4

Everything was happening so quickly. Thunderbird two was plummeting into the ocean and there was nothing he could do. The panic was bubbling inside him, reaching a crescendo that he could barely control. He had unfortunately experienced this before when Virgil had been shot at on a military exercise, in a case of mistaken identity. It was like Déjà vu but he had seen enough plane crashes at sea to know that the mortality rate was high. Could Virgil cheat fate again? 'Virgil can you hear me?!' No answer. 'Gordon, come in, do you read me? Shit!' She was freefalling and they were unresponsive. Scott quickly realised he also had another problem. If this was sabotage then it was likely that this was just the beginning. They could still face further attack and they were so vulnerable!

'Dad? Dad! I need to you respond and quickly!' Scott was still freefalling with TB2; he didn't want to abandon his brothers until he had to. He was scanning the sky continually for other craft. His hands were shaking on the controls.

Jeff was immediately tense at his son's tone and lack of radio discipline. It took a lot to panic his eldest so he knew he was dealing with a potential tragedy.

'I'm here. What do you need me to do?' Jeff didn't waste anytime.

'Dad I'm watching Virgil and Gordon drop like a fiery meteor to the ocean and I can't get a response. I need you to reach out to the local Air force and Navy stat, anyone near our position!'

'F.A.B son, I'll get John to keep trying to rouse them, keep the communication open'.

Scott nodded.

Think! Think! There must be something I can do! His mind was scarily blank when it was usually so resourceful, the fact that it was his brothers…. The responsibility of getting this wrong…Snap out of it Tracy! echoed the memory of his old captain.

At this rate it was the speed of impact that was going to be the issue. Thunderbird 2 was shaped like a projectile and would hit the water like a bullet. He needed to slow her somehow and fast! It was also winter here and the ocean was rough, complicating any hope of a rescue. He thought about the grapple again, realistically it was his only shot but instead of just reversing the thrust he thought of another tactic. It would more than likely be futile but he had to try. He had to get her nose up so she didn't breach under the water. Sinking shouldn't be a problem as the main pod was made to float so that Thunderbird four could be dropped and collected. The grapple and thunderbird one could act like an Arial anchor so at least thunderbird two was securely tethered to something. He lined up the shot and fired but his hands were still shaky, sweat poring from his skin and making them slippery. Damn it! He missed! He tried again and the connection was made. He quickly slammed on the controls and aimed thunderbird 1 heavenward on vertical flight and prayed for it to be enough. Thunderbird 2 was a hulk of a craft 250ft long and 406 tonnes, in comparison to thunderbird one's measly 115ft and 140 tonnes. It wasn't going to be easy.

They now had just 1020ft to impact. Scott shot upwards but not too fast in fear of severing the grapple line. It was the only time he could describe his aircraft as sluggish, he could feel the enormous weight of the craft below. Thunderbird one was straining like a frustrated thoroughbred on the start line. Great plumes of white smoke billowing from the rockets below. Scott was still being dragged from the sky. He tried Virgil again. 'Virgil! If you ever needed to listen to me its now, lift her up!' Nothing again, Scott took thunderbird one up to maximum, she was shaking all around him like she was going to shatter. Scott's piloting skills were also being pushed to the limit as he tried not to get sucked down with the stricken craft.

Scott suddenly felt the weight lessen and the line went slack a little so he allowed himself to slacken the speed off a bit. Just to check it really was happening.

'Thanks for the tow brother, I think I can take it from here' he sounded rough.

'Gordon?'

'Yeah, Virgil's a little concussed - don't have time to check how badly, I had to move him to take control.' Gordon sounded tense despite trying to shrug it off. He tried no to think about it. Their father was still present on the call.

'Good to hear from you son, now let's get you out of there so we can get you both home safe. Can you pilot her to safety?'

There was a pause as Gordon assessed the control panel. 'Let's just say its like Christmas in here and not in a good way but I have a functioning engine and if I expel the pod there will be less weight for the engines to cope with but that means my baby get's left behind.' He was referring to thunderbird 4 which they had brought along in case it ended up being a water rescue.

'Dad! Did you get a response for assistance? I have three unidentified craft ahead.' Scott cut in.

'Negative son, there was no one in the area they won't reach you until at least 1600 hours.' That was over an hour from now.

'Well then we've got company'. Scott flexed his hands over the missile controls.

'Gordon its time for you to leave, I'll take on these guys. Permission to engage father.'

'Scott, you should leave with Gordon.'

'No, I need to give him time to flee. She's not the fastest at the best of times let alone damaged! I can handle this. Just like the old days.'

'I'm losing altitude! I've got to release the pod! But what if thunderbird four is captured?'

There was silence from both the boys.

'Do-it, your lives are my priority here'.

'Right'

'Drop it now Gordon I will guard it.'

'FAB Scott.'

The planes could be seen clearly now. They would be in striking distance in Five, Four ,Three …. 'Gordon get out of here! And don't wait around on my account.'

'Scott' –

Two…One

'GO!'

Gordon started to leave just as the firing began. Scott had already turned to face them head on; he thought he had been done with all of this when he joined IR. He feinted to the left then rolled over to the right to avoid fire and flew upwards. There were few craft that could match his acceleration - if any. One of the planes tailed off to try and follow Gordon so Scott slammed the controls downwards, sailing through the middle of the two that had been on his tail. He could see the pilots shocked faces as he passed in lightening speed. They were still ascending not agile enough to catch him. Scott was already on the tail of the one after Gordon. He watched the plume of smoke in satisfaction as the plane went down and the pilot was propelled out of the craft, suspended like a little toy solider in the sky on his parachute.

'One down' Scott murmured as the firing started again from behind. Scott continued to lead them on a high-speed chase, always just one slight step ahead of the fire. He started counting and then quickly cut the engine and nose dived like a stone out of the air. To the pilots above it looked like he had simply punched it into hyperspace momentarily before they realised they were being fired on from behind. The next one plummeted to the ocean after a spectacular shot.

'And then there was one, come on you son of a bitch!' he frowned angrily.

This plane had been weaving in and out of Scott's line of fire which was infuriating but he had him pretty corned apart from Scott now felt that he was too far from the pod to protect it. It was like an exercise of capture the flag, constant vying and bloody warfare in a desperate bid to hold the position.

The enemy pilot had realised this and was trying to lure Scott away, knowing that he couldn't risk him going after the damaged international rescue craft.

Scott growled in frustration and slammed thunderbird one into a roll behind the craft shooting the entire time. Smoke started to appear on the plane before it dropped out of his line of vision.

'Damn it!' Scott could feel the pelting the underside of thunderbird one was being subjected to. He skyrocketed again before diving down and drilling through the air like a missile. Scott was fearless as he pursued the other plane downwards; he was confident in Brains' engineering and knew there was only a small percentage of her cutting out on him with such a manoeuvre. He aimed at the craft in front of him, hell! He'd run through it if he had too! This time Scott exclaimed in jubilation as the plane finally burst into flames and spiralled down to earth. This time he saw no visible survivors.

Scott quickly established himself and darted back to where the pod had been dropped. He wanted to check in with his family but the mission was far from complete.

After scanning the sky for additional targets, he swooped into a fly-by just above the ocean and was horrified to discover the ramp was down, the pod bobbing up and down on the turbulent sea. Pod Four was empty.

4

Thank you for your patience! I apologise for the delay it's been pretty tough for me to find some downtime to write this, thank you to those following and reviewing so far!