IFF stands for 'Identification, friend or foe'. It is a transmitter placed in military vehicles that allows radar operators to know if they are friendly or enemy.
So if you were flying into a friendly air base, your radar signature would have your ID number.
But if you were flying over an enemy air base, your radar signature wouldn't have the ID number, and would be automatically designated as enemy.
End of lecture. Back to mindless shooting.
Chapter 19 – Saving Private Kari (Part 1)The Super Hornets circled in the sky like vultures as the Learjet touched down at the desert air base. When it came to a complete stop, one of the bodyguards opened the door/stairs combo and allowed the robed man to step down. He saw a Humvee jeep speed towards them.
The Humvee stopped right in front of the plane, and the passenger door opened. A man in officer uniform stepped out, his brown hair rustling in the breeze.
"Davis! How's it goin'?"
"Not too bad. So where's this 'prisoner' I've to baby-sit for ya?"
Two of the bodyguards dragged and dumped Kari between the two men.
"Kari?"
The girl looked up, "Davis?"
Davis looked slightly angry, "I thought you said you weren't going to attack my school?"
"I didn't. My forces found her in a high school in Ireland. Apparently the digidestined there was able to alert the others before capture."
The officer shook his head, "Master ain't gonna be happy 'bout that."
"Screw him. Anyway, some them followed her through the portal. They attacked my base and it suffered major damage. We also lost the Shiloh."
"…Michael…" Davis looked angrily at the man, "Who and how?"
"We believe it was Aquilamon and Yolei. She did Patrick's famous 'Return to Sender' move."
Davis cringed, "Ow…wait, how'd she learn one of Patrick's tactics?"
"Well he's here, obviously," the robed man explained, "He spearheaded the assault, killed hundreds as Warmarinedramon."
Then it hit Davis, "Of course…it was Paddy's school in Ireland you attacked. It makes sense now."
"Took long enough."
"So…I'm guessing he's distracted back at PCX-14?"
"Yea…"
Before he could finish his sentence, the air traffic control tower exploded from a missile strike. The wind started to pick up as an Apache loomed over the base.
"Oh…there he is!" Davis shouted over the thunder of the rotor blades.
"Oh yeah! How'd ya like that little number?" Patrick yelled as the tower burst into flames.
He could see a large mass of troops gathering by the base, "Levelling time!" he said as he flicked all the weapons switches on, arming everything he had. Hellfire missiles, Vulcan chain guns, Hydra rocket pods, the works. Usually, the co-pilot would do this, but he didn't have one.
In fact the rear set was completely empty.
"Hey, bastards! Knock knock!" he jammed down the trigger sending out a wave of destruction.
"Get those Hornets to attack!" Davis shouted, pointing at the AH-64 that was currently levelling the air base with everything it had.
The robed man nodded to the male bodyguard, who nodded back before taking out his radio.
"Meteor Squadron, assault enemy helicopter." Kari noticed a strangely familiar Russian accent.
"Rodger, Meteor 2, engaging."
"Meteor 3, engaging."
"Meteor 4, engaging."
"Meteor 1, squadron, engag…" before the leader could finish a missile appeared out of nowhere, blowing him out of the sky.
However, they didn't need to attack the Apache anymore.
The attack chopper was already critically damaged and out of control.
Patrick watched as the entire base crumbled against his assault. Matt had told him that this side of the base had little AA defences, but his friendly IFF prevented an automated counter-attack.
An alert sounded as three Super Hornets locked onto him. Suddenly something burst out of a hanger, very close to the attack chopper.
"Desperado Blaster!"
The hail of projectiles ripped the tail on the Apache clean off. Patrick suddenly found himself rapidly loosing control of his aircraft.
It went into a tailspin, and started descending.
"Mayday! Mayday! Matt, TK! I'm hit! Loosing altitude!" The teenager quickly said as the chopper plunged towards the ground.
"Don't worry…I'll…care…of…Hornets…get Kari!" Matt started to break up as the radio system failed.
The AH-64 crashed into the runway rear first.
Paildramon touched down beside the flaming Apache as the pilot scrambled to escape.
"Now we got you, Desperado…"
"Dark Shot!"
The large missile hit the Digimon right in the back, knocking him over.
Skullgreymon charged over and stepped on Paildramon, pinning him down.
The three F/A-18F's that had originally gone for Patrick, watched as their leader exploded.
He never had time to eject.
"Where'd that come from, Meteor 3? Nothings coming up on radar!"
"No idea. How 'bout you Meteor 4?"
"It must have come from somewhere…"
Those were his last words as he was taken out by an F-22 Raptor, piloted by Matt.
A bullet whizzed past the Davis' head. He spun around to see the figure of Patrick, with the burning Apache and the 'Skullgreymon vs Paildramon' battle in the background.
Only one word came to the man's mind.
Shit.
"Take him out!" The robed man ordered his bodyguards. All three raised their M8 Sharpshooters and started firing at Patrick, who was about 50 metres away.
A bullet skimmed the side of his body armour.
'Close' he thought.
Then one hit him right in the chest. Thankfully, the Kevlar stopped it cold.
'TOO close - Won't be able to take another like tha…'
He took three more rounds to the chest and was flung to the ground.
"PATRICK!" Kari yelled.
Suddenly the ground around two of the bodyguards were torn up by Gatling fire, as the F-22 did a flyby. All but one was shreaded.
Davis grabbed his radio, "Weapons control! Take out that Raptor already! What's your problem?"
"Sir," the man on the other side responded, "IFF has it flagged as a friendly, sir."
"What! Crap, they must have taken one of mine," the robed man cursed angrily, "Override the IFF! Blow him out of the sky!"
"You heard the man," Davis shouted into the receiver, "Get with the overriding!"
"Sir yes sir!"
A few seconds later a Stinger site out on the runway turned to face the rogue F-22. Locking onto its heat signature, it fired three missiles.
"Missile alert. Missile alert." It felt like the computerised voice had alerted Matt a thousand times.
"I get the idea nice computer lady, now SHUT THE FUCK UP! Your not helping!"
Matt barrel rolled right, narrowly missing the first missile. According to his radar, they were right behind him. It also told him that they were not radar guided.
"Well that makes it a bit easier." Matt hit the countermeasures switch, dumping in the region of twenty flares.
One missile was distracted by this new 'threat' and exploded, causing it's neighbour to career off course and smash into the desert.
"Hoo-ya!" The pilot cheered.
But there was still one missile at large.
"Patrick, I've been engaged by enemy SAMs. They figured out the IFF thing," the man yelled frantically into his headset, "Patrick? Patrick!"
Tai landed on the hard floor of the gym. Looking around, he saw that everyone was lying down and resting. It was just getting bright outside…wait a second.
"We made it…but we were away for about a day, right? Then why has it only been like five minutes?" Tai asked.
Yolei put her hand up, "That would be my handywork. I programmed the portal to take us back to about fifteen minutes after we left, so nobody will suspect a thing."
"TK, you're hit!" Sora said as she walked over to the boy. He was clutching his left arm.
"I'll live, now let's get Emma some help."
"Yeah, that…well...you see, I was thinking if we take her to a hospital they'll get suspicious that she just randomly got all these severe injuries."
"So what, we just leave her?" Tai yelled.
"What can we do?" Declan said, "We'd probably get arrested for attacking her or something."
"I hate to admit it…but they're right." TK said to Tai.
"Yeah, unless you know a doctor or something…" Declan started.
Sora gasped, "Of course!" she took out her D-Terminal.
"What? Do you know a doctor?" Declan asked only half jokily.
"Nope, but I know the next best thing!"
Tai walked over and looked over Sora's shoulder at the device.
"Joe…of course...why didn't I think of that!"
"Right lets get back through the digiport and bring Emma to him!"
Patrick slowly opened his eyes. Matt was yelling at him through the headset.
"Come on man, wake up!"
The boy couldn't feel any penetrations, had the armour stopped that barrage too?
"Matt, what the hell are these flak jackets made of? It's defiantly not Kevlar!"
"Thank God your alive. I thought I'd lost you," Patrick could just hear the man's sighs of relief over a sudden computerised voice saying 'Missile alert. Missile Alert. Missile…' "OH, FUCK OFF!"
Patrick heard Matt hit something before the voice stopped, "Anyway, yeah, they're a Kevlar-Digizoid compound. Light but nearly indestructible. Their only problem is they concentrate the force of the impact, which is probably why you were knocked down and blacked out for a second or two."
"Well, I guess it just saved my life." Patrick jumped up and levelled his G36C with the lone bodyguard.
"Davis," the robed man said as he ran for the plane, "We're getting the hell outta here. You have permission to begin Operation Last Stand," grabbing Kari, he signalled to the pilot to start up the engines.
Turning to signal the final bodyguard, two shots rang off, flinging the bodyguard to the ground. Unflinching, he turned and ran into the plane, throwing Kari in, closing and locking the door. Bullets rang off the fuselage as the Learjet positioned itself down the runway.
Patrick ran after the jet, pummelling rounds into it, to no effect. It eventually picked up speed and took off.
"Crap!" He turned around and was met by Davis' fist. The force of the punch made the teenager drop his rifle.
Davis grabbed Patrick and head butted him, hard. Patrick's world went black for a while before he fell to the ground. Regaining focus, he felt the man press a gun up to his head. Instinctively, the teenager swiped the M9 out of Davis' hand.
In one movement, Patrick spun around on the floor, tripping the man up in the process, and was once again on his feet.
Now they were even.
Kari sat back in her seat. The man didn't even bother strapping her in, he just went into the cockpit as the plane accelerated into the sky and closed the door behind him.
She sighed, and muttered, "They still weren't able to save me."
Suddenly, Kari heard something fall out of an overhead locker. The girl swung round and was completely taken aback by what she saw.
It was Gatomon.
"Gatomon!" she got up and ran over to her partner.
"Kari, am I glad to see you! We need to get outta here!"
"But how?"
The cat grinned, "Patrick gave me a few things…"
Gatomon reached behind her and produced two objects.
One was a High Explosive grenade, and the other was Kari's D3.