CHAPTER 8
"We got a couple of bogies coming this way," Dom warned over the loudspeaker.
"Guess duty calls," Hawke murmured to himself as he pushed up to feet and jogged towards Airwolf, Caitlin right behind.
Situating the helmet as he slid into the pilot's seat, Hawke called for the weapons to combat mode even as a strafing line of fire came thundering down directly in front of them, the vibrations shaking throughout the cockpit.
"You got the guns," Dominic confirmed once the ADF pods and chain guns slid out. With a gentle pull on the collective, the rotors angled forward and they gained purchase in the air, gliding out of the way of the second round of ammunition.
"They're MiG 25s, two of them armed with infrared R-40T and radar guided R-40R 'AA-6 Acrid' missiles."
Drifting backwards as she gained altitude, Airwolf avoided the MiG's first run narrowly.
"Full turbos in three," Hawke ordered, "two, one."
Dom shoved the lever up in the back and all of them slammed into the back of their seats as they shot forward, banking a hard right and coming up behind the first MiG, the second already gaining on them.
"Don't forget about the second," Dom reminded realizing how close it was coming.
"I know," String replied, maintaining his position in the wake of the first.
The MiG 25 in front began to climb, ascending suddenly, Airwolf on its tail.
"Load a Copperhead."
"Got it."
Firing the laser guided missile toward the Soviet aircraft, then immediately cutting the turbos and coming down in front of the second MiG, he had Dom load another missile. The MiG executed an aileron roll and evaded the Sidewinder. In return he let loose his two infrared missiles, forcing Hawke to suddenly yank the cyclic, lacking the time to worry about finesse. One soared past and crashed into the mountainside.
"Deploy a sunburst."
"Sunburst," Dom confirmed, then a second later a displeasured look crossed his face. "It didn't take the decoy, String. Time of impact five seconds."
"Give me all she's got and pressurize the cabin."
"You got it."
Climbing steadily, Airwolf flew just ahead of the Soviet missile, far too close for comfort, but unable to spare the necessary time to turn around and take it out. Reaching fifteen thousand feet, at last the missile began to lose its gained advantage on them and allowed the necessary time for Hawke to pilot the Lady around and shoot it down with a Hellfire.
"Just the MiG now," Caitlin informed, glad to have had the Acrid off their tail; admittedly that had been a little close.
Zipping past, the Russian pilot attempted to intimidate him, forcing him lower and lower towards the ground, but didn't quite know what to do when Hawke let off the turbos and dropped behind. Despite making a valiant effort to avoid it, a Copperhead too took it down, reducing the last MiG 25 to a burning metal frame, tongues of fire greedily licking up the insubstantial remains as it fell from the sky.
\A/
Caitlin sat quietly in the co-pilot's seat, eyes constantly on the screens and controls in front of her, but her mind wandered, amazed at the sudden attitude change between the two men. While it was still strictly business, both had immediately and seemingly thoughtlessly laid aside the differences they had in order to get the necessary job done. The disagreement would no doubt show up again later, but for now it was like it had never happened.
Pick up Michael's agent and go home - that was all they had to do and maybe, if she was lucky, she would miss the rest of the argument altogether; some things were better dealt with without outside interference, and that was exactly what she would be - interference.
"Do you have a location on her beacon yet?" Hawke asked, realizing no matter how much he would have liked to leave Lexa to fend for herself in Russia he couldn't for the sake of all the people that could so easily end up dead, or dying more slowly of radiation poisoning.
Once he delivered her back to Michael he wouldn't ever have to deal with her again, wouldn't even have to see her again, at least that was what he told himself.
He had planned on not seeing her again after he left the FIRM though and years later he was bailing her out of trouble. Ironic considering she had caused him a lot more problems than she was worth, almost getting him killed because she was hot with him and gave out a little too much information. After that, he had to bail her out…oh she better be glad she had those nuclear weapon schematics and DU munitions shell on her or he'd be more than happy to leave her butt behind and go watch the news at home until some massacre, probably started by her in the first place, caused her death.
"Nothing. It looks like it has been destroyed."
"You could try isolating a signal from the depleted uranium," Caitlin suggested.
"It's worth a short," both men acquiesced, sure couldn't hurt anything.
\A/
"I think I've got something," Dom called out. "Wait a minute. Uh-oh, I think she's in trouble."
"Just my luck," Hawke muttered. "I'll set down on the roof here and go see what the situation is, you stay with the Lady."
"But…"Dom objected.
"I don't want our Red friends getting anywhere near her," Hawke said, more of an order than request.
"What if you need backup? Who's going to bail you out when you get yourself into a heap of trouble?" the red headed pilot asked.
"I'll handle it."
"Sure you will."
Sliding out of the cockpit, he took the gun from his waistband and soon disappeared into the building.
"There were three of them against her, who knows what they've already done, and he doesn't even like her, and she's got a nuclear weapon…" Caitlin railed from the front seat. Then suddenly she stopped, picked up her own gun and looked down at it for a moment, deciding whether or not she should obey Hawke's orders. Drawing in a deep breath, she clutched it tighter, her decision made. "I'm going in after him." And before Dom had time to do anything - to try stopping her, or to wish her good luck- she was gone.