Chapter 4. Lost Ground.
Ghost was heavily fatigued from the fight, his head ached as blood began to flow back into it. Slowly his vision returned to normal and the headache ceased. Ghost took a deep breath as he cruised back towards his base.
"A word of advice" A familiar voice tuned into his comms unit. "When you hit Gs like that flex your core and glute muscles"
"Who the hell?" Ghost asked, unsure of who it was that was talking to him.
"Hey now be polite, I could have steam rolled you back there with that sloppy pursuit" The voice cooed again.
"Demon!" Ghost said sternly.
"Ding ding ding we have a winner!" Demon responded.
"Come out so I may kill you!" Ghost threatened.
"Now so very aggressive, I have no intention in dueling you yet" Demon reassured his voice was confident and sounded younger, probably around late 20s.
"Why are you doing this?" Ghost responded.
"I don't consider myself a Demon like you and your IUN friends do, I consider myself a teacher, and you just learned your first lesson" Demon said. His conversation skills were as flexible as his SU37, Ghost could tell he was just as good at conversation as he was dogfighting.
"And what was that?" Ghost settled; he knew that if the Demon was nearby and had the intention of an ambush he would have done so already.
"Knowing when to leave, You also learned an important skill, defending the lives of your wingmen although you weren't very good at that '' The Demon said, cracking into an evil laugh.. "With the right amount of training I'll make an ace of you yet, ta ta for now" The connection ended.
"Ghost are you okay?" Guardog quickly asked. "We heard you talking to somebody on comms but you couldn't hear us" he finished. Ghost looked around him, this entire base still with him.
"Yeah, Yeah yeah i'm okay" Ghost was in a daze, "what did he mean make an ace of me?" Ghost thought to himself.
"That's odd, risking his position just to taunt you?" Predator said.
"Why didn't he just attack?" Mist blurted.
"I think he wants me alive," Ghost guessed.
"Mabey lets head back to base" Predator responded.
"I'm reading 5 contacts on radar!" Guard dog suddenly said. Ghost looked to the right and 5 Mig29s shot past them.
"Stormer 1 to stormer 2 these are the ones HQ told us to find"
"Copy that stormer 2 lets go"
Ghost acted out of pure reflex and pulled hard on to the right to meet the targets.
"Im outa ammo Ghost your gonna have to do this yourself!" Seymour said.
"Yeah I'm sorry buddy you're on your own!" Predator agreed.
"I'm with you, Ghost!" Mist reported joining up on Ghost's left wing. The two met the incoming migs head on. Ghost fired his gun into the formation.
"Take these two out first before we move onto the others, Break!" the assumed squadron leader stated. Ghost wasted on time and latched onto the tail of one of the Migs. He twisted and turned but Ghost wouldn't give him an inch he waited patiently for a moment to strike. The Mig began to go straight for a second before swinging its nose up into a cobra manuver. This was the chance Ghost needed: he launched his missiles and they both struck the Mig destroying it. Mist had taken her first target out too. Ghost barely had time to celebrate before he evaded missle that was launched at him. Ghost quickly on his stick his plane's nose shot up but his plane did't follow. The Mig29 shot forwads allowing Ghost to get some missiles off deystroying the Mig.
"There tearing us apart stormer 1" the enemy squadron was franitc now. Ghost made quick work of the remaining 2 fighters and rejoined the formation.
"Nice work kid" Predator said.
"Yeah i'm impressed buddy, I didn't think a Gripen was capable of doing a corbra" Seymour said.
"Wasnt a cobra it was just a high angle of attack over shoot." Ghost said.
"Can we go home now?" Mist asked like a child who had been away from home for too long. The squadron changed their course. Completely unaware of the SU37 lingering outside of their view watching them. Stalking them.
The base was relatively quiet despite the ongoing war there wasnt much that Ghost's base could do besides dig in. their actions at farbanti managed to stall the yuktobanian advance. However the demon was running havoc and Ghost was thinking deeply about what he had said to him. He believes he is a king of the sky yet the ground must come for him eventually. They just needed to find where. Ghost sat with his head in his hands in his barracks. Mist came in with 2 glasses of coffee. Her boots made a clicking sound as she took a seat next to him at the table.
"Hey are you okay?" Mist asked concerned for her safety.
"Yeah Mist im okay" Ghost looked at her, her Blueish eyes glistening in the low amount of light.
"I'm worried for you Ghost" Mist put her hand on Ghost's shoulder his brushed it off and acted like he didn't notice it was there.
"Well im sorry im like that"
"Dont be" Mist said.
"When you were assigned you should have said attached" Ghost responded sarcastically.
"Why won't you let me in Ghost let me help?" Mist asked softly.
"It's hard to explain Mist, I dont know if you'll understand, '' Ghost said, attempting to discourge Mist from continuing the conversation. He regretted speaking. "Mabey i shouldn't shut her out like this" Ghost thought to himself
"You're not gonna shake me off like that, I lost my whole family when an Erusean drone crashed into my home. The self-destruct mechanism was prematurely detonated. I was 15 and lost everything" Mist Stared into Ghosts eyes her words stung him. Mist got up and started towards the door.
"My mom was a pilot in the Osean Air Force. She was killed when Yuktobania attacked Osea. My father became a drunk who used me like a punching bag" Ghost looked up. Mist sat back down. "My brother couldn't do anything to help but one day enough was enough" Ghost took another pause as Mist leaned in listening to what he was saying.
"We spent 2 years on the run before we got caught. They gave me a choice to join the military acadamey or juvie" Ghost finished. "I cant even compare to you mist im sorry"
"Ghost listen" Mist grabbed Ghost's hand. "Our past isnt what makes us, I can still tell your running" Mist spoke as soft as a breeze. "You dont have to run, not from me atleast" Ghost did't know what to say. He put his hand on Mists and they locked eyes. Mist began to slowly lean towards him, closing her eyes.
"Sorry to interrupt but Uh we have a briefing" Predators voice came in through the doorway. Ghosts head shot up to see the pilot sitting in the door frame, a smug smile dragged across his face.
"Be right there" Ghost and Mist both said at the same time. Ghost stood up.
"Can we continue this later?" Mist asked, smiling awkwardly.
"Well yeah we were discussing important business" Ghost joked and walked out of the room.
