Riley arrives and discovers something new, and how is this gonna affect the group. But that's not it. There is something even deeper going on with the FOI.
War of the Skies
Chapter 4 Part 2
I quickly head out the door to catch up to Chris who's already half way to the hanger.
"So you got my message in time" Chris says without even looking at me.
"Yea, thanks for that"
Glovanni pops out of no where to my left. "Hey Riley"
"Jesus Christ, you scared the shit out of me" As I regain my balance from jumping up. I quickly notice something on his lower lip. I look to investigate and see it's the French symbol.
"You like it, just got it done yesterday" as he puffs up is lower lip so it shows more.
"Yea it's nice" I smile.
As we approach the hanger, I see a plane fly down at the last second and land in front of us, almost hitting us.
"Watch it dumb ass, you almost hit us" I yell at the pilots coming out of the cockpit.
"Oh god i'm sooo sorry" The pilot says in a mocking attitude.
I clench my hands and approach the pilot; he stands his guard but the guy behind him backs up a bit. I look up to his face and we just stare at each other. Nobody blinks or looks the other way.
"Ok that's enough" Chris comes between us pushing me back.
The pilot in front just smirks and walks away; the other guy scurries behind him.
"Who the hell was that?" Glovanni asks while watching the pilots.
"Who cares, let's go I don't want to be late" Chris says and walks away.
Glovanni nods and walks with him. But I just stand there, infuriated. I scratch the scar on my cheek to try to calm myself.
"Riley don't scratch it, you'll re-open it"
I look over my shoulder to see Mathew walking up to me.
"Mat it's a scar not a scab" While I scratch it more to bug him.
He starts chasing me but I expected it and dodge out of the way, while scratching more. He does a sudden turn which catches me by surprise and he tackles me to the ground and grabs my arm and twists it to the side.
I try not to give but he'll continue going if not. "Ok ok I give, I give". He releases me and gets off me.
"Riley you coming"
I look over and see Chris's head pop out behind the hanger doorway.
"Ya i'm coming" I turn to start walking but take one last look back. I can see a faint shimmer of Mathew and I racing back to the quarters. I turn back and go to the hanger.
I arrive and check out the scene. There's a board with a bunch of maps and drawings and numbers. Three rows of chairs (four chairs in each row) and two in the last row. Chris and Glovanni are standing in the back keeping to themselves as always. Kody is at the front with a new girl pilot; she has blue short hair and is almost half a foot taller than him. But she seems small to him, she's obviously attracted to him but he doesn't see it, that's too funny.
The two pilots that I met earlier are sitting in the front row talking and looking over their shoulders at everybody else. Now that they have their gear off, I can see them more clearly. The pilot who gave me attitude has shoulder length blonde hair. He's a smaller build than me and has blue eyes. He has a small birth mark near his chin and one on the back of his leg. The other pilots smaller and looks more afraid, he's probably afraid of his co-worker but is too scared to do anything about it. He has short blonde hair and brown eyes.
Megan and Taylor are sitting on either side of Brett who keeps looking worried and off to the right. I look to where he's looking and see two people that I didn't notice before. Ones a guy with an eye patch over his left eye, large build, and you can see the tip of a scar popping out of his collar, he's sharing a cigarette with another pilot who towers over him. This one's a girl with a buzzcut hairdo and... no way. A piece of clothing from a previous pilot's uniform. Amy Chen.
"What the hell are you doing here!?"I shout towards the female pilot.
Kaitlyn looks up from talking with the other pilot and just stands their speechless.
I charge up to her but Chris gets in the way.
"Riley don't, she's already been yelled at," Chris says while keeping me from pushing him over.
"Well it's my turn," I snarl at him and knock him aside.
I'm about to reach her when... "Riley stand down"
I turn to see Mathew walking towards me with a serious face. I rub my eyes and look again to see Commander walking instead. "Take a seat" nobody moves.
Commander walks past me and past Kaitlyn "Joseph" she says. Commander stops walks up to Kaitlyn and says "That's Commander, Staff Sergeant". He looks to the rest of us. "I said Take. A. Seat." we all shuffle around and take seats.
"Before I go into detail of this briefing let me introduce you to new recruitment's that have been recently stationed here. This is Private Felecia Copeland" The girl that was talking to Kody stands up and nods to us and sits back down. "Specialist Tyler Gill" The guy that gave me attitude just raises his hand. "And finally Private Riley Barnum" the little pilot quickly stands up nods and sits down a little too fast and he slips of his chair and falls to the ground. His co-pilot just laughs and doesn't help him up. Riley, the one who fell, his face goes red and sits on the chair head down.
"Also Staff Sergeant Kaitlyn Morrow and her partner Private 2 Donnie Hoffman will also be joining us on this mission". Everybody looks to them and gives them evil glares ( myself included).
"Now that we have the formalities finished let's begin". He turns to the board and points at one of the maps, "Recently I got a report that Delta-8 and neighboring airfields are planning to launch an attack on Lusaka where the TOU have fortified the capitol with at least 3 airfields. They plan on travelling very early in the morning and when the sun rises they will strike and take them by surprise and hit the three supporting airfields around the main big one", he points to three X's around one large X. "I have also been notified that the pilots of Beta-8 will be leading the attack, now any questions".
Kaitlyn stands up "Will other pilots from other airfields be leading this mission with us"
Joseph hesitates "No, we are the only ones leading the attack"
Everybody looks around nervously and whispering to each other. "I know I haven't given you much but that's all i've got".
I stand up "Who will be going?"
"Right I was about to get to that, now you can go or stay. If you stay there will be no shame or demotion, it is of your choice, but pilots who have a partner must agree on your decision, once you have decided I will call your name and if you're going stay seated and if you aren't" Commander walks to the hanger door "stand beside me".
"You're not going" Kody asks with a questionable look.
"No I must stay here and watch over the nest, there's still a lot of paper work that I have to finish by a deadline so i'm staying"
"So am I" Brett says and walks over to Joseph.
"Me to" Layne says and she walks over.
"As will we" Chris says. Glovanni stands too but to grab Chris.
"Chris what are you doing"
"We shouldn't do this" he looks to me "neither should you, I have a bad feeling about this"
"I'm going" I tell him arms crossed.
"Fine, Glovanni?" Chris looks to him.
Glovanni just stands there nervously but then he relaxes and gives in "Fine let's go" as he walks to the hanger door with Chris.
Commander goes off the list of the rest of the pilots and everyone stays seated. The only pilots that aren't going are Chris and Glovanni. "Alright, now thats settled those of you leaving leave in one hour and good luck" Everybody gets up and begins to leave and say goodbye to the ones who are staying. I just walk out but I see Commander and Megan talking, I hang back so i'm not seen and watch as they talk. Commander gives Megan a letter and then walks away. Megan does a quick look around but doesn't spot me and walks away.
What was that about?
And what was that letter? Hopefully i'll find out soon.
Its 12:45 and I walk to my plane and throw my bag which contains extra clothes and other necessities that could be needed into the back seat. As i'm about to get into my plan "Riley don't go" I turn to see Chris at the bottom of the ladder, serious face and all.
"I've made my choice and i'm sticking with it" I start to get in again but then Chris says the one thing that catches me off guard "It's not what Mathew would do".
I freeze; it's been so long since somebody else has said that name. I jump out of the plane and land in front of Chris who expected that and backed up ahead of time. "How dare you think you know what Mathewwould do!" I get up to his face when I say his name.
"How dare I... you think you know so much about him but you only know his outside layer. Remember who his first partner was. ME, I was with him for 2 years before you even knew him. . I think I would know him better than you!" Chris leans in closer to my face "Mathew would never go into a battle without knowing details about it, he would never go into battle without the support of his most trusted friend" He steps back and crosses his arms, waiting for my response.
"People change Chris. Did you ever know that Mathew lost his sister 2 years ago to cancer" Chris's face go from anger to confusion "And you said you knew him better ha!" I walk up the ladder and hop into the cockpit, I put on the helmet and when I look to see if Chris is still there he's gone, went to say goodbye to the other pilots or do whatever the hell he does.
I start up the engine, as do the other pilots and we fly off. I look back before i've left the track and see Chris standing in his room looking out his window staring straight at me, only me. I stare back and then fly off to join with the rest group.
In roughly 12 hours we make it to Delta-8, which is crawling with dozens of planes and even more people. We land in our assigned track, track number 8. The track numbers are the same as the airfield number you are stationed at.
"Where do we go now?" Megan asks.
"Welcome pilots from Beta-8" a man yells as he's running to us.
"There's your answer sweet cheeks" Tyler says. Megan gives him a dirty look and all he does is snicker.
"The general wishes to see you right after I take you to your quarters"
The man takes us to our quarters and while we take a jeep, that has more seats than a regular jeep, we check out our surroundings. Planes are flying everywhere and people are running around doing tasks I suppose. We arrive at the quarters which are crawling with people doing errands and doing whatever the hell they do.
We get off the jeep and walk towards the building, "Here is one of the main living quarters, we have a total of 4 quarters, a total of 200 pilots that's including bomber and fighter pilots"
"That doesn't seem like a lot" Donnie says.
"Wait I thought this was a big mission" I ask.
"It is but the other bases aren't as 'co-operative' as you are"
"Why is that" I ask.
The man stops and turns to us "That's classified information" and continues walking.
We all look to each other and then back to the man. "Well come on" I say and lead the way to the quarters.
The place isn't special, the rooms aren't spacious but they fit 5 people to a room we managed to get two rooms, one for me Megan, Taylor, Kody, and Felicia and the other for Kaitlyn, Donnie, the other Riley and his partner, the arrogant one, Tyler.
"God that Tyler guy is a real asshole" Megan states while unpacking
"Ya I totally agree with you, he needs to learn his place" I say with a nasty image of me beating the shit out of him.
"Easy Riley, he may be an asshole but he's part of our team and we have to treat him the respect that another teammate would treat a team member. . . That doesn't mean we always have to be nice to him" Kody says with a smile.
We all smile and laugh.
"Who are you?" the man with red hair says who sits on the top bunk.
"Um . . . i'm Private Riley Lawrence, i'm umm your new partner" I say nervously.
The man looks me up and down and stands "The names Mathew, first off lose the stutter and second" he grabs my hand and shakes it "always greet a person with a handshake, it's more polite and makes any new people seem like where not just monkeys flying a stick" he releases my hand and walks back to the top bunk of the bed and rests on it.
I just stand there, awkwardly looking around the room "is there something else you wanted?" Mathew says without even looking at me.
"Umm . . . no I am just going to uhh get some food. Do you want anything?"
Mathew looks to me then closes his eyes again facing the ceiling "i'll just have a coke" I nod quickly and scurry out the room. Before I can leave I hear something dripping behind me. I slowly turn and my eyes widen and face goes white.
Mathew is covered in blood from head to toe eyes closed. I put my back to the door and try to open it but it won't budge. Mathew finally opens his eyes which quickly fill up with blood, he raises his hand "It's not polite to greet people without shaking their hand" he smiles as he says the last word and then blood shoots out of his mouth covering the whole room and me.
I scream as the blood soars all over me and around me, into my mouth. I'm choking I try to resist but it's too much and finally my eyes fill up with the blood of Mathew.
I quickly open my eyes and find that i'm on the floor sweat all over my body. I rise from the ground looking around. Everybody else is asleep. How did I not wake them?
After everyone is awake, washed up and ready to go, the man who led us here earlier takes us to the HQ main area. We arrive at a large room where chairs are placed everywhere and a larger board which contains plans for the upcoming attack and a man standing in front of the board, he has FOI tattooed on the front of his right leg. Also you can see a birthmark sticking out around his torso (he is wearing a tank top which hides the birthmark a little).
"Thank you Ronald" the man says. The other guy who was the guide, Ronald, leaves without question.
"Now shall we begin" the man says while pointing to the chairs. We all take seats in the front rows.
"My name is General John Mcshane; I am the commanding general of Delta-8 and of the FOI forces stationed here on Zambia. In this meeting I will be discussing the plans of the mission and what you pilots will be doing-"
"Sir why is our base the only one leading the attack" Megan interrupts.
John squints at her "and who is asking?"
"Corporal Megan Armstrong Sir"
"Well corporal, that is classified information"
"We have the authority to know sir" Megan states.
John's face goes a little shade red "On who's authority", you can hear the anger in his voice rising.
Megan walks up to the front and pulls out the envelope Commander gave to her earlier and hands it to Mcshane.
Mcshane snatches out of her hands, opens it and begins to read. As he dwells deeper into the writing his face gets a even darker shade of red "How the hell-"but stops mid sentence and motions Megan back to her seat. She stands there with a cautious look but then sits back down.
"Change of plans, with this resent report I am to notify you of why you're the only base leading the attack" He stops to gather his thoughts. "In the past 5 years we have been waging war in Zambia for too long. Normally it would only take 2-3 years at most for one side to conquer the other but TOU is not letting up one bit. So we have decided in the event that we lose this country we would nuke this whole area" Everybody is in total shock and some even get up from their seats including me "Settle down, settle down. Now we have contacted neighboring FOI forces in that if this happens they would leave the area immediately. Now into why you're the only team leading is because your Commander Kelsey was part of this back up plan also known as operation ZD and was the only other commander willing to partake in this, all the other commanders will oblige to the order but will volunteer to it" he ends it with that and the room is quite.
Finally Kody says "but that doesn't explain why we have to lead this attack"
"since your commander was the only willing volunteer we placed Beta-8 in charge of activating the nuke first hand an-"
"Wait" Tyler interrupts "are you saying that we would sacrifice our lives to activate the nuke"
John nods and everybody is so shocked that you can't even hear anybody breathing.
"I'm sorry you had to hear this now right before this mission but this shouldn't distract you at the moment, we have more pressing matters to attend to"
"No I think we don't" I say with anger in my voice.
Mcshane looks to me "Excuse me?"
"Do you think that for one second we would carry on this request, I think not"
Mcshane's face goes purple and he storms up to me and looks me right in the face "You have no say in this Private, and next time you back talk me you will lose your wings"
I look to him with anger but sit back down in my seat. His face relaxes a bit and he walks back to the board
"Now since you all know the real reason it's time to get back on the task at hand. There will be three divisions going in at once; but at different spots. Division 1 will be led by Specialist Tyler Gill and Private Kody Gillespie, your division will be going straight at them, you'll be taking the most damage but you'll be distracting the enemy. Division 2 will be led by Staff Sergeant Kaitlyn Morrow and division 3 will be led by Private Riley Lawrence and Corporal Megan Armstrong, your divisions will flank the enemy and hit them from the side taking out most of the defenses so that the bombers can move to the main HQ without getting shot up. This mission will start in 5 hours so gear up get some sleep do whatever, but be ready for battle always. This mission highly depends on you for giving the men instructions" as he says that he looks straight at me, because i'm the ace so he thinks I know a lot more than my colleges, and I do. I nod to him and he does a quick smirk to show he understands.
"You're dismissed and good luck to all of you"
5 hours go by quick and every station is ready for the coming battle.
"Check check one two three, can you hear me Meg"
"Loud and clear Riley . . . you ready for this?"
"Best I can be"
"Good, at least someone is"
We lift off from the tarmac and fly together with the rest of Beta-8. We all flap our wings to say goodbye "Everybody good luck and stay safe" Kody says and heads off with Tyler, Kaitlyn leaves to her division alone and Megan and I leave to our division.
"Sir, Ma'am we're ready to go" The pilot officer says.
"Then let's do this" I say and begin to fly to what most likely will be my impending doom.
We're on the outskirts when we get the report from General Mcshane "Division 3 your objective is to flank on the left side of the airbase and cripple its defences severely. Fight until death if need be, and one more thing if you get shot down and your planes falling but your still alive aim for something important to crash into. Every kill counts good luck"
"What a way to put it" Taylor snorts.
"He's just thinking of the bigger picture" I comment.
"Whatever, it's still insensitive to just think that no matter what we'll do whatever he says"
"Some people follow orders to the letter"
We arrive and the battles already started, division 1 has already attacked and are in a serious conflict with the enemy. Division 2 is hanging back waiting for the order.
"CHARGGE" I yell into the mouthpiece and soar towards the compound with other planes flying with me. Kody and Tyler also charge and we fly straight to the frae. The enemy is taken by surprise and tries to retaliate but were to close and we just go ballistic on the guns and destroy many plans on the ground and in the sky. After awhile TOU fighters get back to action and a major dogfight starts overtop the base.
"Squads 1-5 head for division 1, 6-8 follow Corporal Armstrong and head to the back of the base to get any aircrafts grouping up, 9 and 10 follow me where gonna destroy as much anti aircraft as possible" I quickly say. Planes fly in different directions but 20 stay with me and fly with me as we destroy anti aircraft turrets around the base.
"Sir enemy fighter 12 o'clock", a pilot yells to me.
I look up and see a group of Thunderbolts heading straight us.
"Evasive manoeuvres" and we spread but 2 pilots get caught in the fire. I turn sideways to evade bullets, fly up and shoot a couple of planes down.
We continue on for 30 minutes when "I'm hit, smoking out the back I can't keep it steady, cough, cough" Megan says.
"Megan hold on, hows Taylor?" I ask
Then crying is on the mic, I clench my fists "She's dead Riley, we were chased by two Hurricanes and her gun jammed and they sprayed and . . . and . . . she took the bullets to save me" more crying.
"Head back to base now, if you can't make it radio in last coordinates and land as safe as you can"
"Roger that. And Riley, be careful"
"I will" and I see her fly off towards the base. I nod to her then get back into action. When I rejoin my squad I notice that we've gotten deeper into the base and still going. Division one has taken several casualties but are still going strong and divisions 2 and 3 have joined forces.
"Riley we're is Megan and Taylor?" Kody asks.
I stay quiet not knowing how to say it.
"No it can't be" Kody says.
"Taylor's dead but Megan still alive and was heading back to base"
"Ok that's-"but got interrupted by a hail of bullets from above
"Son of a bitch, argghh" Kody pipes out.
"Kody you good" I ask but look to his plane. It's shot up but still going.
"Fuck they got my fingers" He says through gritted teeth.
"What?"
"They shot my three fingers of my left hand off, I don't know how but now I have no index, middle, and ring on my left fucking hand and it hurts like a bitch"
I can't say anything but laugh a little. Like what are the odds of that.
We're at the main part of the HQ taking out what's left but then a group of Thunderbolts is soaring through and is heading straight for Kody. I fly in front of him so my plane is covering his plane as much as possible
"Riley NOO!" but it's too late, the bullets hit all over the plane and all over me.
Blood starts pouring out of my body through my clothes, the pain is unbearable it's like I got shot, I smile at my stupid joke. My hands go limb and the plane goes down.
"RILEY GOD DAMNIT NOOO!" Kody shouts at me trying to get me to speak. I try but it's too hard or I just can't one of the two.
I get closer and closer to the ground and I remember Mcshane and what he said. I turn the plane with all my might and now i'm heading straight for the HQ.
You've done well Riley
I look to my right and see Mathew smiling at me griping my shoulder.
You've done your part, it's time to let go
I close my eyes and everything seems like it's going in slow motion. I look around and see Mathew in front of the living quarters smiling at me then walking inside. I go to walk forward as well but remember where I am.
I come back to reality see how close I am and as i'm about to hit I scream at the top of my lungs, which hurts like hell. Not for my friends. Not for Mathew. But for myself because I realize that all this time I could have let go of Mathew but I was too selfish to realize that now.
And that is what makes me crash into the TOU HQ. Not because of orders but because I want to do something right for once in my miserable life i've had without Mathew. I want to be free of this guilt and join my best friend
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