War of the Skies

The battle over Lusaka begins to end with the TOU retreating back to their side of the country . . . for now.

Chapter 5

"God damn it Riley shot those bastards", I look back to him and sigh in frustration. Riley's shot all over and he's slouching against the seat belt, dead.

I shake my head and concentrate at the matter at hand. I veer left and right dodging bullets coming from the Borkan-1 on my tail. I pull the joystick up and the nose of my plane shoots up and climbing, but still the Borkan persist.

"Fine you wanna play rough" I shot a missile straight in the air and watch it fly up into clouds and disappear. I stare at the spot it disappeared and after a full three seconds the missile falls through the clouds gaining speed. I smile and rotate right and the missile shots down and I look to see the Borkan taken by surprised but before the pilot could maneuver the missile slams onto the nose and blows the plane apart, leaving a burning carcass plummeting to the ground.

I nod and return back to the fight. "Status report" I say to the pilot officer flying next to me.

"Most TOU planes have fled, but four Spitfire-49's and five Borkan-1's are still fighting".

I smile in mockery of the pathetic pilots who resist their downfall, "assemble what remaining pilots we have and meet me at the TOU HQ.

"Understood", and the pilot turn's to the left.

Without warning Kody's voice screams over the COM, "Riley NOO!"

I yank my headset off and try to find where Kody is. I see him over the TOU HQ and also another plane in front of Kody's taking a hail of bullets. It must that dumbass Riley who got in my face. I watch as his plane plummets to the ground and crashes into the TOU HQ.

At least he carried out the Generals final wishes.

"RILEY GOD DAMNIT NOOO!" Kody yells again, you can hear his voice cracking.

Oh get over it I say in my mind. People die every day. You just have to keep moving forward not dwelling on lost friends or relatives.

"Sir, I could only find two Kalash-5's that were in the vicinity and part of Division 1", the pilot officer says.

I shake my head and return to the battle "Fine, I guess that will do. Follow me" and I turn right in search of these TOU resisters with my men following me.

After five minutes we managed to shoot down two Borkan-1's with no casualties. We are chasing the rest of the planes, not letting up one bit.

"Diamond formation, pilot on the end raise altitude and everyone ready missiles" I command.

"Roger that" the other pilots responded simultaneously. We formed with speed and delicacy.

"Ready missiles, Fire both pods . . . Now" I command again and press the button on top of the joystick and watch as the missiles from our planes soar towards the group of fighters ahead.

With luck all the missiles connected with the planes and we fly over the destroyed planes plummeting to the earth.

"Good shooting. Now head back to home base and get some R&R" I command.

"Yes sir, Thank you sir", and with that this mission was over, we won.

I'm the last to arrive to home base out of Beta-8 and I can see that everyone is getting ready to leave.

"Don't get comfortable Gill. Your company is leaving now so go and get your things. Anything you forget will be donated to the air force so don't forget a thing" General Mcshane says and he turns and leaves but stops and turns after a few strides.

"Oh and congratulations"

I stop from getting out of my plane "For what sir?"

"You've been promoted to Sergeant First Class", and he salutes to me and I return the salute and he walks off again.

Holy shit, I couldn't believe it. I've been promoted five ranks up, that's awesome and I fist pump the air and jump out of my plane and walk to the quarters.

I grab my bag and walk to the door but stop and look back to Riley's bed. His bag was already packed and waiting for him. I hesitate but decide what to do. I walk over and grab his bag and then leave the room.

I walk out of the building and as I walk to the plane I see Megan who looks to me then to Riley's bag i'm carrying and her face softens for a second and then returns to sadness as she sees her co-pilots coffin and tears begin to arise. I look away and continue walking to my plane.

I get in and put Riley's bag in the now unoccupied back gunner seat. I start up my plane and leave this base and hoping to return and take my rightful place in command of Division 1 again.

It takes us again roughly 12 hours, same as the departure of Beta-8, but we finally make it back. As we approach the base I can see four people waiting for us. We begin to land and I make out who those people are. Commander, Glovanni, Layne, and Brett, it seemed like we were gone longer but it was only three days.

We climb out of our planes and walk towards the group but I turn right and head for the quarters. As I open the doors I head straight for the fridge, grab a beer, relax on the couch and close my eyes.

"When did you get back?"

I open one eye and see Chris rubbing his hair with a towel and looking out the window.

"Just now" I close my eye and try to ignore him but decide to do something else.

"Riley didn't make it" and I grin as the colour of his face goes whiter.

"What?" he turns and stares at me.

I put my drink on the coffee table and link my arms behind my head "Your friend Riley, he's dead. Sacrificed himself protecting that guy Kody. Then crashed into the TOU HQ", and with that Chris zooms out the door throwing his towel on the table almost knocking over my drink but I managed to catch it in time.

"Prick" I silently say to myself then take a big swig of it and close my eyes again and drift off to sleep.

I awake to the sound of a plane landing on the runway. I rub my eyes and look out the window, its dark outside with the light posts lighting some areas around the post. I look to the hanger and see someone walking out with a pack slung across their shoulder.

"Who are you?" I ask as I lean against the doorway.

"Private Dominick Mackie. Sir" as he stands at attention.

I look puzzled for a moment then remember i'm a Sergeant First Class.

"At ease pilot"

He relaxes but before he can step any closer an explosion goes off in the distance. Dominick turns around and we both just stare. Soon the whole team comes out and we all just stare as we see flashes of light go off in the distance.

"Where is that?" Glovanni asks.

We all look to Commander and he just stares into the distance but finally says "That's Delta-8... We're being... invaded" and with that we all race to our planes wondering what awaits us there and what will happen now.