There wasn't much about Air Force Base 262 that Eva truly hated, but the heat was quickly turning into Eva's least favorite thing about the place. She wasn't quite sure what she was expecting from a base in the middle of the desert, but she would've at least appreciated some rain. Most of the time, she tried to beat the heat by staying in the main building, but today, she found herself lying under the wing of her Su-35 in the hangar. The floor was surprisingly clean and well-maintained, considering the circumstances they were in. Eva found herself looking at the line on her wing where the gray camo is overtaken by the blue she put on, not really thinking about anything in particular. Suddenly, she heard a set of footsteps making their way toward her. Eva sat up to see Poet walking over to her with the kind of smirk that made her feel like she was about to get chastised for something.
"You don't seem to be in a very celebratory mood," Poet said.
Eva tilted her head, feeling confused by that statement. "Is there a reason why I should be?" She asked, climbing out from under her plane and getting to her feet. Considering how wrong everything had gone over the past month, she wasn't sure what there was to celebrate.
Poet frowned. "You're not serious, right?" The tone in his voice had a mixture of disbelief and amusement. "You're telling me that you don't remember anything significant about June 14th for you?"
"Wait, it's the 14th already?" Eva could've sworn that it was still earlier in the month, but after the Kestrel II sank, she didn't really bother keeping track of time. The only time she took note of the date was when she happened to spot it on the screen during briefings, and even then, she didn't pay it any attention. She ran her fingers through her hair as she let out a heavy sigh. "Man, I'm getting old."
"Yeah, you are," Poet teased her with a light nudge. "Well, I guess that means I'm the first one to wish you a happy birthday."
Eva's mind drifted back to the Kestrel II and how only a few weeks before the war began, they were all celebrating Lucky and Poet's birthday since they were born on the same day, although Poet was a year older. "I assume you're here to bring me to whatever the others have planned?" She asked.
Poet shook his head. "Nah, we're saving that until after the mission. I'm here to let you know that Gates wants us for the briefing."
"Oh, well, I supposed we'd better get going then." Eva and Poet broke out into a light jog as they left the hangar and made their way to the main building.
Gates took a deep breath in and out as he started up the briefing software. "Listen, I know that this mission isn't going to be easy," he began. "You're going well into the Arsenal Birds' defense network to a major city under Erusean control."
"I'm assuming that there's a but here?" Magnum asked in a seemingly agitated tone.
"But if we pull this off, we could make a serious difference in this war for the better. Perhaps even enough to determine who wins," Gates continued. "Major Tillmin is sure to have plenty of intelligence that we'll be able to put to good use."
"Except for the fact that we can't contact anyone," Dodger muttered under his breath.
"Who knows," Gates said with a shrug. "Maybe Tillmin will know where this communications jammer is so we can take it out. There's always a chance."
"We might actually be able to go back to Fort Grays," Eva heard Magic whisper. The thought of going back to Fort Grays felt so surreal. With everything Eva and the others had gone through, there were times when she wasn't sure that they'd make it back. Although she still hoped to get back there as soon as possible. If she was quick enough, perhaps she could make it back while Trigger's trial was still underway and help prove his innocence.
"Anyways, it's time for the mission details, so listen up," Gates said sternly. He zoomed the screen into San Salvacion. "Our main goal is to get this done as fast as we can to avoid either of the Arsenal Birds showing up. Rogue Squadron will approach the airport from the east, taking out any AA defenses that would serve as a problem for our ground team, Deviant Squadron, to land and make their way to Tillmin. Once they're on the ground, Rogue Squadron will clear a path for them by taking out additional ground defenses and keeping their air power busy. After Deviant Squadron has Tillmin, it's just a matter of covering their retreat." The expression on Gates' face suddenly got serious. "I know this sounds easy, but this is going to be dangerous," he reminded everyone. "Be careful. I want you all to come back alive. Am I understood?"
The convicts all lazily muttered some sort of acknowledgment while Eva and the others saluted as they stood up.
"Good, now get going, let's get this done," Gates said, cracking a smile.
Eva let out a sharp exhale as she loosened her grip on the control stick as she skimmed over her instruments, making sure everything was still in order. She hated these long flights to missions. They did nothing but put her on edge. The fact that nobody was saying anything wasn't helping either. She felt like being the one to break the silence but ultimately decided against it. Instead, she briefly let her eyes wander around the sky, looking at the formation Rogue Squadron held and the clouds above them. She glanced down at her radar and looked at the dozen or so friendly units that made up Deviant Squadron trailing a fair distance behind.
"Rogue Squadron heads up." Eva felt herself jolt a bit at Crosswind's voice. "Four enemy aircraft detected. It looks like it's just a patrol," he observed.
"Roger that, do we know if they've seen us?" Vortex asked.
"Affirmative, it looks like they're turning to engage you now. Clear the way for Deviant Squadron," Crosswind ordered.
The enemy aircraft finally appeared on Eva's HUD: four F-14s heading straight for them. They broke their formation to engage, and Rogue Squadron quickly did the same. Eva made an upward U-turn to get behind the fighter that flew right over her head. By the time she had leveled her plane out, the F-14 was already turning left. Eva quickly fired two missiles, but the Tomcat had already turned too much, and they went right past it. As soon as she mimicked the left turn, the F-14 was already flying inverted and turned straight down to the ground. This time, Eva made a much sharper turn and managed to get close enough behind them to finish them with her machine guns. She looked down at her radar and saw that the others had taken care of the rest of the enemies.
"Crosswind, all enemy fighters are down," Vortex reported. Although the extended silence from Crosswind caused everyone some worry. "Crosswind?" Vortex repeated.
"Shit! All aircraft, caution an Arsenal Bird is entering the AO," he said frantically. "We must be right on the border of the defense network. Rogue Squadron, engage and buy time for Deviant Squadron to fall back."
"Screw that! I'm getting the hell out of here," Dodger said, already turning back toward the base.
"What?" Magic asked in disbelief. "Are you bailing on us?"
"Dodger, get back here and help us buy time. That's an order!" Vortex snapped.
"Will you quit acting so damn high and mighty?" Magnum replied. "We didn't ask for you to show up, and we don't want you here."
"At least they're not running away," Trench muttered.
Slipstream immediately took the opportunity to jump into the argument. "Hey, speaking of high and mighty, it's Mister Two Sin Lines!" he sneered.
"You know that you're a convict too, right?" Poet jumped in to defend Trench.
"At least I act like it, and not like some damn king amongst his peasants," Slipstream shot back. "Besides, I don't know if you know this or not, but two sin lines is a hell of a lot worse than one."
"Why don't you just back off Slipstream?" Eva snapped, tired of hearing the same argument.
"What, you think because you shot down some fancy drone that makes you better than us?" Axe demanded.
"Don't be so sure of yourself. Diamond's a better pilot than you'll ever be!" Lucky jumped in.
"Oh yeah? How about we put that to the test? You wouldn't last two minutes going up against me," Axe replied.
"If you so much as think about shooting them, it'll be your ass," Charger warned.
"Why don't you go ahead and keep threatening my pilots? See how far you'll get," Magnum challenged.
"ENOUGH!" Vortex yelled with a level of anger Eva had never heard from him before, silencing anyone else that may have been talking. "We can hash all this out when we get back, but for now, let's deal with the more immediate threat!" he ordered.
"You know what," Magnum began with a smug tone. "Maybe Dodger had the right idea, bailing while he still can. I wonder if I can still catch up to him." Eva watched as Magnum, Axe, and Slipstream all turned away from the Arsenal Bird and followed Dodger.
"You spineless sacks of shit!" Crosswind snarled. "Get back here right now!" he demanded.
"What are you gonna do about it?" Magnum challenged. "It's not like you or Gates actually punish us."
"You'd better choose your next words very carefully. Whatever Gates does to me, I'll make sure you never fly ever again," Crosswind threatened, clearly angered by something Eva was unaware of.
Eva waited for Magnum to reply, but perhaps for the best, she said nothing. Instead, Trench was the one who spoke up. "Don't worry, I'm still here," he assured them.
"Good, at least one of you has a conscience," Crosswind muttered.
Eva set her sights on the Arsenal Bird. The huge, yet slim, white shape effortlessly glided through the air, and dozens of MQ-101s dropped down from underneath its wings. Eva felt her hand clench up into a fist around her control stick. She may not be able to fight Zero but being able to avenge Torch and Onyx was just fine with her.
It took all the restraint Eva had not to switch on her afterburners and fly headfirst at the Arsenal Bird. Instead, she stayed in a tight formation with the others. It didn't last very long, though. A light started flickering on the front of the Arsenal Bird and slowly got brighter.
"Everyone, break now!" Vortex ordered, already banking left.
Eva followed Vortex with a sharp left turn as a laser shot out from the Arsenal Bird and right past the pilots. "This thing is nuts!" she exclaimed. "How are we supposed to bring it down?"
"Take out the propellors," Crosswind told them. "Without those, it should stall and crash into the ground."
"Charger, Poet, and Diamond form an element and attack those propellors. Magic, Trench, and Lucky, we'll deal with the drones," Vortex instructed before firing missiles at the MQ-101s coming head-on at them.
Eva quickly switched to her 6AAMs and fired a single salvo at the approaching drones as she flew past them with Charger and Poet, scoring two successful hits. She didn't have long to acknowledge it, however, because a wave of missiles suddenly shot up from the Arsenal Bird, soaring high into the sky before twisting and turning to find their targets. Eva heard the missile warning start to beep in her cockpit and went straight up to climb higher into the sky. The beeping got faster and faster as she saw the missiles get closer on her radar. Not wanting to take a chance, Eva dove back down and deployed flares. While she flew straight down, she saw another drone heading her way, although it was quickly shot down by Magic, and with the immediate threats out of her way, Eva set her sights on the Arsenal Bird's propellors. She fired two standard missiles at one of the main missiles and fired another salvo of 6AAMs. After all of her shots hit their marks, she pulled up just before she would've collided with the Arsenal Bird and quickly looped around to get behind it. Charger was firing everything he had at the propellors, while Poet was taking out the missile launchers on the Arsenal Bird. Eva just finished stalling one of the sub-propellors when another light started glowing on the Arsenal Bird. This time, it was on the top.
"Everyone, get away from the Arsenal Bird!" Crosswind yelled. "It's readying its Active Protection System. It'll cook you whole!"
Eva slipped into formation with Charger and Poet and got as far away as they could. Just as she looked over her shoulder, the light turned into a giant sphere of energy around the Arsenal Bird, whose edge reached out only a few meters behind them. The shield was close enough that Eva could hear the shield practically radiating energy, even through the thick glass of the canopy. The low humming sound made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up straight.
"That was way too close!" Poet said with a hint of relief in his voice.
"Yeah, no kidding," Charger agreed. "But now that the damn thing has its shields up. We can't touch it."
"You don't need to," Crosswind commented. "Deviant Squadron has withdrawn from the AO. Get out of there and return to base. You've more than proven yourselves today." Eva picked up on some concern in the AWACS controller's voice.
"Right, but it's not as simple as just flying away. We need one or two people to form a rearguard and deal with the drones to give the rest of us cover," Vortex told the others. "I'd do it myself, but my right flap is acting up," he explained.
"I'll do it," Eva quickly volunteered. If there was anything that she could do to keep the others from dying, then she would gladly do it without question.
"And I'll go with her," Lucky stepped up. "Can't let Diamond do all the work by herself," he added lightly.
"Be safe, you two," Charger reminded them as he turned to break off.
Eva pitched her plane up and into a U-turn and found herself right behind a group of UAVs, bringing them all down with a 6AAM salvo. She quickly looked to her left to find Lucky's Rafale and see if he needed any help. However, he was holding his own quite well, chasing after several MQ-101s at once. Seeing that Lucky was doing fine, Eva turned the other way and looked for more drones. She rolled onto her side and fired missiles at two UAVs before making another high-G turn. While she expected both missiles to find their marks, only one did, which caused Eva to look back at the drone and chase after it again. She fired another missile, but the drone was already too far into a turn and evaded it. While pulling herself into a sort of diagonal turn, Eva kept a steady lock on the drone. "Come on, just sit still already," she murmured to herself. Finally, the MQ-101 had a brief moment where it moved in a straight line, and Eva quickly took advantage of the opportunity to shoot down the drone.
"Lucky, Diamond, we're clear. Get out of there," Vortex ordered.
"Roger that, we're pulling out," Lucky responded as he shot down the last drone in front of him.
Eva deployed flares and made a sharp turn to meet up with Lucky and shake off a drone that had crept up on her. They switched their afterburners on and flew away as fast as they could so the drones wouldn't follow. Luckily, they returned back to the Arsenal Bird, whose shield had been lowered to allow them to dock again. Eva looked back at the massive drone one last time, disappointed that she couldn't have done more to beat it up before flying off to meet up with the others.
"Rogue 10, your approach looks good," the Control Tower informed Eva. "Just set it down nice and easy."
Eva let her speed drop just a bit more before lightly setting her landing gear down on the runway. She heard the tires squeak as the plane jerked from the sudden stop, and her along with it. As she taxied off the runway and into the hangar, she paused for a moment while switching off the engines and just took a deep breath in and out. "Well, I suppose that could've gone better," she said, popping the canopy open and climbing down the ladder that the ground crew had brought over. She felt a wave of relief wash over herself once she had her helmet and flight gear off. "I'm not really sure what I was expecting, to be honest."
"You ok?" Lucky asked once he was out of his plane. "It got pretty dicey near the end there."
Eva couldn't help but appreciate Lucky's concern. He was always putting the others before himself. "Yeah, I'm fine," she answered. Suddenly, another thought popped into her head, and she looked around the hangar. "Where's Vortex?"
"I think he's already headed over to the debriefing," Lucky speculated. "Either that, or he's going to chew out those cowards for bailing on us. He looked pretty pissed but not nearly as pissed as Crosswind."
Eva wasn't sure if there was ever a time where she had seen Vortex genuinely angry, and quite frankly, she didn't want to. "Let's just head down to the debriefing. Although I doubt there's gonna be much to debrief." She walked alongside Lucky out of the hangar and into the main building. "Some birthday this has turned out to be," she muttered.
Lucky looked over at her and smiled. "Oh, don't you worry," he said cheerfully. "The day isn't over yet. We'll make sure you enjoy yourself," he assured her.
Author's Note: Woah, this chapter turned out way longer than I expected it to. Still proud of how it turned out though. Except for the fact that it feels a bit too similar to mission 3. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter.
Edit: I'm gonna go through all the chapters and make some changes because FFN formatting sucks. (Thanks to NellIV for the suggestion.) I wish I could just have double line breaks instead of having to use horizontal lines since I want to save those for the perspective changes, but oh well.