any ambassador or mission anymore. This is for the Kid." They turned and engaged once more. Guns blazing the fighters flew around each other. Rinoa could now see them, as her jet caught up to the battle. "There's one on my tail, can u get him off me?" he asked West.
"Kinda busy now," said Irvine as his left engine was hit by guns, forcing him to extinguish it.
"I'm sick of this shit, he's right behind me, I'll hit the brakes, he'll fly right by." Lionheart said. Rinoa watched as Lionheart's plane veered upwards and slowed down by almost half. Bogey 03-01 did indeed fly right past him with out realizing what was happening. Lionheart lined up the shot and fired within a few seconds. "Ghostrider 03-01 is down."
"Ghostrider 01-01's bugging out. Looks like we got this one won." West said.
They stayed in that area for a while, watching ghostrider 01-01 retreating to out of their range, and off their radar. About 10 minutes later, Rinoa saw the scariest thing she had ever seen. Ghostrider 01-01, flanked by 4 new bogeys labeled 01-02, 02-02, 03-02, and 04-02, as well as 2 Apache helicopters, and several tanks with anti-air guns heading their way.
"GO! NOW! GET OUT OF HERE! They know we're here. They want to know what we're transporting and what's so important about it." Lionheart yelled into the radio. "Reschedule this flight."
"We'll hold em off, you get out of here!" West told them. Cid began to turn the plane around and fly back to Timber's soil.
"They'll be killed! You're going to abandon them!" Rinoa asked, already knowing the answer.
"It's a soldier's responsibility to complete the mission or die trying" Cid said. Rinoa was about to object when she heard a loud CRASH and felt the plane catch fire. They were hit. They were going to crash, and she, Rinoa, was going to die. Timber would lose the war, and Balamb would be conquered. She had failed. As the plane plummeted to the ground she realized with horror that Cid was dead, his face burnt and bloody. After that Rinoa could remember nothing. Next thing she knew, she was on the ground, bloody and injured, but alive. She carefully got out of the plane and looked up. A fierce battle was raging.
Lionheart was being pummeled, he had no missiles, and his engine was only functioning at 30 and falling steadily. He was never fast enough or maneuverable enough to get enough hits to take down an enemy plane. Wild west had taken two out with his missiles, but his engine was hardly at 40 and there was little he could do either.
"Squall, are you there?" West asked. It was the first time he'd been called by his real name in quite a while. He decided to return the favor.
"Yes Irvine, I'm here." he said as all his alarms and warnings and danger alerts were flashing.
"You have one on you... right?" Irvine's voice sounded weak.
"Yeah"
"Take him north, and have him fire a missile, I'll take these 2 in front of you."
"What are you doing?"
"Just do it, sir. I just... want you to know, it's been... an honor... sir." Squall did as Irvine asked. He began dodging those bullets with everything he had, until finally... the missile was fired. Squall dived with all the power he had left, and dodged it. Irvine slowed down until he was level with his pursuers and took the missile hit head on, destroying him, and the two planes next to him. Squall was horrified. Before he knew it, his other engine had been shot out, and he went into a flat spin straight into the ground, injured, but alive.
A/N: AAAHHH! Don't hate me for this, sorry fans of Irvine and Cid too if there are any. Are there any of you who'd pick Cid as your favorite character? Anyway. Shit's hitting the fan now. I hope you'll stick with me, this get's better, there aren't people dying in every chapter, promise! I didn't talk about Zell on purpose. Why? Wait till the next chapter!
-N.F.