Here it is, the fourth chapter of my Area 88/Ace Combat 5
The Unsung War crossover. To those who've been patiently
waiting me to update the story and have remained steadfast
and loyal, this chapter's for you.
Y'all demanded that I bring it on back. Well here ya go,
enjoy the story, youse mugs !
Disclaimer: TV Asashi owns Area 88
while Ace Combat 5 is owned by Namco.
Area 88
Return of the Razgriz
Chapter 4:
Desert Life and the Blue Rose of Highbury
Allied Air Base, 455 Miles Northwest of Area 88
The day was hot and dry; and being out on the tarmac waiting for a semi-sexist group of men to replace the pair of travel pods mounted on two of the hardpoints of her desert tan Panavia Tornado F-3 with an extra pair of Sidewinder missiles made it even hotter, or so thought Rosemarie Harris-White (formerly of the Royal Air Force) as she stood by her plane with her arms crossed over her modest bust. Looking up at the rear cockpit of her bird, Rose saw that her weapons systems officer (a former F-16 Falcon pilot from the U.S.A.F. And Rose's best friend) Emily 'Stiletto' Nelson with her shades on and her hands behind her head as she sat trying to catch any little bit of the weak breeze that was blowing through the weapons loading area.
Standing an even six feet in height with shoulder length long black hair complimenting her mocha-colored skin, Rose-nicknamed the Blue Rose of Highbury after the stadium where her favorite football team used to play (ETERNAL HIGHBURY!! GO ARSENAL!)-pondered what had brought her to this desolate location. It had all started a year or so after she'd been honorably discharged from the R.A.F. When her squadron was stood down to replace its aging Panavia Tornados with the new EF-2000 Typhoon. Not wanting to give up her preferred mount for the new-albeit awesome-piece of next generation fighter technology, Rose had decided to get out of the air force and take employment as an airline pilot. It had taken Rose all of six months to get thoroughly tired of being a glorified bus driver. She missed the ecstasy of flinging her nimble tandem seat Tornado through the air at Mach 2 while dodging the enemy and completing her mission. On a layover in Atlanta, Georgia, Rose had entered the airlines' crew lounge with her co-pilot and flight attendants to check the weather for the next day and check her flight schedule to see when she'd get another chance to be off for a week or so.
While listening to her young co-pilot bitch about the pay scale and his sorry attempts at flirting with the attractive flight attendants, thirty-two year old Rose had glanced around the room and spotted her friend Emily Nelson sitting across the room listening to her pilot with a bored look on her face as she perused some sort of flyer she'd taken off the bulletin board. Making her excuses to the rest of her crew, Rose had gone over to chat with Emily and ask her what it was that had caught her attention. The two friends eventually ended up comparing routes and catching up on the goings on in each others' lives since they'd last seen each other at a major air force exercise a few years previous. Emily had shown Rose the flyer and had told her friend that she was going to shitcan the airline drudgery and sign up to join the foreign forces flying for the Kingdom of Asran.
At first, Rose had been skeptical about becoming an aerial mercenary and had disregarded the flyer but had wished Emily the best of luck and promised Emily that the next time she flew a Remain-Over-Night (RON) flight into Heathrow to give her a call and the two would go out and get shit-faced like they used to. The next day, after seeing Emily off before boarding the Boeing B-777 she was piloting from Atlanta (ATL) to Los Angeles (LAX) before continuing on to Honolulu, Hawai'I and points further west before finishing her route in Tokyo; Rose put her friend's words in the back of her mind. Three months later, after a flight in the nastiest weather she'd ever flown in, Rose had returned to her home airport only to receive a summons to report to the chief pilot later that day to schedule a date for her recurrent training.
In the operations center, the chief pilot had requested Rose fly as center seat check pilot for a newly promoted captain who was making his first Transatlantic flight in the triple-seven as pilot in charge when she returned from her month-long recurrent training program for the big Boeing. Rose had protested a little bit but eventually caved and agreed to act as check pilot for the newbie. That had been the biggest mistake of her life. The flight had been such an unmitigated disaster that halfway across the Atlantic Ocean; Rose had ordered the new captain out of his seat and flown the remainder of the flight herself. Of course this had led to a major argument with the young pilot in the operations center that had-in front of everyone-nearly come to blows. When it came time for her hearing on the matter, Rose had blasted the young man for his lack of skills, his complacency, and his utter nonchalance for the safety of his passengers.
Unknown to Rose at that time; the young pilot in question had powerful patrons higher up in the company hierarchy who didn't appreciate the fact that the pilot they had had high hopes for had been made to look like both: a know-it-all fool and a pompous jackass during the hearing. Those powerful men and women formed a cabal and decided that Rose was never going to be promoted beyond her current fairly senior flight position (Rose was a high-middle level senior captain and five very short steps removed from one of the senior captain positions due to her time and experience in the air force). That cabal had suspended Rose and the young pilot without pay for a month.
When she returned from her suspension, Rose found out that she'd been effectively ostracized by her peers. Recognizing a no win situation when she had one smacking her in the face with a two by four, Rose had returned home and written her letter of resignation. After dropping the letter off with the Human Resources Department, Rose had given Emily a call and asked her if she was still going to Asran. Emily had replied that she was going to and had the majority of the paperwork filled out but was presently dealing with a lawsuit she'd filed against one of the other pilots in the company. Over the course of a four hour long and increasingly drunken phone conversation, the two friends had firmed up their plans to join the pilots of Area 88.
"After all that we've gone through over the past year, now that we're well within range of our destination we gotta deal with assholes who don't think women should be flying high performance fighters in aerial combat; great. I hope we don't run into any of this sexism at our destination. That would just suck.", mused Rose as she heard the man in charge of the ground crew pass on to her that the missiles had been loaded and the plane fully fueled up for the last leg of her flight.
Slapping the side of her plane to get Emily's attention, Rose called up and told her that they would be leaving shortly. As Emily nodded in acknowledgement, the two became aware of the familiar whop-whopping sound of an old UH-1 Huey helicopter. Turning to face the sound and adjusting her sunglasses, Rose saw the dirty green workhorse as it came in and landed about a hundred yards away from the her Tornado. Spotting the tan flightsuits and colorful flight helmets of the two crewmembers, Rose snorted in disgust as the co-pilot in the left seat leered at her before busying himself with the postflight checks. Shaking her head, Rose wriggled herself back into her g-suit (much to the appreciation of the nearby ground crew and the leering Huey co-pilot) before preparing to mount and climb the built-in boarding ladder to her cockpit.
"Hey, are you the two who called our base and asked them to send a chopper out to pick up your travel pods and bring them back?", came the shout of the Huey's pilot as he jogged over to Rose's fighter.
"Yeah, so what if we are? As we commenced our final approach, my backseater caught a brief burst of communications that reported a flight of bogies loitering around in an area three hundred miles away. Deciding that it would be better, we had the travel pods containing our personal articles downloaded and replaced with missiles in case of a donnybrook.", replied Rose as she reached the cockpit and settled herself into her ejection seat.
"Awww shit! Your call pulled us off of what could have become a real profitable mission. Oh well, even though this mission to pick up your stuff is only paying about twenty grand, it's better than nothing. Besides, I get to brag to the guys back on base that I got to meet the two Area 88 nuggets first. Mind if I take a picture of the two of you so I can gloat? If I don't use up the remainder of the film in this camera, that greedy bastard McCoy will charge me an additional eighty bucks. It's a shame that when you get to the base you'll already be at least fifty-thousand bucks in the hole before even arriving on base. The two of you better pray that if you run into some bad guys, you can shoot them down and recoup your losses. If you're either extremely lucky or extremely skilled and the bogies turn out to be Floggers, Fulcrums, or Flankers and you destroy them; you'll have recouped the fifty grand easily. Well, let me get my lazy ass crew-chief over here to give me a hand with your travel pods so we can get 'em on my helo and cinch 'em down real tight before fueling up and returning to base. You be easy up there and good luck. Since you'll probably beat us in, we'll see ya when we land.", replied the pilot good-naturedly as he waved to Rose and Emily.
The two women waved back and smiled for the slew of photos the man took before he returned to his old workhorse. Once he was far enough away, Rose got busy setting her fighter up to start its engines so they could continue on their journey. The ICS rattled as they made their way through their pre-engine start checklist. Once that was completed, Rose caught the attention of the ground crew and signaled that she was preparing to start her engines. They acknowledged and moved away from the engine intakes and got into their safety positions.
"That rotor-jockey was cute, Rose! Maybe I should look him up when we get to where we're going.", commented Emily in a lecherous tone of voice.
"Yeah, he was cute. But he's not my type. If you want him you can have him.", Rose replied in her accented voice with a grin.
That was her friend Emily, always on the lookout for a new guy. Rose sighed as she thought back to the one semi-serious relationship she had back when she was a junior Tornado pilot. Bringing her attention back to the present, she concentrated on getting her engines running so they could leave this base. They had places they needed to be.
Riptide Flight. Midway Between Allied Air Base and Area 88.
Two hundred or so miles away from where the Tornado flown by Rose Harris-White was preparing to launch for Double Echo, a pair of early flight D model Tomcats were flying a variable combat air patrol pattern. The pair of 'Cats had been dispatched by Big Sammy to cover the return of the members of an eight plane airstrike on an enemy position. Armed in the typical Tomcat interceptor profile (I.e. 2 Sidewinders, 2 Sparrows/AMRAAM's, and 2 Phoenixes), the flight lead 'Warlock' Georges and his RIO 'Pungent' Casey in Riptide One-One (tactical callsign: Fast Eagle 205) along with his wingman 'Nightewolfe' Smith and his RIO 'Big Eyes' Talvert in Riptide One-Two (Freelancer 110) yawned as he brought his bird around to a new heading.
"Hey Warlock, you hear the news? The commander is expecting a pair of newbies to arrive on base today. Scuttlebutt has it that they decided to make their way here on their own instead of catching a wide-body into the capital.", called Talvert as he lifted his head away from the radar screen and looked out at the other airplane.
"Yeah, yeah I heard the news. That blasted McCoy couldn't keep his damn mouth shut about that and charged me a hundred bucks for the info. Right now, I can't worry about it; I'm worrying about the recent rise in price for 20MM ammo. Jeez, that old man is more of a mercenary than any of us pilots when it comes to cash. It's good thing that Tigershark pilot worked out a deal with both the commander and McCoy to get us some surplus weaponry and ammunition. My contacts tell me that Blaze Thomas pulled a fast one on McCoy and circumvented one of his routes to get the stuff here. Of course that cut the old fart out of the profit and he went straight to Saki with a bone in his teeth and yelling bloody murder.", replied Warlock as he leveled his fighter out on its new heading.
There was a double click of acknowledgement as Nightewolfe followed suit. Another twenty minutes later and the two fighters changed direction again. Warlock was about to have his wingman take the lead for a bit when their radar systems made contact with a pair of bogeys approaching at about 450 knots. Rocking his wings to let Wolfe know to change to the 'loose deuce' formation both former naval aviators preferred when dogfighting. Coming about to face the unidentified contacts, Warlock was psyching himself up for a coming dogfight.
"Well, well, well… Wildcat, it looks like the two geniuses finally decided to notice us. We've been mirroring their flight path for the past what, hour or so?", came a familiar deep baritone.
"Aww shit, its Snow and Simon. What the hell are they doing here.", grumbled Wolfe as he angrily manhandled his fighter around to return to the 'welded wing' formation he and his flight lead had been flying earlier.
"Yep, that's them. Dunno what they're doing over in our area of operations though. Last I saw, they were fragged on the flight schedule as pulling escort duty for Kim's flight of Harriers as they went hunting for targets earlier. Guess that strike is finished and they decided to troll around for some extra cashish.", replied Pungent dryly as he tweaked his radar system a bit.
"Well hell, maybe we'll get lucky and some rebels will be stupid enough to attack us. We could always use the money.", replied Big Eyes as he tuned his radar a bit.
"I doubt that. Those two jackasses will probably scare away the rebels. Even if some do come up, those two will take the big money targets and leave us with the scraps.", Pungent continued with a disrespectful yawn.
Over in his A+ model Tomcat, Mickey sighed as he heard the subtle insult from Warlock's backseater. Even though the guy was a pretty good RIO, Mickey just didn't particularly like some aspects of his attitude. In the three months since Swordsman and the rest of the Razgriz had arrived at Area 88, there had been some tensions between some of the old school Area 88 contingent who complained that they didn't need the extra help. Big Greg had been the far most vocal about it until him and his section had been bounced by a mixed flight of Fishbeds, Flogger D's, Fitters, and a pair of Typhoons.
As Greg and his pilots fought for their lives, Swordsman and Archer had arrived and proceeded to ease some of the tension on the beleaguered flight by sending both Typhoons and a Flogger down in flames. The rest of the flight-a mixed bag of Phantoms, Corsair II's, Greg's Skyhawk, and a Tiger II-had rallied and downed several of the remaining enemies until the rest ran off. Unfortunately, three members of Greg's flight had been shot down with no possible survivors. Upon arrival back at Area 88, Greg had profusely thanked the two for the help before apologizing for his actions.
Since they'd been loaded for knife-fighting engagements with Sidewinders, Sparrows, and AMRAAM's; both Mickey and Snow were flying their Tomcats solo. The pair had waxed a few bandits that managed to get close to Kim's zero-seven section and were now, as Pungent had surmised, just cruising. Simon and the other two pilots conversed for a bit while Snow listened, until Double Echo broke in and ordered the four to go investigate a possible dogfight that had suddenly appeared on their radar.
"Copy that Double Echo. Coming to new heading and switching to TWS on radar. Riptide, you guys coming?", answered Snow as he changed his direction of flight.
"Yeah, might as well go and keep you from mucking up too bad if there actually is a furball.", yawned Pungent over the radio as his pilot cranked their 'Cat around to join up with the two multi-ace pilots.
Warlock frowned in frustration as he heard his RIO's lackadaisical reply. He was starting to get a bit tired of Casey's bitching about the six-four black pilot from Osea behind his back. Deciding to have a 'Come-to-Jesus' chat with his backseater upon their return, Warlock accelerated with his wingman in trail.
Alright, Riptide; if y'all don't mind, I'll lead take the lead here. Why don't we go to combat spread just in case there is a fight up ahead? In fact, since both Mickey and I are flying solo and you guys got backseaters, why don't one of you join on each of our wings? That way, if there is a fight and in case we run into some Foxbats and Foxhounds, there's a pair of -54's in each flight.", Snow continued as he watched his wingmen move around.
As he expected, Nightewolfe and Big Eyes formed up on his wings while Warlock and Pungent formed up on Mickey's wing. Snow just sighed and continued flying. If Pungent was gonna be an ass about stuff, it wasn't any water off of his back. Reporting back to Big Sammy that the flight was sorted with Mickey leading his second element, the Eternal Swordsman increased his speed and started a climb to a higher altitude. If there was a fight, he wanted his flight to have the altitude advantage.
"If we ain't cheatin', we ain't tryin'.", Snow muttered to himself.
195 Miles Out from Allied Base.
Rosemarie Harris-White bit off another curse as the Flogger she'd been targeting juked right and forced her to loose her firing solution. Taking her thumb off of the firing button, Rose quickly glanced at her instruments to check how her fuel was doing. So far there was still enough to make Double Echo if she got out of burner and was able to escape the hastily set up ambush, her and her backseater had stumbled into.
Their launch from the allied air base had been uneventful and Rose had climbed to a cruising altitude of twenty eight thousand four hundred and thirty-five feet before leveling off and setting course for her destination at a respectable cruising speed. For the first twenty or so minutes of the flight, the radar warning gear of the Tornado had been quiet except for the occasional brush from a friendly radar site to read their transponder squawk.
Shortly after checking in with the controller on their next leg of flight, Emily's radar had held contact on an unidentified blip for a bit but lost it as Rose maneuvered to strengthen the return. The Tornado swung about in all directions to try and regain contact for twenty minutes before Rose had given up on the contact and had returned to her base leg. A few minutes later, the Tornado's RHAW gear came to life with a strident sound. Immediately, Rose had jerked her stick to the left while giving it a healthy dose of left rudder as she tried to beam the unidentified radar searching for them. That standard tactic worked and the RHAW gear ceased its howling. As the gear went silent, Rose started to jink at random intervals while her finely honed instincts told her that there was the possibility that her mysterious opponent was tracking her by infrared and was just waiting for the right moment to launch a heatseeking missile in her direction. Crossing her original course at an angle just in case the enemy waited for her to regain her base course, the radar in the Tornado brushed against another bogey. This time, the signal was strong and growing stronger.
Increasing her speed to see if she could visually identify the enemy that her system had spotted, Rose, Emily and their Tornado flew into the detection cone of another radar system and their warning systems went berserk. Rose maneuvered all over the sky to try and break the radar beam. When Rose heard the dreaded deedledeedledeedle sound indicating that they were locked up by enemy radar and would soon be getting a missile up the ass if she didn't do anything soon, she dropped countermeasures and broke away. As she did, their radar locked on to one of the unidentified aircraft. It was Emily who gasped first as she recognized the silhouette.
"It's a Fishbed and its coming straight at us with a bone in its teeth! SHIT, he's fired at us! Rose, drop flares and chaff, we've got what looks to be a pair of Atoll's headed in our direction. Let's boogie on outta here!"
"I see it! Weapons armed! What's the range!!"
"Range to enemy, 22.5 miles!"
"Copy that, switching to Sparrow! Hurry up and get me a lock"
"Working on it, come right! He's jinked, trying to beam us! Gimme a second! Okay, locked on!"
Rose heard the tone that told her the Sparrow was 'seeing' its target. Flipping the safety cover up, she mashed the firing button.
"Fox One! Fox One! Missile Away!!"
Emily used the powerful radar system in the Tornado to track their missile all the way to its target. Lifting her head up and craning her neck in that direction, Emily saw the bright flash in the distance that told her their missile had hit.
"Scratch One Fishbed! The others are closing, getting into knife-fighting range! Tracking new targets designated Tangos Two through Eight."
"Range!", shouted Rose over the intercom as she twisted her aircraft around to get a lock while going into afterburners.
"Range unknown at this time! Radar's saying we got a… shit…shit….shit, the target's a dammed Flogger. He's attacking us while his buddies are watching to see which way we're gonna go. Fuck me sideways, it's not just -21's and -23's out there giving us the hungry look, ECM's telling me that somewhere out there is two possible pairs of Foxbats. And there is no way in fucking hell that we'll catch up to them!", Emily rasped as she dealt with the g-forces Rose was pulling.
"No shit, Emily!! Let's deal with these Fishbeds and Floggers right now. We need to break out!", returned Rose as she dropped her nose and dove to avoid a missile.
Emily growled and went back to locating targets with the radar and saw that several of the Flogger spectators were now boring towards them in full burner. She passed that info tidbit to Rose in the front who glanced down at her radar repeater screen, verified the remaining number of bandits, and compared the total to what she had left armaments-wise.
"Emily, it looks like we have two 'Winders, two 'RAAM's, and a Sparrow left to go along with the full load we have for the cannon. I need you to designate those targets that pose an immediate threat to us on the radar first and we'll take them out. Right now lock our remaining Sparrow on one of those threats. I wanna get that damn semi-active radar homing missile off the rails as quickly as I can. If we're going to score with it, I need to keep the radar painting that particular target until that missile is in its terminal guidance mode. Once the Sparrows are gone, that will open up a lot of possibilities for us.", said Rose through the gasps as she jinked her aircraft in every possible so that the enemy couldn't get a lock on her.
Making some hasty calculations, Emily used her joystick to move her cursor over to the bandit her pilot had requested and reported a 52 lock.
"That'll have to do. Fox One, Fox One. Missile Two Away!! Good all our Sparrows are gone! Now we can get down to the nitty-gritty here!"
For the next several minutes, the only sound that could be heard from the cockpit of the Tornado F-3 as it maneuvered across the sky were the grunts of the crew as their g-suits reacted to the demands brought on by their maneuvering throughout the g-envelope. The Tornado took a few glancing hits but nothing too serious while racking up another three kills using her last Sparrow, one of her AMRAAM's and one of her Sidewinders. Switching from Sidewinder to AMRAAM, Rose again tried to get in touch with Area 88 to report her situation.
"Double Echo, Double Echo, Tornado 404; I'm surrounded by several bandits and am trying to fight my way free. I've downed two Fishbeds, one Frogfoot, and one Flogger D. I've taken some damage in the fuselage but it's negligible at this time. We're badly in need of some assistance, over."
"Tornado Four-Zero-Four, your assistance is on its way. A flight of four Tomcats are approaching your position at max speed. They'll be there in three mikes."
"I hope those Tomcats have some Phoenix missiles. My backseater has reason to believe that four of the bandits are Foxbats."
Swordsman's Tomcat 135 miles away.
Marcus listened in as the controller received the report from the surrounded fighter. Activating his search radar, he went about trying to locate the Mach 3 capable fighters. Waggling his wings, Snow gave the sign for Wolfe to mover further out in combat spread to give him a better search cone for the thousand pound, hypersonic fire-and-forget missile.
"Riptide One-Two, Swordsman, have you found one of those Foxbats yet?"
"That's a negative at this time, Swordsman. Still looking though; switching from TWS to pulse-doppler; ah, got 'im Swordsman, contact four Foxbats at my ten o'clock for ninety-five miles. Switching to Phoenix! Riptide One-Two has a lock on the leader, designating target Sierra One. Standby….Standby….Standby; Fox Three, Missile Away!", came the reply from Nightewolfe's backseater, 'Big Eyes' Talvert.
At the same time, Warlock's backseater 'Pungent' Casey had locked up the tail-end Charlie Foxbat and was going through his own launch procedure litany as his fellow RIO pressed the button that loosed the mighty Phoenix at its target. Once his own missile was gone, Casey changed targets.
"Missile Away, Riptide Two-Two switching targets to Sierra Three; I'm getting a good tone. Missile locked on target. Fox Three, Missile Two Away!", chanted Casey as the second and last Phoenix loaded on his fighter dropped down and ignited before streaking out in a Mach 5 blur towards its target.
In the front seats of each Tomcat, Nightewolfe and Warlock mentally rejoiced as a ton of high explosive was released and gave each 'Cat more maneuverability and speed. Once the missiles were on their way, both Warlock and Wolfe switched from the 'Phoenix' missile detent on their control sticks to the 'Sidewinder' and 'Sparrow' missile detents. While they were switching, Snow was trying to contact the friendly aircraft in the middle of the battle.
"This is Swordsman calling Tornado 404, come in 404!"
"Swordsman, you got 404. I'm, kind of busy right now but we'll gladly accept your assistance in any way possible.", came the reply from the wildly maneuvering jet.
"404 say status?"
"Our present situation ain't all that great right now. We've taken several hits from cannon fire. No severe damage as of yet but my number two engine is running a bit ragged. Out of this bunch we've taken down two Fishbeds, one Frogfoot, and one Flogger D, however those dammed Foxbats are just going too bloody fast!! We're down to our last 'Winder and maybe half our basic load for our cannon. We're also out of countermeasures, Swordsman."
"Swordsman copies, 404. We'll be there shortly. Can you extend this way a bit, my wingmen are out of Phoenixes and the bandits remaining around you are out of our range. Squawk two-one-seven-two and identify so we don't shoot you down by accident."
"Tornado 404 copies, squawking two-one-seven-two."
Snow frowned as he saw the developing situation on his radar. If he and his wingmen didn't get there in time, that brave Tornado crew was going to run out of options. Gritting his teeth and wishing he could go faster, Snow waited for the in range tag to pop up on his Heads Up Display (HUD). Snow had already chosen his target and had been tracking it ever since he locked one of his Sparrows on to the signal of the Flogger J presently sitting at angels 32 waiting to swoop down on the outnumbered Tornado. He knew that firing the Sparrow at his present range would be okay since he could still afford to fly straight and level for a bit; however, the minute he popped off the Sparrow, his target would start his evasion maneuvering. Even though the AMRAAM would be a better choice (the 'Mad Dog in a Meat Locker' AMRAAM was a fire and forget active radar homing missile), Snow knew that once he got rid of his Sparrows, he could shift his attention to the closer enemies.
Following Snow's flight as they raced in to the fight, Mickey was able to use his radar and study the developing tableau. Using his radar to track the bandits and assign missiles to the six most dangerous threats, Mickey waited until he got into the best position before prosecuting his attack on three Floggers trying to sneak in and attack Warlock. Not knowing why he did, Mickey put his Tomcat up on its port wing and looked down trying to spot anyone making a pop-up attack and barely saw the road of hard packed sand thousands of feet below. Filing it in the back of his mind for some unknown later date, Mickey bore into the mix.
For the next few minutes fighters twisted and twirled through the bright azure sky in a kind of divinely choreographed aerial ballet of death. Missile trails crisscrossed the sky as they intertwined with the black trials of destroyed fighters drifting to earth. Some of those destroyed had the missing cockpit canopy that signified a successful ejection. Occasionally (and only if one were eagle-eyed enough and not preoccupied) the parachutes of those dismounted pilots could be seen as they floated to the ground on their personal cushions of air. The noise of the battle was terrifyingly loud to those no longer ensconced in the protective embrace of the metal cocoons that had once carried them into battle. Other aircraft took their final rides with dead hands at the controls. Soon it was all over.
This time, those intrepid mercenaries flying from the secret airbase were victorious and set course towards home while some of the surviving combatants were already mentally composing the stories they were going to tell about the fight. The remaining bandits, few in number, had turned tail and fled as they lost their advantage over the lone Tornado when the four Tomcats dove into to the fight and proclaimed their superiority over this sky and any other sky in the world. The enemy survivors would return to their bases with their minds forever scarred and tainted by their close meetings with 'The Big Cat'.
In her Tornado, Rose winced as she experimentally moved her control stick to see how bad the damage to her precious F-3 was. Before her rescuers had jumped into the fight, the Tornado had taken some minor hits. Now it struggled to stay airborne as more of the incurred damage made itself known. At the moment, Rose knew for a fact that there was no way her number two engine was going to last all the way to Area 88. It had taken some more hits and had gathered its fair share of shrapnel when Rose had misjudged her closing rate with the expanding fireball of a Flogger she'd nailed with a burst of fire from her 27MM cannon.
Out of flares, chaff, missiles, and with maybe a hundred rounds for her cannon, both Rose and Emily were grateful that the Tomcats of her rescuers were keeping to a modest speed and a high enough altitude that could translate to a margin of safety should her engine die. Unhooking her oxygen mask, Rose took her hand off of the throttles to open a pocket to retrieve her bandana so she could wipe some of the sweat off of her face. With a wry grin, she activated her intercom and called her backseater.
"How's things back there, Emily? You've been quiet for the past few miles. Every thing alright?", Rose asked as she returned the pink and green bandana to her pocket.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Keeping an eye on my displays to make sure everything is still doing what it was designed to do. I know we're low on fuel and have a dinged up refueling probe therefore we can't hit a tanker to give us some gas. Also, I'm getting some very intermittent hits on the radar as we go. The majority of them seem to be friendlies but I'm not too sure. Call over to Swordsman and see if he can get us some new data so I can clean up my display back here.", replied Emily as she deftly flipped switches in the Tornado's backseat.
"Copy that. He seems like a nice guy so I don't think he'd mind. I can tell he's one helluva pilot though.", Rose responded.
In her seat, Emily heard the subtle lusty wistfulness oozing out from her friend voice and smirked to herself. It was about time Rose got interested in men again. Ever since her break-up with a cheating boyfriend two years ago, she hadn't been the same happy go lucky woman Emily first met during their time participating in an exercise many years previous. Back then Rose was bummed out about missing out on a promising relationship with a young Osean Maritime Defense Force Tomcat pilot she'd met when his carrier visited England.
Hearing her friend as she asked the pilot for the data she needed to clear up her radar, Emily input the new information into her console and watched as her radar system changed to status of several unidentified contacts from bogey to friendly as the IFF system in the Tornado queried each of them and got a response. She was sure that their IFF was responding to the requests from the systems of the others and giving a favorable report. Deciding to make sure, Emily called the pilot of the Tomcat flying to their left to drop back and check.
"Copy that Four-Zero-Four, Riptide One-Two dropping back to query your IFF.", came the happy voice of the Tomcat's front-seater.
"Riptide One-Two, Swordsman; while you're back there can you delouse us and make sure we're free of any nosy guests?", came the baritone of the 'Cat flight lead.
"That's a big Aye-Firmativo, Swordsman, gimme a few minutes to get set up."
"Take your time, Riptide Two. Riptide One, Wildcat, Four-Zero-Four lets keep our eyes peeled. We never know when one of the rebel pilots will actually have the balls to fly into our airspace."
Emily grinned as a chorus of lewd and rude acknowledgments came back to the baritone. Checking the position of her radio switch and making sure that she was speaking on the cockpit intercom, Emily leaned forward and asked Rose (for about the hundredth time) about the man she once loved.
"Emily! Now is not the time to be inquiring about my private life! We're in a combat zone and I need to keep focused on my instruments up here!", snapped Rose with a curse.
"Aww come on Rose!! Now is exactly the time to talk about this! Yeah, we're in a combat zone and can't relax until we've landed and taxied to our assigned revetment but damn woman! You know that the majority of the pilots here are single men! Shit, we're gonna be in sausage city and I don't want your crush from the past ruining my chances with any of these guys!! Now spill it!! You're the legendary Blue Rose of Highbury with men wanting to drag their balls across many a mile of broken glass just to catch a faint glimpse of you!", teased Emily.
Rose groaned as she remembered the predicament that led to her getting tagged with that particular name in her wonderfully misspent teenage years. It wasn't one of her most favorite memories. Knowing that her friend wasn't going to let up on her teasing until she told the story again, Rose sighed. At least this time she had a bit of new information, although it was still years out of date.
"Alright 'Stiletto', I'll again tell you the story of how I met Lieutenant JG 'Hothead' Snow. It happened many years ago and Osea had sent one of their carrier battle groups to England on a friendly port visit. At the time, we had one of your navy's carriers visiting as well. I was junior officer in the RAF and was on a training flight when my flight lead and I caught sight of the Osean flattop cruising serenely off our coast heading for the Royal Navy Base where the U.S.S. Ranger was docked. Of course we'd known about the arrival but still, seeing that grey monster excited me. I knew that the Osean Air Wing had been invited to participate in a combined exercise. The squadron I was assigned to was one of several RAF squadrons participating.", started Rose as she remembered.
Continuing on with her story, Rose told Emily how her flight lead and she had caught the Osean carrier during flight operations and had been given a clearance to hang around and escort a couple of Tomcats from one of their squadrons in.
"Osean fighter squadron VF-177; a.k.a. 'The Grey Dukes'. So my flight lead contacts the leader of the Tomcat flight and has them form up on our wing. They did so and soon I had this Tomcat sitting off my starboard wing close enough for me to read the names of its crew; 'Hothead' Snow and 'Smooth Operator' Hill. At first I didn't catch the reference but my flight lead cracked up when I told him. Unfortunately, I'd passed the info on over the main channel instead of the back channel. Soon after that, I heard the cocky voice of who I took to be the pilot insult me over the radio. Of course, me being as cocky if not cockier than the Tomcat pilot, I retorted in a similar manner. Soon he and I are in a full-blown argument over the frequency and every one listening could hear us. During a brief break in the argument, his RIO broke in and commented to my WSO (Weapons Systems Officer; 'Whizzo'; or 'Bear') that the two of us, meaning his pilot and myself, would make a perfect couple and he couldn't wait till the wedding. Needless to say, that shut both of us up out of pure embarrassment for the rest of the flight."
Taking a breath, Rose continued with her story as Emily listened intently in the back while checking her switches.
"That night, at the formal dine-in inside the O Club, I just happened to see this tall, chocolate-skinned specimen of man wearing an O.M.D.F. Dress uniform with jg shoulder boards on being dressed down by one of his senior squadron mates and wishing he had a beer in his hand instead of the glass of wine he was carrying. Making my way in his direction, I saw him look around nervously and I indicated the direction of the back bar where the beer was. He gave me a look of gratefulness and made his escape when his superior finished. Later, I entered the back bar with some of me mates and we headed over to a table where some of the American blokes were sitting. The majority of the Yanks were Tomcatters mixed in with a few Hornet drivers for flavor. As I sat down and started chatting, the jg from the reception showed up with a serving tray covered with beer mugs for those around. He'd lost a bet with one of the yank Tomcat drivers and bought the next round. With his dress uniform jacket off and his tie loosened up, he looked fairly handsome in a boyishly rugged way. Soon after he arrived, the group was in deep discussion about their day. This guy mentions that he'd gotten into an argument over the radio waves with somebody from our squadron and was looking for the guy so he could punch him out. It took me a minute to process the words and realize that he was the guy I'd gotten into it with earlier that day.", Rose paused for a second before continuing.
"So, me being me and at the same time being a slight bit intoxicated, I jump up and tell the guy to take his best shot. He's taken aback a bit and shakes his head. I tell him that I was the one he got into the argument with and I insult him again. He retaliates and we go back and forth verbally for a good minute before some jackoff decides that to settle this debate the Osean pilot and I would try to drink each other under the table. We both agree without hesitation and the contest starts. You can imagine two pilots in their respective dress uniforms going stein for stein of some of the best beer I'd ever tasted. Pretty soon we were so trashed that nothing was going to be resolved. That's when things got worse. The bloke makes another remark and I go ballistic and grab the nearest thing to soundly thrash this guy with. Unfortunately I end up with a broom handle that I break over his head. He grabs the broken piece off the floor and soon we're drunkenly dueling with parts from the busted broom handle. This goes over real well with the barkeep and he starts screaming for the MP's and everyone starts breaking for the door. We just forgot that on the other side of the door were several fairly senior officers who were a bit tipsy themselves. So here everyone comes racing outta the back bar, destroying the door separating the two rooms in the process, and dashing into the conglomeration of squadron commanders with a few captains and colonels mixed in. Somehow during the following melee, my roommate grabs me and out of reflex, I grab the Osean pilot so we can continue our conversation. Eventually we end up in my apartment completely starkers and still arguing. When we realized our state of dress, or undress as it was, he looks at me and shrugs his shoulders. I look around the room, see the clothes on the floor and go 'what the hell; we're naked anyway, might as well end the night on a high note and lead him to my bedroom. What followed was the most intense sensually satisfying night I had ever had."
Emily cracked up as she heard the lilt in Rose's voice. But before she could ask Rose to continue the story, an urgent radio call broke across the radio channel.
"Shit…shit…shit. Everyone break, we've been targeted. Some lucky rebel bastard has us dead to rights and there's an Adder screaming in. Everyone, drop countermeasures and evade!", shouted Swordsman.
Just as Rose began her jink to the right, something hit her aircraft in the faltering number two engine and exploded with a numbing force. Instinctively knowing that her precious Tornado was doomed, Rose neutralized the now useless flight stick, pressed her head against the head rest of her seat, reached above her head for the ejection seat handles and pulled, starting the ejection sequence. The canopy blew off in a windstorm of glass fragments that stung her helmet, eye shield, and hands before disappearing in a flash. For a second, Rose feared that her ejection seat might have failed then she heard the rocket under Emily's seat fire the petite woman up and out of the stricken airplane. After a few milliseconds that felt like hours to Rose, she felt the rockets under her seat fire and push her ejection seat up the telescoping rail it was mounted to. Going from the violence of the ejection to the silence of the sky as her seat flew up to a predetermined height before kicking her out and deploying her parachutes' drogue as a precursor to chute deployment itself was a new experience for the former Tornado pilot.
Over in Riptide One-One, Pungent was yelling over the radio.
"Two chutes, I see two good chutes!! They're out and free-falling, Double Echo, Double Echo; Riptide Two-Two can you scramble the Angel, the nuggets punched out!"
"Negative Riptide flight, the Angel is busy on another mission. Angel Two is too far behind and doesn't have the gas to reach you. Riptide Flight, Big Sammy has contact on a pair of Fulcrums heading in your direction and suggests you depart the area."
Warlock slammed a fist on his instrument panel as he listened to the report from base. He was down to his last Sidewinder and low on fuel. Glancing over at his wingman, Warlock knew that Nightewolfe was also low on gas and nearly out of ammo. Both Simon and Snow had already told him they were out and couldn't do anything about the approaching enemies. Just as he was about to curse in frustration at leaving a brave crew out in the desert, Simon's voice came over the radio.
"Warlock, Wildcat; do you think you can keep those Fulcrums occupied for oh about five, ten minutes without using up your fuel?"
"It's possible Wildcat but I wouldn't want to bet on it, why?", replied Warlock.
"I got an idea. Swordsman, you're flying single right?"
"Dammit, Mickey, you know I am? What's the deal here?", snapped Swordsman
"See that hardball down there? I think that if the crew of 404 can make it, we can land and pick 'em up. We're gonna have to do it in a hurry though. Radar shows those Fulcrums are buster."
In his Tomcat, Marcus gritted his teeth and ran numerous scenarios through his head. Each one came up with the capture or death (or worse) of the 404 crew. Coming to the same conclusion as Mickey, he sighed and radioed that he'd give it a shot.
"Alright, there's the guy I know. Riptide all you have to do is keep them busy for five to ten minutes; fifteen at the most. If you reach your bingo during that time frame, go ahead and RTB. Hopefully we'll be just about finished.", replied Mickey as he banked hard to line himself up with the direction of the road.
During the course of the conversation, both Rose and Emily had been brought safely to the ground by their parachutes and had met up. Rose snatched the survival radio from its pocket on her survival vest and turned it on. Calling the orbiting fighters to let them know that she and her backseater were alright, Rose asked what they planned to do for a rescue.
"Can both of you make that road at your two o'clock? Wildcat and Swordsman are gonna attempt to land and pick you up. If they make it successfully, you'd better be ready to move. They're gonna set their number one engine at idle so approach the port side of their planes and scamper up the boarding ladder and into the backseat. Hopefully this'll work out. Now get going, Wildcat's on his final approach and from what I can see you're about three hundred yards away! Get moving!!", shouted Big Eyes as he gasped for breath when his pilot reversed their course to face the approaching Fulcrums.
Rose double clicked her radio in acknowledgement and passed word to Emily about the plan. Both women discarded their parachute harnesses and g-suits before running through the shifting sand to the road. As they approached the hard packed dirt, the Tomcat with the playboy bunny on its vertical stabilizer passed by and slowed to a stop a few yards up from where they stood.
Since they were on the right side of the fighter, Rose and Emily had to run around the pointed nose of the idling fighter as it sat on the hard-packed dirt road. The cockpit canopy lifted and the pilot impatiently waved at hand at them to hurry up. Rose told Emily to go ahead and board, she'd catch the next Tomcat (who was presently touching down approximately a few thousand yards back). At first Emily resisted but common sense prevailed and she scampered up the boarding ladder, grabbed the extended hand of the pilot and climbed into the backseat where a RIO would usually be situated.
Seeing that her friend was alright, Rose backed away from the plane as its pilot let off his brakes and started rolling down the road. The canopy started to close as the pilot slowly increased his throttle to keep from damaging his engine. Preoccupied with the now departing aircraft carrying her friend and hoping that the canopy would close before the fighter reached take-off speed, Rose didn't hear the noise of the Tomcat coming up behind her until its pilot yelled for her to move her ass and get aboard. Repeating Emily's actions of just seconds before, Rose scrambled up the boarding ladder and dropped into the rear ejection seat as the canopy closed around her. Getting situated and realizing that without her harness, she couldn't strap into the seat properly, Rose attached the communication lead from her helmet and oxygen mask to the system and waited for it to synchronize.
"Thanks for the save, Swordsman!"
"You're welcome but we're not outta the shit yet. Warlock and Wolfe are real busy covering our ass. We gotta get off the ground quick and hope we can make it. Wildcat is departing the area at Mach 2 with your friend in his pit and we're here yanking our cranks trying to get airborne. Can you not distract me for the next couple of minutes, I gotta play maestro with the throttles so I don't FOD (FOD foreign object damage) my engines as we start our takeoff run.", grumped Swordsman as he watched his instruments and the road intently.
Rose just double-clicked the mic. She knew how much danger they were presently in and did not want to disturb her savior. As she leaned back in the familiar confines of the ejection seat, something in the back of her mind started to work. Ignoring it for now, Rose concentrated on watching the indicators on the panel in front of her. The professional part of her mind figuring things out and cataloging them as the aircraft barely reached its take-off speed and lifted off the ground. Adjusting to the shuddering she was feeling, Rose recognized it as the shallow buffet that could lead to a stall. She winced as her mind processed that a stall at this height would be fatal. Over the ICS, she could hear the pilot sweet-talking his aircraft.
"Come on baby! You can do it! Gimme that ground effect! Please don't stall on me now baby girl. I know you can do it. We'll stay low and in the ground effect until we have enough speed to get altitude. I know how much you hate to fly this low but please baby, gimme the speed I need.", came the murmurs from the front seat.
As the seconds ticked off, Rose could feel the plane trying to respond to its master's voice. After three minutes that felt like three hours, the shuddering smoothed out and Rose knew that the danger of stall had faded away for now. Once she was sure that her pilot could spare her a minute, Rose gave him a call over the intercom system.
"Swordsman, I want to thank you and your wingman again for saving my ass back there, both in the furball and again by risking your aircraft to land and pick us up. I'm grateful and I know my backseater is as well. My name is Rosemarie Harris-White and I'm a former Tornado pilot in the Royal Air Force. After I got out, I joined the airlines and flew for a few years before I resigned due to an incident that happened between a younger pilot and myself. After that I joined my friend, a former F-16 pilot in the USAF, in signing on with the Asranian Foreign Force with a retired Tornado I purchased with my earnings from the airline.", stated Rose in the lightly accented quiet, yet respectably demure, voice she'd learned to use as a child.
"Marcus Snow, callsign Swordsman. Formerly a captain in the Osean Maritime Air Defense Force and former deputy air wing commander aboard the OFS Kestrel. My situation is…similar to yours. At the request of an old friend of ours, some friends of mine and I decided to join up. Why don't you rest for a bit, we should be at Area 88 shortly? Riptide Flight has reported that the Fulcrums aborted their attack runs when we took off from that road. They're flying behind us to keep our six clear. Wildcat's a few miles ahead at 15 grand. Your backseater is fine, although she's asking too many questions but it's alright, Wildcat's used to it. He's a sort of ladies man but he's a helluva fighter pilot.", replied Swordsman as he glanced at the rearview mirrors attached to his canopy railing.
Trying to stifle a yawn that threatened to break out now that her adrenalin was wearing off and realizing how exhausted she was, Rose nodded and gazed through the canopy as she replayed the engagement in her mind and critiqued her maneuvers. A few minutes later, her pilot looked up at his rearview mirrors to check on his passenger and saw that she was fast asleep; he quirked up the corner of his mouth as he tried to make the remainder of the flight as smooth as possible for the exhausted woman sitting behind him.
Double Echo Tower. Exterior Walkway.
Commander Saki Vashtarl stood in his familiar place on the walkway as he waited for some of his mercenaries to return to base. Next to him, with a clipboard in his hand was his aide Leo. There was a breeze gently blowing through the sand dunes and every once in awhile a dust cloud was blown over the base. With the ever present sunglasses covering his eyes, Saki gazed down at the row upon row of airplanes spotted in the revetments. Off to the right, he could see his ace of aces, Shin Kazama, talking about some maintenance to his Tiger with Gustav, the head mechanic. Further down the line, the Thomases had procured a pair of lawn chairs from somewhere and were reclining under the wing of Edge's Super Hornet and sharing a moment of personal time. Across the way, Saki could see Ryouko Sugumo-Kazama discussing a possible future job with a few of his Hercules transport pilots. Saki sighed as he enjoyed the idyllic scene. He knew that elsewhere on the base; many of his better pilots were regaling the new pilots with tales of their daring do from the earlier war.
"I bet Greg is in there telling tall tales again, Leo. He always does this when things get slow.", commented Saki as he turned to face the younger man.
"That would be a sucker bet, commander. Even I know that Greg will be telling lies in the cafeteria. I remember my days down there as a young pilot with more balls than brains.", replied Leo with a hint of wistfulness in his voice.
Saki chuckled as he heard the wistfulness in his aide's voice. There were some times when he wished he could return to his days as a junior pilot in the Asranian Royal Air Force and sit back listening to the stories the combat veteran pilots had. He was a long way from the young, hard-charging; kick the tires and light the fire, set his hair on fire at the drop of a hat fighter pilot he used to be. Now he was the base commander at the most secret air base in his native land and had under his command some of the finest fighter and attack pilots in the entire country. Even though his men and women were mercenaries, they were the equal of any legitimate air force in their region of the world.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Saki turned and saw that his cousin 'The Virgin Baroness' had arrived on the catwalk and was waiting for a moment of his time. Saki sighed again as he remembered the directive that had came from his father shortly after Blaze Thomas and his crew had arrived. In it, his parents had expressed an interest in meeting the Ghosts of Razgriz and had planned to arrive at the base in secret for the visit. Of course this had somehow gotten around to all of the high ranking members of the military and they either raised most holy hell about it or expressed a similar interest. At the end of the letter (written by his mother), his parents expressed concern that her Excellency Baroness Kitori Palvanoff stayed in the women's barracks with the other single women on base instead of with her fiancé, the prince, in his private quarters. Surely Saki's quarters were large enough for the two of them to share so that some semblance of a home life could be expressed.
When Saki wrote back that his quarters were small and that as the senior-most officer on base he couldn't share his quarters with one of his pilots, even if she was betrothed to him; the king had sent back a brusque and to the point reply ordering him to either share his quarters with the baroness or step down as commanding officer of the base. Since he couldn't go against the wishes of the king, Saki had swallowed his anger and called Kitori in for a private meeting and informed her of the situation. When he told her of the orders, Kitori didn't as much as arch one delicate eye lash. Her reaction (or lack thereof) caught him by surprise and introduced the possibility that his cousin had gone behind his back and told her aunt about the situation. He later found out that that wasn't the case and that Kitori was truly surprised at the request. Over the next few weeks, Saki's quarters were enlarged just enough to give both of them some semblance of privacy. To keep the betrothed from sharing a bed before their nuptials, an extra bed was brought in and placed in Kitori's small wing of the commander's quarters.
The night his parents (and the rest of the annoying general staff, including the pompous messenger whom Saki had humiliated in front of Kitori a short while back) had arrived to meet the Legendary Demons of Razgriz had been a study in chaos. Totally removed from the preparations Kitori and Saki had been asked-quite genteelly in Saki's opinion-to wear their formal uniforms. Saki balked and had tossed the requesting officer out of his office. Then he had stomped down to the reception hall and told the others in no uncertain tone of voice that there was no way in hell he was wearing a formal uniform to meet his parents and if anyone of the staff officers had a problem with his decision, they could take it up with him out behind the building.
No one took the prince up on his challenge.
And the night had been a raring success. Saki pulled a fast one and had Blaze and the rest of the Razgriz launch in their Raptors and sneak up on the small business jet the king and queen were aboard just outside of the capital city and dismiss the air force escort required by the senior command. Once that had been done, the Razgriz had escorted the jet all the way to the secret base with no fanfare.
Hearing Kitori clear her throat and indicate that she had something to say, Saki gave her leave to speak.
"Commander, Swordsman and Wildcat are on their way back with Riptide after rescuing and retrieving the aircrew of Tornado 404. Wildcat is on final approach with Swordsman about a mile and a half behind. Riptide Flight is a further two miles behind protecting the two aircraft. All members of that flight should be on the ground within the next ten minutes.", stated Kitori.
"Thank you Baroness Palvanoff. Once Simon and Snow are in their revetments and shut down, have their passengers report to me for their contracts. Give the crews ten minutes then have Riptide Flight along with Mickey and Marcus report to me so we can debrief. Get the rest of Wardog, Kazama, and Aba up there as well. They may be interested in hearing this.", replied Saki.
"Yes commander."
"And baroness, after that meeting I'll be performing an inspection tour of the base."
Saki watched as Kitori's face lit up in glee before she tamped it down. He knew that she'd somehow find a way to join him during his inspection tour. Since getting used to his new roommate, Saki had taken to allowing her join his dusk inspections as he meandered around the base enjoying the brilliant desert sunsets. Turning back to face the desert, Saki caught sight of Mickey's Tomcat as its main mounts touched down in a puff of tire smoke as the rubber met the concrete and asphalt runway. In the distance he could see Swordsman's fighter making its approach. Reaching into a pocket for his ever present pack of cigarettes, Saki slipped one into his mouth and torched it to life with his lighter. Dropping his hands to his side, the Heir Quarternary of the Royal Asranian Kingdom headed inside to meet his pilots. With one last wistful look at the blue sky, he closed the door behind him and entered the building.
Revetment of Mickey Simon, Area 88. 1830 Hours.
As the canopy of his Tomcat opened, an exhausted Mickey Simon undid the belts securing him to his ejection seat and started to climb down the boarding ladder placed against the side of his Tomcat by the ground crew. Glancing back at his backseat passenger as she stretched, Mickey got an eyeful of the respectful (if slightly small) rack on the woman who'd introduced herself as 'Stiletto' Nelson. Before he could react, a pair of startlingly blue eyes sized him up with a look. Taking in the appreciative look cast his way, Mickey tightened his stomach and nodded before climbing down the ladder. Blaze and his wife Edge were the first ones to meet him as he stepped onto the pavement of the ramp.
"Hi Mickey, heard you got in to a bit of a dust up? How'd it go?", asked Blaze as he passed Simon a bottle of water.
"It wasn't too bad. The real nasty part was at the end when the Tornado got harpooned with an Adder and forced the crew to punch out. They landed about 300 yards from a hardball running through the desert. Swordsman and I landed to scoop 'em up before the enemy could. Double Echo couldn't get the rotorhead rescue jockeys in to effect a pickup. Swordsman should be landing shortly. He was a few miles behind me when he got airborne. We were just lucky to yank them outta there this time.", replied Simon as he guzzled the water to ease his thirst.
"Snow just touched down. He should be here shortly with the other crewmember.", commented a flightsuit clad Kei Nagase-Thomas.
"That's good but the commander wants to see the Four Oh Four crew first, guys. Have Snow bring his passenger up to the commander's office when he's in and shut down. Saki wants to have a chat with the newbies. He'll call for the rest of you when it's time for the debrief.", called Kitori as she strolled up in her trademark light lavender flight suit.
Behind the baroness came a small group of the female pilots who'd been in the midst of their usual stalking of Kim Aba. Since the teenager had successfully ditched them after he landed, they'd gone in search of their new target Hans Grimm. The young pilot had made a severe impression on the women and they were starting to treat him like they'd treated Aba. Just last week, Archer had returned from a late night reconnaissance mission to find his room occupied by a brunette and a redhead hiding in his closet. Taking a page from his buddy Aba's book, Hans had begged Edge and Blaze to let him crash out in their quarters for a bit. Unfortunately, the couple had other plans and Archer ended up sacking out on the floor in Snow's room.
"You guys always bring us the best things. What are you going to think of next?", commented one of the unattached pilots to Blaze while staring at the woman now climbing down the boarding ladder from the backseat of the Tomcat.
Blaze chuckled as he remembered their arrival months earlier.
Flashback
Area 88 Revetments. Three Months Ago. 1315 hours.
Blaze Thomas, formerly of the Osean Air Defense Force, climbed down the boarding ladder put against his Tigershark. In the distance he recognized the familiar long black hair and ever-present sunglasses approaching him as belonging to Commander Saki Vashtarl. The reason he and his wingmen were there had a large smile on his face as he welcomed the pilot known covertly as the King of Demons.
"Hey Saki, how's things. Nice base you got here! Where'll the four of us bunk!", asked Blaze as Saki stepped up.
"Nice to see you again Blaze, everything's fine. Thanks for the compliment, I'll be sure to pass it on to the others. You and the rest of your contingent are bunked in barracks B. Like Shin and his wife, you and your wife will have your own shared private quarters while Archer and Swordsman get the normal single room. How does that sound?", answered Saki as the other three Wardog pilots showed up.
"Fine commander, that sounds fine. Now if you'll excuse me for a moment. Hey you, yeah I'm talkin to you buddy!! Are you the groundcrew who keeps this revetment up to spec?"
"Yessir, I'm the plane captain for this revetment.", replied the sullen man.
"Good, when you download the travel pod on that hardpoint, be careful, it's got some important stuff in there. Wanna see?", stated Blaze as he ignored the rapidly shaken head while reaching into one of his flightsuit leg pockets for the church key he'd slipped in there before departing Heierlark.
Blaze went over to the crewmen taking the pod off of its hardpoint and knelt on one knee. Using a key, he unlocked the pod and situated it so that no one could see what was inside. Reaching in to the interior of the pod, Blaze called out to the pissed off crew chief.
"Anyone want an ice cold beer?", called Blaze as he tossed the frosty can he'd retrieved from the pile of ice inside the travel pod over to the bewildered man.
Seeing the confusion on the faces of the other two crewmen, Blaze reached in again and pulled out three more cans of amber richness; handing one to each of the crewmen for their trouble and appropriating the third for himself. Popping open the top of the can with his church key, Blaze tilted his head and tossed back a third of the can before telling the rapidly gathering ground crew to enjoy.
"Since we didn't know the custom and are new here, my wingies and I decided to bring you hard working people a tangible reward. Each of our planes has a travel pod filled to the top with ice cold beer. Pass 'em around, share 'em with the other pilots. But above all that, be safe and enjoy yourselves. My people and I will download the pods carrying our personal gear.", Blaze said to the roar of the crowd.
The other travel pods were quickly unloaded and divested of their precious liquid cargo. The cargo was dispersed to the eager crewdogs and none of the Wardog contingent had to unload their bags. Standing behind Blaze, Saki could only look on in amusement and humor. Blaze Thomas sure knew how to get the ground crews motivated to work on each and every plane on base with a fervor they usually had for making money. Like all of the pilots there, Blaze was expected to chip in and occasionally do his own maintenance on his Tigershark to save on costs, however, it looked like each time he did one of the groundcrew was always going to be there to supervise. Even old Gustav got in on the benefits, Blaze personally handed the older man a bottle of his favorite whiskey.
From then on, there never was a dispute between the pilots and the guys who worked on the planes. Blaze, Gustav, and McCoy conspired to import several cases of beer and booze to the base in boxes marked 'cleaning supplies'. Saki turned a blind eye to it all. As long as the pilots were happy, he was happy. Besides, he really enjoyed the gift Colonel Bartlett had sent by way of Edge.
Jack Bartlett sure knew how to pick a good bottle of Scotch.
End Flashback
"You can thank Simon and Snow for these two. I had nothing to do with them being here.", replied Blaze as he wrapped his arm around Edge and started walking away from the gathering of pilots.
Over in the PX, McCoy grinned to himself as he saw dollar signs flying through the sky. He knew that once word got around that there were two new females here, the single guys would stampede his shop to purchase gifts and trinkets for the ladies in vain hope of catching their eyes. It happened way back when Kitori Palvanoff first arrived on base all those years ago. It happened again when the new war started and many female pilots started making their way to Area 88 and again when the lovely Ryouko Kazama arrived. But from now until time eternal, the largest stampede was for when Kei Nagase-Thomas showed up with her wingmen. During that first week of her being on base, it was almost impossible for Edge to walk anywhere on base without a horde of guys following her every step of the way. It had taken a several fistfights and a mock two v ten dogfight by Edge and her husband to get the point across that she was utterly and completely off limits to the fawning men of Area 88.
Of course the attention paid to Edge by the men didn't go unnoticed by the other women on base. Some women, seeing that they were being ignored, grew insanely jealous of the former Osean Air Defense Force pilot and tried everything they could to get her to leave, but a few words and threatening glances from 'The Virgin Baroness' quelled that mutiny on the spot and halted the plans by two or three of the female pilots to steal Edge's most handsome husband from her. To this day there is one female pilot who just about runs to the other side of the room whenever Kei enters. This particular female will not speak of the events that happened the lone time she got assigned to fly as Edge's wingman on a big mission. The rumor speeding around the women's quarters was that the petite woman led her wingman into the absolute thick of the AA bursts and started dueling with both the SAM sites And the radar-guided anti-aircraft gun sites which the target was just saturated with.
When asked about that mission and the pilot in question, Edge would only smile a mysterious smile (a smile her husband and Wardog wingmen would say was reminiscent of the mysterious smile that graced Nastasya Bartlett's face) and changed the subject. When Edge changed the subject, everyone learned the hard way that she was not going to speak on it again.
2145 Hours Area 88 Cafeteria
Edge Nagase entered the cafeteria to grab a cup of coffee in preparation for a night reconnaissance mission she'd been assigned to fly. Looking around the room at the pilots hanging out and talking, the five foot six and a half inch pilot saw Kitori seated at one of the tables talking with the two new arrivals while enjoying a bowl of the delectable chocolate ice cream McCoy imported for the women of Area 88 (Kitori was one of his favorite customers when it came to ice cream orders. The weapons merchant cut a 60-40 split deal with Alicia the cook to store the cases of ice cream in the new freezer he'd ordered specifically for the ice cream) and strolled over to get acquainted.
"Hi Kitori, how's things going?", asked Kei as she placed her cup on the table and took a seat.
"Everything is fine. Just getting acquainted with the two nuggets and explaining how things go around here. How about you?"
"I'm doing fine, just getting a cuppa before going out on recon. I could use a wingman if you're interested."
"I wish I could go with you but the commander ordered me to get our newest recruits situated. Let me introduce you. Rosemarie Harris-White, Emily Nelson I want the two of you to meet the highest scoring female pilot on base, well highest scoring after me that is, Kei Nagase-Thomas. Kei, meet Rosemarie Harris-White formerly of the Royal Air Force and Emily Nelson, formerly of the United States Air Force.", stated Kitori as she finished her bowl of ice cream.
Edge shook hands with both of the women and told them that she was pleased to meet them. Both Rose and Emily replied in kind and added that they were happy to be here. Hearing the hidden hurt in Rosemarie's voice and seeing the wince she'd tried to hide, Kei glanced at Kitori and gave her a subtle nod. It was readily apparent to the Osean Ace that Harris-White was still feeling the loss of her beloved fighter. It was a pain that both Kei and Kitori could attest to.
"I'd be better if I still had my Tornado but I'm happy to still be alive. Dunno how I can help now without a fighter.", muttered Rose as she dipped her spoon into the cup of tea she'd gotten from the samovar on the counter by the coffee pot.
"Did you order one from McCoy, yet?"
"Yeah, we both gave him our orders. A Tornado F-3 for me and a late flight Block 50 F-16 Fighting Falcon for Emily. She used to be a Falcon driver back home.", commented Rose.
"Yeah, but that greedy bastard said it would take some time to find both planes and charged us three hundred grand apiece.", grumbled Emily from her seat to Kei's right.
Kitori and Kei nodded absently at the disgruntled words coming from the brown-haired woman. In the back of her mind, Kei wondered if she could get Blaze to talk to McCoy and lower the price. Running through the different scenarios in her mind, Kei saw that her plan wouldn't work since the old man had gotten wise to Blaze's attempts at circumventing him when it came to materials after Blaze slipped four million rounds of different calibers of cannon ammo in to Area 88 during an ammo shortage a month or so back. Sighing to herself at not finding a way to get the two women aircraft of their own so they could contribute, Edge noticed as Hans Grimm tried to sneak into the cafeteria to get something to eat. Giving Kitori a friendly kick under the table to get her attention, Kei subtly jerked her head at the door.
Kitori choked on what she was about to say when she saw where Kei was looking and tried to not let her gaze linger so she didn't give the young pilot's presence away to the other women in the room who had yet to notice the second target of their attentions. Repeating her words, Kitori hoped that Archer could get in and out without being noticed. It would have worked if Nelson hadn't inadvertently shifted her head towards the door three seconds after Archer entered.
Across the room, Hans 'Archer' Grimm was congratulating himself for ditching the group of women who'd been waiting for him when he'd exited the barracks to go get something to eat. He'd met up with Kim Aba (who had his own group of stalkers) and the two young men had ducked into the huge pilots lounge to elude their pursuers. Waiting for an hour or so and conversing with those pilots not out flying missions or sleeping, Archer had left to reach his final destination. Now inside the cafeteria and reveling in the fact that none of the gathered women inside had noticed him except for the baroness and Edge, Archer headed for the counter where Alicia was waiting.. He hadn't gotten three steps in the direction when his fears were realized. One of the women in the room had noticed him and was making a racket sure to draw his others stalkers in his direction.
Emily was starting to get bored with the canned welcome routine from the baroness and had allowed her mind and gaze to wander while tuning out the unnecessary words from Palvanoff. Looking around the room, Emily's attention focused on the nicely tanned young man who was just entering the room. It was readily apparent to her that the man (a pilot according to the flightsuit he wore) was trying to remain unnoticed. Bringing her eyes back to her tablemates Emily saw that both the baroness and the women introduced as Nagase had noticed the man and were trying to remain casual about it. On the other hand, Emily's friend Rose was completely oblivious to the attractive guy and was deep in thought about how she was going to afford a new fighter.
Deciding to rattle things a bit and find out why Palvanoff and Nagase were assisting the young man in his desire to remain unnoticed and to find out about him herself, Emily jumped up from her seat and-much to Edge and Kitori's chagrin-yelled to draw everyone in the room's attention.
"Oh my gawd he is so fine!! Who is he!!"
Kei groaned to herself as she saw her wingman go still as a rabbit before grabbing his plate and darting in the direction of the door. With her exceptional eyesight, Nagase saw Grimm grumble his dissatisfaction at being noticed. She agreed with his summation of the situation and repeated his words.
"Aww shit!", snapped Edge as she hurriedly rose from her seat.
With a quick glance at Kitori that spoke wonders, Kei lithely maneuvered out from her seat and started in the direction of the young man in a quest to try and beat the rest of the women in the room (who'd by now noticed Archer and were angling to catch the elusive pilot) to her old friend. With a quick toss of words over her shoulder, Kei followed Emily with a determined step. She reached the woman a few seconds after Emily reached Archer. Grabbing the back of Emily's flightsuit, Kei told Hans to find her husband and hang with him for a bit.
"Thanks Edge. I greatly appreciate it. See ya later!", replied Grimm as he hotfooted it in the direction of the barracks.
Ignoring the spluttering coming from the new arrival as she was dragged along; Kei stormed around the corner of the building and slung the other woman against the wall with a force that belied her small stature. Placing her hands on her hips and waiting for the baroness to arrive with Rose in tow, Edge gazed at Emily with a look that promised retribution. It was only interrupted when Kitori and Rose came around the corner; the former ignoring the irritated comments from the latter. Pinning Rose with a similar glare she was giving her friend Emily, Kei started in on a lecture she'd hoped to not give again.
"Okay, before we speak of anything else. There are some things that need to be straightened out. First off, there are three men here who are off limits to any and all women on base. I can tell from her attitude, Rose, that your friend is one who enjoys the company of men and has probably had numerous boyfriends and acquaintances. Am I right?", Edge started in a calm voice.
The embarrassment apparent on Emily's face was answer enough and Edge continued.
"Now as I was saying, here at Area 88 there are three men that every woman on base knows to keep away from. First off is the base commander, Commander Vashtarl. There are numerous reasons why the commander is off limits but I'll give you two. One he's the senior man on base and our boss. He's also the guy who signs our paychecks. The second reason is that the prince is betrothed. And before you ask, yes, his betrothed is here on base."
"What does the commander's fiancee do? Clean his quarters and make his meals?", growled Emily with her arms over her chest.
"Actually, I fly fighters out of Area 88 and have done so for quite a while now.", commented Kitori as she casually inspected her fingernails.
Emily kept quiet so Kei continued.
"The next man here who is off limits is my husband, Blaze Thomas. You met him earlier when you landed. He flies the lone F-20 Tigershark here. And he is the second-ranked Tigershark pilot in the world. Don't test him; he probably has forgotten more about air combat than you know. I know I have."
"Trust her when she says that ladies. Nagase was credited with over 200 aerial victories in six months of serious combat during the war between Osea and Yuktobania a few years back. Out of all the Hornet pilots in the world, she's the best. She's beat me in mock combat before and I'm considered one of the top ten female pilots in the world.", added Kitori as she leaned against the wall apparently finished with her fingernails.
Rose and Emily exchanged glances before returning their attention to the two women before them. In her mind, Rose was cursing her friend out for putting her in this predicament with her semi-man chasing ways. Rose knew that Emily didn't bed hop like some of the flight attendants they'd known during their airline careers. She just wanted a stable relationship with a nice guy. What many people didn't know about Emily (and what Rose had learned after knowing Emily for several years) was that Emily was a divorcee. Emily had divorced her husband several years ago after he'd admitted to having an affair with her former best friend for three years. It wasn't something Emily liked to talk about and Rose couldn't blame her. If she had been in the same situation, Rose could see herself being the same way. Bringing her attention back to the present, Rose listened as Nagase continued her lecture.
"The third and final man that none of the women here are allowed to make a pass at is Shin Kazama. He's the quiet pilot of the Tiger II with the Flaming Unicorn on its vertical stabilizer. He's also married and his wife is here as well. Unlike you, me, and the other women here; Ryouko Sugumo-Kazama isn't a pilot. She's a business woman and is the daughter of the owner of Yamato Airlines. She also is the head of their cargo division. Ryouko is the sweetest and classiest woman on base; just don't piss her off by going after her husband. She will make you pay for it."
Now slightly intimidated at the unspoken promise of danger if she went after any of the three men mentioned, Emily nodded at the other woman and wondered how much longer this lecture was going to go on. Luckily, Edge knew that she was needed on the flightline soon and decided to cut her lecture short. The Osean pilot said a few things about the guy who Emily had gone after in the cafeteria before finishing up and making her way to where the ground crew was prepping her Hornet for her flight. Kitori, Rose, and Emily watched Kei walk off for a bit before Kitori turned to other two and mentioned that their quarters were probably ready.
"Follow me and I'll show you to the quarters you're assigned in the women's barracks."
When the trio approached the building where the women of Area 88 (except for three exceptions) were quartered, Kitori passed them off to one of the other female pilots to show them where their rooms were. The pilot nodded in acknowledgment and introduced herself to the two new arrivals before issuing them their room assignments and showing them the way to their rooms. Emily balked at not being able to lock her room but her grievances were assuaged when she was told that the other female pilots trusted their sisters in the barracks. Rose and Emily acknowledged the comments and entered their respective rooms.
In her room Rose started to unpack her stuff and put it away where it belonged. She hung up her extra flightsuits in the closet and put her other clothes away in the dresser. When she was finished with putting her clothes away, Rose arranged the room to suit her fancy. Reaching into her bag for the last things she'd packed, Rose put the pictures of her family and former squadron mates on her dresser. The last photo she retrieved, Rose put on her desk next to the brand new laptop computer she'd bought before leaving London. The recruiters had said that the base had its own, though rarely used, internet hook ups. However, the system could only receive news from the world outside of the base so its pilots could keep up with the events in their homelands without exposing Area 88 to the world at large.
When she was finished with her unpacking and had made her bed with the provided sheets, Rose untied her flight boots and tossed them over by the door of the closet before unzipping her flightsuit and letting it drop to the floor at her feet leaving her wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt and panties. Going over to her dresser, Rose opened the third drawer and pulled out a pair of sweat pants and pulled them up over her long legs. Checking the small travel clock and seeing that it was nearing midnight, Rose turned out her light and climbed into bed. She was exhausted and had had a rough day. Wanting to be well-rested when she again talked to McCoy about ordering her a new plane later that morning, Rose went to sleep. The last thing she remembered before Mr. Sandman claimed her was looking at the lone picture frame on her desk. Situated in the frame was a picture of a younger, happier Rose in happier times with her arms around a tall, dark-skinned man wearing a brilliant ice-cream white sport coat and jeans.
"Oh where can you be, my beloved knight in dark armor. I miss you so much.", were Rose's last thoughts as she drifted off into dreamland.
0945 Hours. Next Day. Briefing Room.
Rosemarie Harris-White entered the briefing room behind a few of the other pilots and made her way over to where her friend Emily had grabbed a pair of seats for the two of them. After a short greeting, she sat down and turned her attention to the other pilots in the room. Leaning against the far wall was a short, sandy-haired pilot standing next to Emily's daring rescuer from the day before. Both were wearing flight suits and seemed at ease with their chosen location. On the other side of the aisle and two rows up was the familiar light lavender flightsuit of Kitori Palvanoff who looked to be in deep conversation with the shorter Kei Nagase sitting next to her.
Turning her head to the back of the room, Rose was able to see the six foot four Tomcat pilot who'd scooped her up off of that unmarked dirt road with his arms crossed over his chest and his head down as if he was catching up on some sleep time. Beside him in a bright orange flightsuit with red trim and writing was the man whom she took to be Nagase's husband. The quiet man was chatting with Emily's young target from the night before and a younger, dark-skinned pilot who looked to be a teenager. Rose listened as Emily gave her an info dump on the young men.
"The guy with the turban is Kim Aba. He's the youngest pilot here and flies the Harrier II. I've heard that he was only fourteen or fifteen when he first arrived years ago and started flying for this mercenary force. Next to him is Hans 'Archer' Grim; he's one of the contingent from Osea along with Edge Nagase, the woman who hassled us last night, Blaze Thomas, the guy in the orange flightsuit, and your dark knight in shining armor Swordsman Snow, an Osean naval aviator. Rumor has it that the four of them were involved in that Cerean Conflict a few years back and came back as the highest scoring aces in the theater right behind those mysterious pilots known as the Ghosts of Razgriz. The pink-haired woman sitting next to Baroness Palvanoff is Ryouko Kazama, wife of the guy standing next to Mickey Simon on that far wall.", muttered Emily quietly but with a subtle but discernable lilt of excitement in the tone of her voice.
"I see, I see. Looks like we're in good company at least or will be when we get our own aircraft and get back to flying.. Do we know what's going on and why we've been called here?", asked Rose as she stared at the front of the room where she could see the commander's aide standing with a pointer in his hand.
"Dunno, I think there's an operation being planned. Some of the other pilots have told me that this room is where the commander tells everyone about missions given to us by high command. Usually Commander Vashtarl will ask for volunteers and let the crews know if they're any bonuses for completing the mission."
Rose nodded and continued her scan of the room. She noticed a bearded pilot in a brown flightsuit was listening to the jabber of some of the younger pilots around him with the ease of someone long accustomed to such idolatry. Returning her attention to the front of the room where the aide to the commander stood organizing some papers, Rose heard the commander enter the room and make his way to the front next to the map. The various conversations died down as pilots turned their attention to the front and prepared to listen to what the commander was going to say.
At the front of the room, Saki took a moment and looked at his gathered mercenaries and felt a sense of pride. Underneath his ever-present sunglasses Saki saw that Shin had reclaimed his usual spot on the wall to his left next to Mickey. At the back of the room Saki saw Blaze Thomas standing with Aba, Archer, and Swordsman waiting for the mission information. In the middle of the group of pilots sitting in the chairs to his left front, Saki saw Edge Thomas, Ryouko Kazama, and his betrothed sitting together and frowned a bit but let it drop. Ryouko knew she wasn't supposed to sit in on these briefings but he allowed it because her presence made some of the pilots feel confident that they were going to return in good shape. Mrs. Kazama was a sort of 'good luck' symbol to some of his younger pilots.
In the group of pilots seated to his right front, Saki saw the two new pilots: Rose Harris-White and Emily Nelson sitting patiently for whatever was coming. Saki applauded their attentiveness even though neither of them was going to be flying today. Clearing his throat, Saki gave the pilots his usual greeting.
"Good morning Mercenaries. Today we have a several missions to take part in. In four hours, the army will be sending three armor brigades out to Point Yankee to shore up the forces already there holding the line against the rebels. The rebel air force has been attacking the positions of the forces already there and the high command wants us to clean it up and relieve some of the heat beating down on them. Kazama, you and your unicorn and Blaze and his dragon are to lead the assault. You'll need a mix of air to air and air to ground ordinance to clean that area up. Intel reports that there are three regiments of rebel forces engaged with the defensive brigades with two brigades in reserve. I want you to completely obliterate them.", started Saki.
"Yes sir. We'll pick our people after the briefing. What's the pay?", asked Blaze as he placed his hands on his head.
"The usual; I've been authorized to offer a bonus of 75,000 per pilot upon mission completion. Leo will have the details. The next mission is a recon in force up north by two suspected rebel air bases. Kitori, you and Edge lead a flight of four up in that area so we can find out what's going on. If there is evidence of rebel air operations, you know what to do. However, bringing that information back is top priority. I was going to assign the crew of the Strike Eagle for that mission however they're going to be needed somewhere else. Talk to Gustav and see if he can get one of the Tomcats rigged for the recon mission."
"I'll fly that mission with Edge and Kitori, commander. I'll just need a backseater to run the cameras on the TARPS Pod.", commented Swordsman as he lifted his head.
"I see. Are there any volunteers to fly in Swordsman backseat? I'll toss in an extra forty-five thousand for whoever volunteers."
Seeing no takers, Rose timidly raised her hand. Saki saw and called on her.
"I'll fly in Swordsman's backseat. I gotta do something to make some money somehow.", Rose replied.
"Good, I'll have you fly with us, Rose. Now that that is settled, let me move on to the next mission. It's going to be a rough one. Mickey you're leading those crews assigned to that mission. You already have Catfish and Coyote in the Strike Eagle as the leader of your attack group. Who else do you think you'll need? I can't give you Kim because he's needed here for defense. I have a feeling that Blaze and Shin are going to snatch Archer up. His Red Stag will be an unbeatable asset for them."
"I'll take Greg and the rest of his flight. They're accomplished attackers and everyone knows that Greg has such an intimate acquaintance with the ground that it pines for him everytime he flies. As for the rest of the top cover, put Nelson in a Tiger II and she can fly my wing. Gimme some of those Crusader pilots to round out my cover group and that should be enough.", replied Simon as he lifted his hands and shrugged his shoulders while listening to the laughter from his friendly dig at the bearded Dane.
Saki nodded and finished up after passing on some extra tidbits of information to his flight leaders. Turning everything else over to Leo so he could finish, Saki strode down the aisle and out the door. Shortly after that the pilots filtered out of the room and headed their separate ways to get ready for their respective flights. Edge caught up to Rose in the hallway and pulled her off to the side.
"Rose, see if you could ask Blaze to talk to McCoy about cutting the price of your order for a new fighter. My husband has certain….cachet when it comes to negotiating with the old fart for equipment. He already conned McCoy into calling our contact and asking for an aircraft to fill an order for the prince. Maybe, McCoy could get our contact to toss in a new Tornado for you and a Falcon for your friend. Yeah, it'll cost but the price hopefully won't be as high as it could be.", stated Edge as she patted the other woman on the shoulder.
"Alright, I'll do that. Let me grab Emily and together we'll talk to your husband and ask him to talk to McCoy. Hopefully, once I get a new fighter, I can start taking on some of the higher paying missions.", replied Rose.
"Good, now go get your new torso harness and g-suit. Swordsman is waiting for you and he's not the most patient of men.", added Edge with a smile before dashing off to meet up with Kitori to start planning their flight.
Outside the building, Snow was chatting with Blaze as the latter made his way towards the revetment where his Tigershark was being fueled and armed. Blaze carried his g-suit and harness on his shoulder while his helmet was held by the chinstrap in his left hand. Looking up at the taller pilot with a teasing grin on his face, Blaze rode Snow about his new-albeit temporary-backseater.
"She looks good Snow, damn good. Make sure you pay attention to your flying and not to much to her."
"Stifle it meathead! I know my job. Right now she's just another pilot to me, nothing more, nothing less. This is a one time thing. The commander assigned me the recon run and I'm going to get it done. Now beat it, I gotta check the TARPS pod on my bird and make sure Gustav's ground crews loaded it just right. Luckily I'll have Edge and Kitori flying top cover for me. I can't carry any weapons except my nose gun when I'm toting one of those pods."
Blaze nodded before entering the revetment his fighter was waiting. Waving at his friend and wingman, Blaze stepped over to his bird and started putting on his torso harness and wriggling his way into his g-suit. Once that was done and situated, he saw Shin talking to Gustav over by his Tiger II and headed in that direction. Meanwhile, Rose was talking to her gushing friend.
"You be careful, up there Emily. Remember the main asset of the F-5 is its maneuverability and low speed cornering. If you get drawn into a dogfight, use those assets to make it an angles fight and not an energy fight. Let the 'Cat and the Eagle handle the energy fights. You get down there with the Crusaders and make the enemy play the angles game. Also, trust that Tomcat driver; he seems as if he has a good head on his shoulders. Work as a team and guard his back as needed.", said Rose as the pair of them headed for the PX to get the necessary harnesses and g-suits.
"I know Rose. I know. I'll watch my six and flame anybody who comes up with evil in their hearts. It's been awhile since I last flew a Tiger but I believe I can still remember how to handle one. On your mission let the big guy do the driving, you just get the pictures the commander needs and get outta there. The two of you will be for all intents and purposes unarmed. Continuously check your radar for bogies and be aware that there may be a hellacious air defense system guarding your target.", replied Emily as they entered McCoy's domain.
An hour later, the D model Tomcat carrying Rose launched on its mission.
Tigershark Zero-One-Six. Airborne over southern route to target.
Blaze Thomas checked his switches and made sure his missiles were armed and hot before securing his oxygen mask to his helmet with a gloved hand. Glancing out the port side of his cockpit, he could see the three other fighters in his flight as they maneuvered. He could tell that the Phantom flying his wing was at maximum military speed from the dark exhaust trail that all but disappeared when the big J-79's were put into afterburners. The Viggens to his left were cruising sedately at a more moderate speed but still managing to keep up. Checking his radar, Blaze saw the contacts that were Shin's flight (Shin's Tiger II along with an elderly F-8 Crusader in dire need of an overhaul, and a Falcon with an old F-100 Super Saber as his wingman.).
Blaze also checked up on the flights of A-7 Corsair II's, A-6 Intruders, A-4M Mongooses (souped up A-4 Skyhawks that were a dream to fly according to Greg), F-105 Thunderchiefs (a.k.a. Thuds), and A-10 Warthogs with their JAS Draken backups as they organized themselves in preparation to attack on Shin's command. Flexing his fingers on his control stick, Blaze prepared himself for the upcoming battle.
"Zero-Zero section to all flights, target's in sight; double check your switches and keep your eyes peeled, Little Sammy reports intermittent contacts to the north. Inferno Flight, I suggest you break west for a few klicks then back south to avoid them and set up for your runs. Take half of the attackers with you while the other half stays with me. We'll make this an all points attack from every conceivable direction. Blaze, confirm and identify those intermittent contacts as they bear. Weapons free on all radar contacts.", radioed Shin as he waggled his wings and got his wingmen to move into a combat spread.
"Copy that Zero-Zero section. Inferno Flight; break left and gain some altitude. Buccaneer flight follow suit. Privateer flight, follow Zero-Zero section. Alright guys and gals you heard the boss. Let's go find out who's snooping around to the North. Watch yourselves, they may be reinforcements for the rebel units engaging our forces.", stated Blaze as he moved his stick smoothly to the left and back so as to gain the height advantage.
Blaze listened as his wingmen acknowledged and allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. These pilots, some of them flying vastly outdated aircraft, were equivalent to some squadrons in the O.A.D.F. After three months of flying with these modern day barnstormers, he could trust them to act recklessly on the ground yet be professional in the air. Bringing his thoughts back to the mission at hand, Blaze increased his speed.
Twenty minutes later, he was listening as Shin and his flight of four ran into what he described as an umbrella of MiG's flying top cover for the rebels and slashed through them on their way to the target. Blaze knew that Shin and the survivors of his attack would face the same fighters as they egressed but without the added weight of the bombs, Shin and his surviving attackers would be more than a match for the remaining rebels.
"I'm wondering where the new stuff is though. From Shin's reports it's apparent that his group is running into the Fishbeds, Frescoes, Fagots, and Fitters. Where the hell are the Floggers, Fencers, Fantans, and Frogfoots? Are they the intermittants in my sector that Little Sammy reported? Or are we gonna run into the Flankers, Floggers, Fulcrums, and Mirages? This ain't good. Inferno Flight listen up: I want everyone to move into a combat spread. Zero-Zero Section has engaged enemy air forces however, from the sound of it, it's not the forces we were expecting. I want sharp eyes on every sector of sky and if you see anything, don't be afraid to sing out. Buccaneer Flight, I need you to pour on the coals and press on to the target. I know that we're supposed to be attacking from every axis but scope out the target upon your arrival and adjust your attack vectors accordingly. Something ain't right here. Inferno Two-One you and Two-Two cover Buccaneer as they make their run. Inferno One-Two and I will hang back and watch for the sucker punch. Keep a wary eye on those intermittent bogies to our ten o'clock. They might be the ones Little Sammy was warning us about. If they make a run and we can get an ID, we'll cover your six. Buccaneer, this is a one pass, haul ass strike. Once your ordinance is dropped, get low, get fast, and follow the Thuds out. With their bombs gone, they can't be caught by the MiG's presently defending the target. If the enemy start tracking, I want you hemorrhaging ECM.", radioed Blaze as he flexed his fingers again.
"Inferno Two-One copies.", responded the leader of his second element
"Buccaneer Lead copies.", added the Attack Package Leader in his gaily decorated Corsair II.
Blaze double clicked his mic in acknowledgement before climbing to a higher altitude with his wingman and watched as the pair of Viggens accelerated off into the distance. Several miles behind them came the hard-charging mini-Crusader containing the leader of his attack package. Shaking his head at the dire thoughts that were starting to float through his mind, Blaze wondered how Shin was doing at the moment.
At the same time as Blaze sent his flights ahead to strike the target, Shin was putting a Sidewinder up the ass of a persistent MiG-19 Fagot that had been pestering him with his activities. Shin's flight of fighters had sliced through the enemy formation like a dose of salts through a goose and created a wide enough hole so that the remaining attack package could get through with a reasonable chance of success. At the outset, he'd wanted to blast through, drop his load of bombs, and fight his way out. Unfortunately the enemy had other ideas. The minute his easily recognizable Tiger II crashed the line, he and his wingmen had been jumped by several rebel fighters who forced Shin to jettison his bombs and deal with them. Shin had made two of those pay for their misplaced valor with matching Sidewinders while his second element continued with their mad dash towards the target and his wingman turned to cover his tail.
Shin watched emotionless as the persistent bugger was blotted out of the sky in a sizeable explosion before turning on the Fishbed that was spitting bullets in his direction. The blonde Japanese national chanced a glance at the green and yellow vertical stabilizer of the old Crusader of his wingman and smothered a grin as the old plane lived up to its nickname 'The MiG Master'. With four cannons spitting out 20MM shells at a still frighteningly respectable rate, the Crusader shredded the Fresco he'd been stalking.
"Hey Bug Juice, you alright over there in that old bird?", Shin radioed his wingman.
"But of course messieur Tiger II. Thees low-born fools have forgotten ze nickname of my beloved old bird. Even with my engines in need of an overhaul, I can still give these enemies, those that live that is, nightmares.", came the French-accented English of his wingman Etienne Claus.
Shin chuckled to himself under his oxygen mask. As a former Crusader pilot himself, Shin knew that in its element, there wasn't much from its era of aviation that could beat The Last of the Gunslingers. Checking his watch, he saw that his attack package should be returning from their attack shortly. In the distance, he could see the dark clouds of smoke boiling up from the ground signifying that at least some of the rebel vehicles had been hit. Glancing around and seeing that he wasn't the present target of anyone, Shin radioed Blaze.
"Zero-Zero section calling Inferno Lead, come in Inferno."
"Inferno lead copies Zero-Zero Section. What do you want, Shin, I'm busy over here.", came Blaze's reply.
Shin could hear the gasps and groans as his Osean friend compensated for the g's affecting him as he maneuvered for a shot.
"Just checking on your attack package to see if they'd hit the target yet. Privateer has delivered the goods but it doesn't look as if they hit the target hard enough."
"Buccaneer has reached the initial point and is rolling in to attack. Give it some time; they got bounced as they approached the IP. Inferno Two-One and Two-Two are covering them. My wingman and I are engaged with a quintet of nasties that are giving us a run for our money. Looks like Fantans and Fencers are here playing watchdog. I don't like it though, we're in Flanker and Fulcrum territory and yet we haven't seen nary a one of those. Makes me worry that Buccaneer Flight and Inferno Two-Two are gonna run into a gauntlet as they egress."
"I concur with your assessment, this doesn't look good. I had to jettison my load to fight. Still, I got maybe one missile and a three-quarter load for my nose guns so I can hang in a bit longer but only until Privateer Flight completes their egress. Then I'll have to bugout. Hopefully I'll have enough internal fuel to return to Double Echo."
"Yeah, I understand ….shit on a friggin shingle; where in the hell did the fucking rebels get Forgers? Awww ducknuts, this blows whale chunks! Zero-Zero section sorry to cut you short but I gotta go. A flight of Yak-38 Forgers are joining the festivities and I gotta protect my attack package. Inferno Two, forget that damn Fishbed and waste that damn Forger, he's more of a threat right now! We'll continue this later Zero-Zero section; Inferno One, out."
Shin looked at his radar screen and started counting as the first Mongooses of Privateer Flight sped away from the target. From his position up high, he could see that the nimble subsonic aircraft had the throttles firewalled so they could all out. Behind them came the two seat Intruders with their bulbous noses and exposed refueling probes. Shin gave the escaping jets a call.
"Zero-Zero section to Scooter at my nine o'clock for thirty, can you give me an assessment?"
"Scooter to Zero-Zero section, we hit the place but didn't have time to get a BDA. As soon as we dropped the sky lit up with flak and MANPADS aplenty. We lost a couple of Scooters and a 'Truder but the rest made it out. The Hogs and Sluf's dropped and decided to strafe to give the rest of the Scooters and Intruders a chance to escape. The Drakens are high cover but that's not a guarantee of safety. One of the 'Truder's spotted what looked to be tracks for a SAM trailer leaving the area but wasn't able to confirm."
"Copy that, Scooter. If you have any 20MM remaining I need you to cover the Intruders on your six from ground based attacks. They don't have cannons and can't shoot back. Thanks for your sitrep. I'll contact Privateer Lead and see if I can get an assessment from him. He's in Sluf 305 and according to you, the Sluf's should still be strafing. See you at home, Scooter."
"Yes sir. See you at home. We'll protect the Intruders with us the best we can sir and we'll open up the bar upon arrival. Good luck, Zero-Zero Section."
Shin clicked his mic twice and returned to the fight. Dropping in behind another MiG that was working to get a lock on the Crusader pouring 20mm fire into the belly of his wingman, Shin fired a burst from his cannons. Seeing the bright flashes where his armor piercing incendiary rounds struck the enemy and correcting his aim, Shin fired again and walked his next burst from the rear fuselage to the middle of the wing. A dirty black cloud preceded a brilliant orange and yellow flash that lit up the sky as his enemy's plane blew up rather spectacularly.
"Thanks Messieur Unicorn, that blighter of a pest was becoming a bit of a bother. Now I can concentrate on the batard in my sights.", called Etienne as he pulled the trigger and sprayed his target with about thirty rounds.
"Copy that. Now hurry up and finish him off. The rest of Privateer should be blasting through here any minute. And I still need a bomb assessment."
On the other side of the battlefield, Blaze was gritting his teeth and trying to cancel the check on the leader of the Forger flight but he was having a hard time doing so. Blaze knew that the Yak-38 Forger and its successor the Yak-141 Freestyle were the Russian and Yuktobanian answers to the venerable Sea Harrier, Harrier, and Harrier II. Although they weren't as technologically advanced as their opposites in western countries, the Forgers and Freestyles did have an advantage over the Harriers: they were faster and could break the sound barrier albeit not by much. Those pilots used to fighting against the subsonic Harrier would have a hell of a time dealing with the Forger.
Blaze had already downed two of the semi-nimble fighters while his wingman had morted another. When Inferno Two defeated his Forger with a close-range missile shot, Blaze had sent him in to cover the pair of Viggens with his attack package. He figured that they needed the extra help over the enemy positions and the Phantom crew could strafe targets of opportunity as it performed its dance of speed and death.
"Come on baby, lock up on this bastard!! I need to get over there and he's causing me to be late for this date. Damn he's good! Lock up, lock up, lock up, lock up….yeah I gotcha!! Fox Two Fox Two, Missile Away!", yelled Blaze as he fired his last Sidewinder and watched it track unerringly to its target and struck it dead on in the fuselage where the lift engine was buried.
Blaze caught a glimpse of the canopy blowing off the Forger as its pilot rode the rocket seat and escaped the fiery object that had been his fighter half a second before. Seeing no enemies around, Blaze pushed his throttle into Zone 5 and hurried towards the now heavily smoking target area to contribute however piecemeal and get an assessment of the damage caused by their ordinance. He knew that he was risking his remaining fuel supply, but Blaze also knew his Tigershark inside and out and he bet he could milk it for all its worth and return to Area 88 to land with maybe thirty pounds of fuel left.
F-15C Eagle Airborne. 1200 Miles Away.
Hans Grimm barrel rolled his fighter to avoid the burst of fire from the Su-33 Super Flanker that had dove into the furious furball over the target. He forced the Flanker to overshoot and speed past him before banking in behind the enemy and firing a burst from the cannon mounted in his right wing. Archer saw his tracers fall behind the Flanker as it broke hard left and cursed his miss. Checking his radar and comparing it to what he could see outside of his cockpit, the young pilot saw that Mickey was launching another missile at a rapidly departing Mirage 2000.
Archer observed the dark cloud from the missile hit before looking around for another target. He'd been surprised when Shin and Blaze hadn't picked him for their attack mission and allowed him to fly with Mickey instead. It had been a kind of reward from the two aces to allow him to earn more flying in a position of seniority as the number two in charge of the fighter cover.
"Rampage, Boner chase off those Fulcrums, otherwise Greg's assault group is gonna be massacred as they roll in! Catfish, you and Coyote take out the remaining gun emplacements! They took out several of the attackers before they could even hit the IP! Some of our people in damaged machines gotta fly right back over that area to depart the area! I want them to be able to dash through there after they come off target!! Nelson get after those dammed Mirage F-1's they've become quite the annoyance! Greg, what's the word?", growled Archer over the radio.
"We've engaged those -29's. Scratch two, got two left!" – retorted Rampage from his Falcon.
"Most of the gun emplacements are out of commission. We gotta make another pass to get the remainder!" - replied Catfish as his backseater reported the decreasing range.
"Ha, those Mirages are running! Cowardly bastards! Oh wait, they're reengaging. I'll take care of them." – Nelson
"Archer we got owned. Those dammed guns took out a third of my force before we even hit the target! We're dropping now but it looks like the damage ain't gonna be much. The remainder of the attack squad is hauling ass after their loads come off. Oh yeah, we got a massive secondary!! We're gonna make tons of cash with that hit!! Archer, I'll see if those of us who have guns can make a strafing run on the target!" - called Greg as he rolled in to pickle off his remaining thousand pound bombs.
"No Greg, don't strafe, you and the remnants of your flight will be diced to pieces by the remaining flak cannons. Just roll in, drop your eggs, and escape to the south at max speed. Catfish will cover you once he's done. I think he still has some air to air missiles left.", Mickey cut in as he dealt with another rebel fighter.
The Skyhawk pilot double clicked his mic and firewalled his throttles as he jinked to and fro to avoid the bullets being hurled his way. Seeing that he couldn't climb without getting hammered by the flying lead and he couldn't stay on the path he was because it was suicide to stay at the same altitude for more than a minute, Greg did the only thing he could and dove his aircraft until he was flying beneath the roof level of some of the buildings in the area. The enemy gunners on those building had to fire down on his plane as he passed at over 500 knots. Often times they missed and hit the building across the way from them but sometimes their rounds connected.
Greg growled his displeasure at being so low. His poor Skyhawk was getting peppered with lead. Keeping his throttles pinned, Greg yanked his control stick back into his gut and sent the nimble little plane screaming for altitude. Alternately jamming his feet down on the rudder pedals allowed him to maneuver in an unpredictable manner and escape relatively unscathed from the valley of lead. Checking his instruments with eyes trained by years of experience in such situations and a flying sense that could tell him what was wrong with his plane by the tiniest little jolt, Greg saw that even though he'd taken a few rounds, his Scooter would be able to make it home to the roost for repairs.
"Man I oughta have Gustav upgrade my Skyhawk to Mongoose specs so I won't find myself in a similar situation. I almost didn't make it through that crowd.", commented Greg as he proceeded to put some distance between him and the target.
In his Tomcat, Mickey checked his radar and saw that all of Greg's Squad who'd survived the attack had made it out and were on their way home. Looking out of his cockpit for his wingmen, Simon saw that the members of his flight were the only aircraft remaining in the sky as the bloodied rebel forces bugged out to fight another day. Pointing the nose of his aircraft in the direction of home and increasing his speed, Simon mentally tallied the losses his group had sustained against the damage they'd inflicted. What he came up with depressed him. They had done quite a bit of damage, yes. But the price had been extremely high. Some of the casualties had been around for awhile and their experiences and expertise were going to be sorely missed.
"Shin and I may need to talk Saki into having Blaze and the rest of the Razgriz to start flying escort missions. With their experience the four of them would increase the survival rate of the pilots they're protecting by at least twenty percent. Moral will be going down with the losses we sustained today and on other missions. A victory is what is needed to boost the morale of the rest. If they see that the Razgriz are still carrying the fight to the enemy, the pilots will be inspired to continue doing what they do with the knowledge that death lurks around every corner.", thought Mickey as he continued his journey home.
1732 Miles East of Simon's Position.
Kei 'Edge' Nagase-Thomas kept her head on a swivel as her flight approached the area to be reconed. The day was beautiful and so far it had been a milk run. Over in her Super Hornet, Kitori had been bitching about the lack of action on this mission. Kei guessed that it was the lack of another kind of action that was grating on the nerves of the baroness. Shifting her gaze over to the Tomcat with the distinguished looking but shabbily dressed fedora wearing figure on its port side vertical stabilizer, Nagase couldn't help but grin at Snow's chosen tail art. She knew that it was the insignia of his first squadron but it looked so ridiculous to her.
Letting her thoughts wander to the woman who'd volunteered to fly in Swordsman's backseat, Kei wondered if she was really up to the task before her. She'd recognized the tall woman as one of the two she had explained the facts of Area 88 life to the night before and it looked like the lesson had taken well. Glancing at the mission clock and mentally comparing it to the watch on her wrist, Kei called Kitori on the radio.
"Kitori, this is Edge, looks like we're slightly ahead of schedule. Why don't we set up so Snow can make his photo run? It looks quiet; hopefully it'll stay that way.", Kei stated as she banked her Rhino and set up an orbit just north of the town.
"Yeah, however, if things go wrong, I got a full house of 'winders and -120's to give whomever crashes the party.", replied Kitori cheekily.
"Alright you two, stop your yammering!! I'm gonna need full concentration on this and between you and Ms. Trigger Happy over there, it ain't gonna happen. Freelancer 110, remember I'm unarmed here and will be going at Mach 2+ to get these pictures. You think you can keep up as I make my run, youngster?", commented Snow as he aimed his plane at the target thirty-five miles distant.
"Geez old man; even with my weapons load I can keep up with you any day of the week. You get the pictures and I'll make sure you have a nice MiG free day.", returned Nightewolfe Smith as he positioned himself behind and to the right of the other Tomcat.
"Great, everyone's a comedian now.", mused Marcus as he started his run.
"Photodawg One starting my run", radioed Snow as he lit his burners and angled towards the target.
In the backseat, Rose was rapidly flipping switches to activate and focus the cameras in the TARPS pod so that the pictures could be studied by the Area 88 analysts to see what the rebel forces were preparing to do. Before take-off, Swordsman had given her a basic lesson about the camera pod as well as what each switch did. During the flight, Rose had played with the system until she'd become fairly proficient in its use. Now as the Tomcat she was riding in sped towards the target area she programmed and activated the system. Rose also told the system to send any photos that caught her eyes (such items of interest as weapons, people, aircraft, etc.) to her screen where she could peruse them and start her own analysis while still snapping pictures.
Keeping her eyes peeled for any suspicious activity as well as any unidentified contacts that showed up on her radar screen, the former Tornado pilot allowed herself a moment of peace.
Over in Freelancer One-One-Zero, Nightewolfe Smith and his backseater followed their element lead as he blasted along at about Mach 2.25. With his pilot busy trying to keep them from dropping too far below the briefed altitude, Gavin 'Big Eyes' Talvert studied the radar screen for any airborne contacts other than their wingmen. So far the screen was as clear as day. There was a commercial flight cruising just outside the contested airspace heading away from Tel Aviv but it looked to be of no consequence. Glancing down at his kneeboard, Talvert compared the callsign of the flight to the list he'd written down before they'd launched and confirmed that it was a commercial Lockheed L-10-11 Tristar flying at four hundred sixty knots as it climbed to its assigned altitude at 32,000 feet. He lifted an eyebrow when he saw that the aircraft belonged to the cargo division of Yamato Airlines.
"Hey Wolfe, it looks like one of Ms. Ryouko's cargo aircraft is busy transporting goods hither and yon.", Talvert passed up to his pilot.
"Really? Cool! Where is it?", replied Wolfe as he continued maneuvering his plane to keep up with Swordsman Snow.
"Radar has him at bearing 285 for three hundred miles. It looks like he's climbing to flight level thirty-two. He's no factor to us, flying out over the gulf like that."
"Good, my hands are full enough up here. I don't need a bus driver stumbling into this war and getting shot down. That would not be good."
Gavin nodded as he took a sip of water from one of the baby bottles sitting in one of his flightsuits pockets. Gustav and his mechanics were gracious enough to fill them up for every pilot on base and dispense them from a freezer thirty minutes before each pilot sortied. Sometimes they filled the bottles with iced tea, lemonade, kool-aid, or Gatorade. Other times they were filled with water. Each pilot had three bottles with their names on them and usually gave the ground crew a list with their preferred liquid refreshment when they returned from a mission. Gavin grumbled in annoyance when he remembered that the -105's with Blaze and Shin had a bottle and a hose to suck on while in flight while he and his pilot had to make due with baby bottles.
"Hey boss, when we get back; think you can ask Gustav to add a couple of bottle holders to our cockpit to hold a larger bottle of water when we fly? These baby bottles ain't cuttin' it. I always run out of water way before my thirst dies.", commented Big Eyes as he kept one eye on the sky and one eye on the radar screen.
"Sure, I'll talk to him about it. It'll probably cost us though. Maybe we can talk to one of those Thud drivers into letting us get a peek inside his cockpit to take a look at how their bottle holders are arranged. That'll help a lot. I know exactly how you feel.", replied Nightewolfe from up front.
Three miles away from the speeding Tomcats, the two Hornets of Kei and Kitori were lazily inscribing arcs in the sky as they waited for the reconnaissance run to finish. So far they hadn't been challenged by any enemies and were patiently biding their time. Like Talvert, The two women had taken notice of YAL Six-Five-Six Heavy as it went about its flight path. Kitori had made a comment to her friend that had Kei laughing at the subject of the matter.
"I wonder what Ryouko would say if she knew that one of her companies' Tristars was flying just in the area? You think she'd check her schedule of flights to see if the crew was on time or not?", snorted Kitori as she maneuvered her aircraft around the sky.
"Actually Kitori, I'd wonder more about what her employees would say if they found out she was here in Asran. Now those would be the reactions to see.", returned Kei as she again checked her radar for enemy contacts.
Securely situated in her cockpit, Edge was a bit concerned about the lack of activity in the area. According to Intelligence, these two airbases were supposed to be hotbeds of rebel activity. That alleged activity is what this recon flight is supposed to be finding out. Not letting her concerns slip into her voice, Edge mentioned her observations to Kitori. Not surprisingly, Kitori was worried as well but hid her concerns a bit better.
"These two airfields have no protective CAP flying overhead. We aren't getting painted by any fire control radars nor are we even getting a verbal challenge from the enemy. They can't miss who we are and what we're doing here so why aren't they watching this area better?", asked Kitori.
"There are only two reasons I can think of that the enemy wouldn't have air cover. One is that the believe we aren't enough of a threat even though we are getting photographic Intel of our own or the pilots at those airfields are so good that they're waiting for us to finish our mission and head for home.", replied Kei as she saw the blips on her radar that stood for the two Tomcats trying to get as many pictures as possible.
In her mind, Kei thought of one other reason why they weren't being attacked by the rebels on the ground. Someone high up in their command structure could be attempting to get intelligence on the quartet of planes flying in their area to report to somebody. It wasn't the greatest leap of faith to imagine that the Belkan aces who'd escaped the clutches of both the Osean and Yuktobanian Intelligence organizations after the war were observing them as they flew, seeing if their most hated enemies had been contacted by a representative of the Asranian Kingdom to come fly and fight for Asran.
"If that's what's going on, then somewhere below us is Mobius and he's just watching us. Biding his time until his analysis is done. Damn, damn, damn, damn!! If we're attacked now, I can't fight like I usually due. If I did, that would be a big flashing red neon sign to that gold-helmet wearing bastard that we're here. Aghh, Crappola!", mentally fumed Edge as she hoped Swordsman had come to the same realization she had about the lack of activity.
In his Tomcat, Swordsman was getting a not so fresh feeling as he continued his flight. He'd been listening as Rose had narrated the photo run as the pictures showed up on one of her repeater screens as the pod took a photo. Like Edge, Marcus had also come to the conclusion that somebody was observing the flight and gathering information on the pilots. Swordsman had said as much to his temporary backseater as they finished their third run over the two airfields separated by at respectable distance. Yet Marcus noticed that, due to the orientation of the fields, two squadrons from each base could cover both airfields in a pinch if need be. That did not bode well for any attack attempt on either field. The attackers would just be overwhelmed by the defending fighters the minute they were detected.
"If Saki and the rest of the Asran High Command wanted either of these airbases taken care of, those attacking would have to use stealth fighters to get past the radar so that none of the defenders could scramble in time to protect either field.", thought Swordsman as he brought his aircraft around to begin his fourth and final recon run over the target.
Marcus' musings were cut short when Rose piped up from the backseat.
"I'm glad that we're almost finished here. This has probably been the most nerve racking mission I've ever had the honor of being on. No enemy fighters to challenge us. No paints from a fire control radar system, no nothing. It's abnormal."
"Yeah, I know. The only action I've seen is the take-offs of several helicopters including one Mi-24 Hind. And it took off casually as if it was just an everyday thing for that helo crew. Stuff like that makes me worried that we're gonna have a helluva greeting party when we turn towards Double Echo.", commented Marcus in reply as he cast another look around his instrument panel.
"I know that feeling real well.", returned Rose as she shifted her attention to the radar.
A few minutes later, the run was finished and Swordsman came out of burner. His sprints in Zone Five during each run had reduced his fuel level to maybe 1300 pounds above bingo. That extra bit of gas would give him enough fuel to return to Area 88 with maybe some left over. Leaning back in his ejection seat and taking his hands off the controls, the six four pilot flexed his fingers to get the blood flowing through them smoothly again.
While her pilot was flexing his fingers, Rose was tuning the radar system to show any threats in the immediate area. She called over to Big Eyes Talvert in the backseat of their compatriot Tomcat and requested any bogey information they had. When the call came back that there were no aerial bogeys, Rose switched the radar to Pulse Doppler mode and tasked it to search the area. Once that was done, she switched the TARPS pod from active to standby in preparation for shutting it off upon their return to Double Echo.
"Swordsman to Edge: Mission Complete. Photodawg One returning to base. "
"Copy that Photodawg One. We'll rendezvous on your flight as you pass by. Remember to keep altitude separation so we deconflict. Kitori and I will remain at angels 45 and keep an eye on your six."
"Copy that. Thanks Edge. I'll keep my flight at angels 37 so we're out of your way. Swordsman out."
"Edge out."
At thirty four thousand feet of altitude, Edge rocked her wings. Kitori saw the motion and acknowledged it with a double click of her mic. Moving her aircraft a mile away and fifteen hundred feet above her flight lead, Kitori waited for the pair of Tomcats to come zipping by at or around five hundred knots. When they sped by, their gleaming grey bodies enhanced by the colorful vertical stabilizers glinting in the sun, the baroness took a moment to observe what some called the best fighter in the world in its natural element. Bringing her attention back to the job at hand, Kitori followed her flight lead when they reversed course and settled in behind the pair of Tomcats about a mile or so in trail.
Still keeping her attention on her radar screen while flying, Edge hoped her husband's mission went well. Ever since their arrival, whenever she wasn't flying with Ian, Kei worried about his welfare. She kept her worries to herself behind a mask of little emotion but her friends could always tell her state of mind when Blaze was flying. Ryouko Kazama was exceptionally well at seeing through Kei's mask. Kei figured that the heir to Yamato Air Lines could see her own worry about her husband mirrored in Kei's eyes.
"And I know it's harder for her because she's not a pilot. At least I can fly and know what Blaze faces; Ryouko doesn't know the exhilaration Shin feels when he's flying. Or maybe she knows of the exhilaration but not to the extent that her husband does. Ha, look at me, worrying like this when I need to be concentrating on the rest of this mission.", mused Kei as she kept a watchful eye on the radar and the airspace around her small flight of four.
A few minutes later, Rose was tiding up the notes she'd taken during the TARPS pod run so that the intel wienies back on base wouldn't have to do as much work when preparing the inevitable briefing for an upcoming attack on the two airbases when something outside the cockpit caught her eye. She was about to dismiss it as an anomaly when the voice of her pilot ripped across the cockpit intercom system.
"Rose, activate the TARPS pod now!! We just stumbled overran unknown rebel AA site out in the middle of nowhere!! There's nothing out here and yet this site is protecting something! I wanna know what it is and I wanna know now!!", yelled Swordsman as he reefed his Tomcat into a 4G bank at over 600 knots.
"What anti-aircraft site are you talking about, I don't see shit!!", Rose snapped back as she flipped the necessary switches to the TARPS pod slung underneath the massive fighter.
Before Swordsman could answer, the RHAW gear went off with its trademark strident tone telling them that some lucky SOB had them targeted on radar. Grunting against the sudden onslaught of g-forces from the bank, Rose heard her pilot calmly calling their wingmen over the radio.
"Lancer One-One-Zero, Photodawg One; hey Night, are you up?", Marcus radioed.
"I can't talk now Photodawg One. Pop-up bandits roaring in from four o'clock low about 30 miles out. Working to get position for a Fox One on the leader; the trailer is hanging back..", replied Nightewolfe as he maneuvered to set up the AMRAAM shot.
"Watch yer ass Lancer. And watch that rebel pilot! We may be facing a sucker play. I just got tagged by an unknown radar system and I'm wondering why the blasted rebels would have a site out here. There's nothing here but sand, sand, and more sand. Something's not right and I don't like it one bit!", griped Snow as he manhandled his Tomcat around while waiting for his backseater to let him know that the TARPS pod was up and running.
Somebody on the ground must've figured out what the circling Tomcat was setting up for because all of a sudden the bright sky turned dark as several flak guns opened up and unleashed a murderous barrage in Snow's direction. Marcus gritted his teeth in anger as he tried to escape the deadly blasts. He evaded some, suckered the others with chaff and flares, and plain outflew the remainder. Unfortunately, as he straightened out from his last jink in preparation for making a photo pass, some lucky sonuvabitchin' rebel gunner lead his Tomcat perfectly and fired. Some of the 23mm rounds from the lucky burst stitched the aft fuselage of the Tomcat.
Marcus heard a cry of pain from his backseater and his insides went cold. Gripping his HOTAS controls tighter, the six' four'' Tomcatter called his RIO on the intercom. He feared the worst when he at first didn't hear any response but when he heard a blistering stream of curses coming back at him (strangely enough, he was able to hear them over the roar of his engines), the Eternal Swordsman almost sighed in relief. Steeling his emotions and returning to the job at hand, Snow called Edge and Kitori.
"Edge, Swordsman. I've been hit but it doesn't seem too bad, however, I got a heretofore unknown target in sight and I'm getting ready to re-start my photo-run. The good news is that I don't think they'll be expecting it. The bad news is, I gotta come back around to the same course and the bastard who popped me knows where I'm going to finish. Can you suppress the ground fire?"
"Swordsman, Edge. Kitori and I can't suppress shit. The minute those ack-ack guns started shooting the shit outta everything, we got bounced by some bad guys. Wolfe, can you suppress the flak for Swordsman?", replied Edge as she avoided another burst of 30mm gunfighter coming from the Flanker that had dove down to try and blot her from the sky.
"Edge, I'm boxed in over here so that's a big negatory. I got a Flogger-J and Flogger-D trying to prove which of our swing-wing designs is superior. So far it's an even match. I'm on the defensive but these guys really suck at knife-fighting.", droned Nightewolfe as he neatly slid his Tomcat around and dropped onto the tail of the MiG-27 that had come screaming past him at full-bore.
Swordsman gritted his teeth in anger. Here he was with the mutha of all TARPS targets and he doesn't have any protection against the radar sites that were painting his aircraft. This was something he did not like, no sir. To survive this battle, he was going to have to so far outside the box, the box was smashed. Inverting his 'cat, Marcus pulled for the sky to try and escape the bursts going off around him. There was only one thing he could do and to do it, he needed altitude.
In the backseat, Rose dealt with the flesh wound caused by a piece of shrapnel that had punctured the cockpit and grazed her collarbone. She was praising the gods who protected fighter pilots by slowing the shrapnel just enough so that all it caused was a shallow, yet bloody, furrow. After being shocked into silence by the pure audacity of the gunner to shoot at her, the Blue Rose of Highbury cut loose with a stream of the vilest invective she could. Unzipping her flightsuit part of the way, Rose retrieved her trusty bandana from its usual spot, balled it up, and stuck it over the cut to soak up the blood before rezipping her flightsuit and snarling as she listened to the news coming over the radio.
Her snarl was cut short when, Swordsman brutally flipped the aircraft inverted and going ballistic. Her eyes widened as she realized what her pilot was doing.
"An inverted Immelman at this speed, damn you're good!!", retorted Rose in a harsh tone so unlike her usual timbre.
"Baby, I got so many moves, I could outfly the Red Baron, Saburo Sakai, Pappy Boyington, Boots Blesse, Robin Olds, And Duke Cunningham with one armed tied behind my back!!", returned Swordsman cockily as he reached the top of the Immelman.
In the two Hornets and the other Tomcat, eyes rolled and crews snickered at the prideful boasting.
A feral grin appeared on Rose's face before she replied saucily.
"Alright Loverboy, show me whatcha got!! If you're as good as you say, wanna hook up when we land?"
Marcus didn't reply, he just double clicked his mic in the universal pilot acknowledgment when one was too busy killing snakes in the cockpit. Unbeknownst to either the pilot or his RIO, one of them had inadvertently keyed the wrong switch and their suggestive conversation poured out over the communications system. Over in her Rhino, Kitori finished dispatching one of those annoying Flankers and had chuckled as the heard the barely restrained lust emanating from the nuggets' voice. Looking over at her wingman, the Virgin Baroness saw Edge shaking her head.
At their home base, the last of the pilots from the separate missions had landed and were piling into the radio room to hear the outcome of the surprise battle. Saki lifted one aristocratic aquiline eyebrow as his aces laughed at the heated words. Just inside the doorway, 'Stiletto' Nelson wrapped an arm around Archer's neck and planted a big fat juicy kiss on his cheek. The poor boy blushed so hard that Saki thought he was gonna pass out. Looking at the shorter pilot, he saw that her eyes were sparkling with relief and excitement. He was about to question her about it when she pumped her fist in the air and yelled.
"That's my girl!! No more of your hiding behind propriety crap!! Go after what you want with da gusto!!"
Back at the developing battle, Snow had finished his maneuver and was roaring back down the course he had been taking when his bird got hit. The only difference was, the Tomcat was several thousand feet lower and going several knots faster. Again the flak burst all around them. It got so bad that the lo-vis grey of the Tomcat blended in so well with the grey-black and orange of the exploding shells that to all intents and purposes, it was invisible.
Over in 110, Nightewolfe (having finished proving that the Tomcat was number one in the swing-wing fighter world by splashing the two Floggers) was aghast. There was no sign of the man who was slowly becoming his friend and mentor. Wolfe called his backseater over the ICS and asked him if he could see the other Tomcat.
"Wolfe, I can't see shit!! We're too high and that's just too much gawddammed flak. Don't you fucking dare go down and try and pick him up visually. Radar can't see for crap with all the shrapnel in the air. Are you getting any reply over the radio?", growled 'Big Eyes' Talvert.
"Not a peep, Big Eyes. Not a peep.", replied Wolfe with a despairing tone in his voice.
On the ground, the commander of the gun crew was allowing his men a moment of happiness before they returned their attentions to the other three loyalist dogs in the aircraft above. He and his men had been following orders to keep themselves concealed from the enemy for the foreseeable future until the fat colonel had came wobbling out of the camouflaged radio tent where he'd been monitoring the enemy communications and started issuing orders to uncover the guns and warm up the radar system for the missiles. It had taken the gun commander all of his will power to keep from laughing in the pudgy mans' florid face as his crew readied their weapon.
Lost in thought, the gun commander didn't acknowledge the low roar that was becoming apparent at the edge of his hearing. That lasted until a flash off to his right caught his attention as the ammo stored next to an adjoining gun pit blew sky high as several high-speed rounds connected. Becoming more and more aware of the sound, the gun commander got frightened and jumped to his feet. His celebrating gun crew looked at him oddly as he fearfully gazed up at the skies jerking his head this way and that. They were still looking at their commander when the sound of ripping canvas caught their attention. It was the last thing they ever heard as rounds from the M61 six-barreled Vulcan 20mm cannon mounted on the Tomcat's left side ripped to life and shredded them with rounds meant to destroy enemy fighters. The commander of the now deceased gun crew saw the red mist as his men disintegrated before his eyes and accepted that his fate was sealed. Reaching for his sidearm, he hoisted towards the sky and fired impotently at the approaching beast spitting flame in his direction. There was a brief burst of that now familiar ripping canvas sound….then the gun crew commander knew infinite blackness as at least eight of the heavy bullets found their mark.
It only took one of the eight and the gun crew commander was no more. In his death, the rebel was lucky; for he never saw the ignition of the remaining ammo for his gun. The stockpiled rounds blew sky high. An errant round fired from the destroyed quad mount flak gun streaked into the stomach and neck of the pudgy colonel whose ridiculous orders lead to the destruction before going on to strike the fuel tank of one of just now going into action mobile SAM launchers.
In the ensuing explosion, the secret that the rebels had been trying to hide was ripped wide open. The TARPS pod on the Tomcat kept clicking away.
Several miles away, the brigadier general in command of another, larger flak site, received word of the destruction and revelation and immediately ordered his missile launchers to lock on and fire. He also ordered his gun crews to avenge the deaths of their friends. Those gun crews reacted with alacrity and began filling the sky with new barrages of flak. Only difference was that of all the flak being fired, nothing was smaller than 57mm.
In the sky, Wolfe kept his Tomcat out of range of the deadly barrage and continued calling the missing Tomcat crew. He was soon joined by the pair of Super Hornets and their pilots. With quick glances at their fuel gages the four people knew that it was time to retreat for now. In Hornet Zero-Zero-Seven, Edge felt herself go cold and vowed to return to this particular site and dispense her rage. Ordering her flight of three to make the turn for home, Edge started the long trip back to Area 88.
On Edge's wing, Kitori could see that her aerial sister was hurt and yet, there was nothing she could say to alleviate the pain of losing one of their own. Rocking her wings as a signal for the remaining Tomcat to form up, Kitori formed up and followed her friend. In the backseat of the lone Tomcat, 'Big Eyes' Talvert was grinding his teeth as he pounded his fist on the side of his cockpit in frustration. He and his pilot should have been able to do something but there weren't able to. In their careers, Gavin Talvert and Kendall Smith had seen many close friends die in aerial accidents but this was the first time they'd seen a fellow Tomcat driver lost to enemy fighter. It wasn't a nice feeling.
"Wolfe….", Gavin started.
"Squash it Big Eyes. Swordsman knew the risks as did Rose. They knew them and they accepted them. This is a hard business we're in. Especially since now we're mercenary pilots doing what were trained to do back in our days with Fighting 32. Just like Rose and Snow, we know the risks and we accept them. If you think this is hard on us, just think how hard it is on Edge over in Rhino Zero-Zero-Seven. She's known the Swordsman far longer than either of us. She's accepted the fact that he's gone and she's going to continue fighting. That is what we're going to do. That. Is. What. We're. Paid. For! Accept it and move on. That's the only way to live now.", growled Nightewolfe as he savagely yanked his stick back and forth.
Big Eyes snorted. He'd known his nose-gunner long enough to tell when he was fighting to keep from giving in to his tears. Saying nothing, Gavin set up their navigation for home and disarmed their weapons system. They'd bloodied the enemies' nose today at the cost of one of their own. The rebels weren't going to come back out to fight. If they did, Big Eyes knew that Edge would show them no mercy.
Area 88. 2119 Hours. Radio Room.
There was a somber air in the Area 88 radio room. Edge and her remaining wingmen had landed about an hour or so earlier and had immediately been whisked away to debrief with Commander Vashtarl. After the flight had landed, several pilots had hung around the radio room hoping and praying to hear word from the Eternal Swordsman but had drifted off by themselves, in pairs, and in groups of three or more when it became obvious that Marcus Snow and his backseater weren't going to return any calls.
The last pilots to leave had been Blaze, Shin, Mickey, Archer, and that new pilot who'd arrived with the missing Harris-White. When it became readily apparent that her friend was about to be written off as lost, Stiletto had damn near lost it. Only the combined strength of Thomas, Kazama, and Simon had kept her from living up to her callsign. After she'd collapsed into a stream of silent tears, Archer had glanced at his friend and flight lead and seen the look in Blaze's eyes. Knowing what was expected of him, Hans nodded before speaking.
"Blaze, I'll take care of Nelson. Call McCoy and tell him I'll need a bottle of bourbon delivered to the lounge. Tell him I'll pay triple the cost if he gets Greg and a few others to clear the room for us.", stated Archer as he hauled the despondent woman to her feet and draped her arm around his neck.
The older pilot nodded and reached for a handset as he saw Archer slip his left arm underneath Nelson's legs and gently lift her up to cradle against his chest. Blaze grinned as he saw the soft look; his young friend cast the woman quietly sobbing into his chest. He'd heard about the incident in the messhall last night from Archer and wondered if the young college graduate and war veteran would end up falling for the newbie before their time here was up. As Archer disappeared through the door, Blaze made the call to McCoy about Archer's request. The old arms dealer said it was no problem and to not worry, everything was on the house. With all that had happened, McCoy had had a run on sales of booze to the pilots. When questioned about it, the old man chuckled.
"It seems that in the short time the four of you have been here, Snow's made a lot of friends. Even Casey was a bit subdued when he came into my warehouse. Don't worry, I'll take care of everything, Blaze.", McCoy had said before hanging up.
Blaze acknowledged an empty line before slipping his hands into the pockets of his flightsuit and ambling out of the radio room. As he was leaving, the new shift was just coming on to take care of the pilots who were due to go out on night patrol.
As Blaze ambled down the hall away from the radio room, Freddy Thibodaux was getting ready to start his shift as one of the night radio men. Relieving his friend Romeo Amanti, Thibodaux (called Tibby by his friends) refreshed his mug of coffee from the percolating pot in the corner. Like most of his oncoming shiftmates, Fred had heard about the loss of the Eternal Swordsman and was down in the dumps. He remembered the night he'd met the tall pilot as if it was yesterday. He'd finished his shift in the tower around 8AM and was extremely tired. On his way to the mess hall, he got buttonholed by the one of the night patrol pilots who apparently had lost his wingman while they were patrolling due to Freddy not paying attention due to another developing situation. Before the discussion could get out of hand, Snow had shown up and looked at the other pilot with something akin to anger in his eyes and told him that things happened, suck it up and deal with it.
Now seated in his chair and with his headphones over his ears, Freddy settled in for a long depressing shift. Forty minutes into his shift, Freddy was starting to drift off when radar gave him a call.
"Hey Tower, are you guys in contact with any of our birds outta the north? We keep getting an intermittent blip here that pops up just about every time the system sweeps to the north. We also keep getting a broken radio message but we can't clear it up.", came the call.
Tibby asked any of his shift mates if they were in voice contact with anyone to the North. No one was and they said so and passed it on to radar.
"Look, radio I don't wanna scramble a patrol just in case we've misidentified somebody. Nor do I want to shoot down one of our own if they have radio problems. Could you do me a favor and take it if they call back? If so, hit them up on 121.7. Thanks.", replied the tech in response.
"Alright, radar we'll take care of it. Attention whoever is calling Double Echo on one-two-one point seven, identify yourself or prepare to be fired upon.", Freddy called as he switched to the requested channel while hanging up the handset.
"……bout……damn wingmen…..we'll keelhaul those assholes…..", came the broken reply.
Freddy lifted an eyebrow in confusion. Whoever was calling was breaking up real bad. Increasing the power to his transmitter he repeated the call. At first the response was filled with so much static, it wasn't clear. Boosting the power again and focusing it in the direction given by the radar room, Freddy tried again. Again the voice came in broken. He fiddled with the knobs on his console for a bit, repeated his call….and all of a sudden, the voice was clear as a bell.
"DAMMIT DOUBLE ECHO!! WILL YOU ANSWER THE FUCKING RADIO!! THIS IS SWORDSMAN IN TOMCAT ONE-ONE-EIGHT!! WE'RE ABOUT TEN MILES OUT AND ON FINAL APPROACH!! I'M FLYIN ON A WING AND A DAMN PRAYER HERE BUT I STILL GOT TWO TURNIN AND TWO BURNIN' BUT THE FLAK WAS SO THICK WE COULD WALK ON IT!! FIRST THING I'M GONNA DO WHEN I LAND THIS TURKEY IS KNOCK THE SHIT OUTTA MY WINGMEN FOR LEAVING US OUT THERE!!", came the familiar baritone over the radio with a dangerous edge to it.
"SWORDSMAN, SHUT THE HELL UP AND JUST FLY THE DAMNED PLANE!! I'M BLEEDIN' LIKE A STUCK PIG HERE BECAUSE OF YOUR DAMMED MANEUVERING!!", retorted a highly irate feminine voice.
Freddy Thibodaux was floored. Recognizing the voices of the missing crew, jumped outta of his chair and gave a enthusiastic yell. His shift mates looked at him as if he was crazy. Instead of explaining his actions, Tibby just flipped the switch that activated the speakers before answering the radio call.
"Tomcat One-One-Eight, this is Double Echo; Swordsman, Rose you won't believe how happy I am to hear your voices. You're cleared to land on Runway Three-One Left. Welcome Home you two!", replied the shaking radioman as he collapsed in to his chair.
"About damn time somebody answered. We've been calling for the last hour but none of youse sonsabitches would reply. Tell those photo Intel geeks we got the pictures they wanted. And tell those bastards that next time they get to make that run. Also wake up the med crews, my RIO took some shrapnel and is bitching like you wouldn't believe. Personally I think it's just a scratch but you know how some women are. Tibby, that you on the blower?"
"Can it Hothead! I'm kicking your ass when we land!", roared Rose.
"Baby you can kick my ass anytime! If you think you can handle it!"
Fred Thibodaux sighed before having one of the others in the tower make the requested calls. Next he dispatched one of the messengers to retrieve the commander and bring him to the tower. He then dispatched another grinning messenger to the lounge before activating the base public address system and calling for the fire crews.
Area 88. 2158 Hours. Pilot's Lounge.
Blaze Thomas sat on one of the couches in the darkened pilot's lounge. His wife lay with her head in his lap and legs stretched towards the armrest. Sitting hunched over across from them were Gavin Talvert and Kendall Smith. Over by the window looking out on to the flight line silently stood Mickey. On the love seat catty-cornered to the couch were Commander Vashtarl and his betrothed Kitori Palvanoff. At the nearby table rested Shin and Ryouko Kazama along with Kim Aba and situated in the lone recliner was Archer Grimm. In his arms, Stiletto Nelson slept soundly although every so often those gathered could hear her sniffle.
Blaze had already made the dreaded call to Jack Bartlett who promised to pass it on to Admiral Andresson when the time came. The young major wasn't looking forward to the call he knew he could expect from the admiral after he found out. Looking up when he heard Mickey shift position, Blaze saw that the other Tomcat driver was now leaning against the window staring intently at what was transpiring. Before the Osean major could ask, the p.a. System clicked on and blared.
"Now hear this, now hear this! This is the tower. Scramble the fire fighters and emergency crew! We've got a wounded bird comin' in!! I repeat, scramble the fire engines and emergency crews; Swordsman, Rose, and Tomcat One-One-Eight are comin' home. One-one-eight is damaged but, as he says, he's still got two turnin' and two burnin'!! Tower out!!"
As the PA system clicked off, everyone presently in the room looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. That lasted until Saki's aide Leo burst into the room, flipped on the light switch, looked around at those gathered, and told them that the announcement wasn't a joke.
"That's not a lie, Swordsman and Rose are five miles out on final approach.", Leo stated unequivocally as he dropped his hands to his knees and tried to regain his breath.
Out in the hallway, there was the thunder of hundreds of flight boot clad feet pounding out to the runway. One of the runners stopped for a second with a big grin on his bearded face and asked the slackers what they were doing. Their buddy was coming home.
Tomcat One-One-Eight. On final Approach
Marcus 'Swordsman' Snow and his RIO Rosemarie 'Blue Rose' Harris-White grimaced as their battered Tomcat jostled through the air as they prepared for landing. Snow had already lowered his landing gear and was slowly reducing power as he descended through the clouds to touchdown on the ribbon of asphalt in the desert. In the backseat, Rose was shutting down all the unnecessary systems and going through her landing checklist. Underneath her seat, she could feel the jostle as the TARPS pod jounced in the shackles holding it to the Big Cat. Like Snow, she could hear the engines as they strained to remain at their present power setting.
It had been a close thing. A fifty-seven millimeter shell had burst about two feet from their number two engine intake and shrapnel had been sucked down towards the delicate engines within. Thinking quickly, Snow had pulled his number two throttle to the fuel cutoff and shut that engine down to keep it from ripping itself apart. He beat the shrapnel by about three tenths of a millisecond.
Now flying on one engine, Snow and Rose had gone low and evaded to the mountains carrying them further and further from Area 88. With a gimlet eye on his fuel gage, Snow had made a decision and flown towards the gulf. Once out over the gulf and while preparing to eject, Snow got a call from an old roomie from his 'Grey Dukes' days who was presently commanding the OFS Albatross.
His old roommate had gotten a back channel message from their old squadron commander that Snow may be on special assignment in his area of operations. Thinking quickly, Snow had made a barrier landing aboard the Kestrel class carrier and had his bird hustled below so the air group maintenance guys could do a hurried repair job and get Snow and his backseater relaunched without asking any questions. Snow had a private word with the Albatross' CAG and promised to contribute a cool 100g's to the Air Group's after cruise blowout. He also promised each of the maintenance chiefs who worked on his plane fifty thousand apiece to get the work down as quickly as possible.
The work was done in three hours.
After being refueled and launched for the return back to Area 88, Snow and Rose had flown a meandering course out over the gulf at the same altitudes the regular Osean and American Tomcats had flown so that they wouldn't be recognized for what they were, I.e. mercenaries for Area 88. When the appointed ending time for their patrol had ended, Snow had shut down all of his communications and dove his bird to an altitude that was below the rebel radar coverage. It was as they'd gone 'feet dry' after crossing the coastline that Rose has asked Snow if he'd ever had another callsign. He'd admitted that he was indeed the 'Hothead' she remembered from her younger days and proceeded to tell her that he'd recognized her the minute she'd climbed into his cockpit from the dirt road after her ejection.
Needless to say, the newly reunited pair had a lot to catch up on.
Now just inches away from touchdown on the wonderful concrete of home, Snow quirked an eyebrow as he thought back to the long conversation they'd had as they flew back. They'd had a lot of problems to work out at first but everything got straightened up and they were caught up on the goings on in their present lives. Shaking his head and bringing his attention back to the situation at hand; Snow eased his damaged bird down the last few feet to the runway and felt the main oleos on his main gear compress as they touched the ground. Slowly pulling back his throttles as he gently lowered his nose gear onto the ground, Marcus spared a quick look at his instruments before returning his attention to the runway in front of him..
In the backseat, Rose gazed out the canopy glass and saw the pilots gathered around Swordsman's hardstand where a ground crewman with a pair of lighted wands awaited his arrival. Feeling the gently jolt as her long lost but never forgotten lover greased the nose gear onto the pavement, Rose grinned. She had a lot planned for this reunion.
Over at the hardstand, Saki Vashtarl pushed his way through the crowd with Blaze and the others right behind him. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw that the Tomcat had landed safely and was now turning off the runway for the active taxiway where a jeep with flashing yellow lights on its roof waited to lead the way into his hardstand. With the fire engines racing behind the slowly moving D model Tomcat as it returned to its roost, the tableau appeared extremely surreal. Behind him, Saki could feel that all of his pilots were holding their breath. When the Tomcat made the final turn and headed for the hardstand and waiting crowd, the prince was sure that everybody behind him had the same thought.
"Hold together just a few seconds more you twin-engined, twin-tailed bitch!! You're almost home!!"
As the wounded Tomcat advanced the last fifty feet into its hardstand, an unknown signal passed between the drivers of the two fire trucks and suddenly (to the consternation of the gathered pilots) water cannons mounted on the back of the huge trucks threw an arcing spray of fresh water over the plane and gave it a bath as the lights from the hanger and hardstands glinted in the millions of mini-prism teardrops. In the back of the crowd, somebody whistled as everyone caught the first glimpse of the damage Snow and Rose had sustained (he was beaten bloody for ruining a moment as tense as this). Finally the wounded F-14 came to a gentle bobbing stop and the engines wound down. A pair of alert ground crewmen ran up to the plane as the canopy unlatched and majestically rose into the night sky and slapped a pair of boarding ladders against the side. Many in the crowd winced as they heard the clang of metal meeting metal.
"Gawddammit you assholes, I didn't just fly this shot to shit bird half way across Asran for you idiots to damage it even further! Be dammed careful!!", roared a familiar voice tight with weariness.
The crowd looked at each other and wondered what was gonna happen. That held until a sweet feminine voice floated up from the backseat and calmed the raging beast in the front.
"Hothead, Ya Big Stud! Take Me to Bed or Lose Me Forever!"
Down in the crowd at the foot of the ladder, Emily 'Stiletto' Nelson gazed up at her friend with eyes brimming full of unshed tears. Seeing the look of longing on both faces still marked by the outline of their oxygen masks, Stiletto turned to Commander Vashtarl and said:
"Commander, I really don't think that now would be a good time for their mission debrief."
Vashtarl glanced at the Nelson (who was being held tightly by-wonder of wonders-Archer Grimm) then back up at the cockpit of the damaged Tomcat where the flight crew were involved in an increasingly passionate kiss and agreed.
"Stiletto, you're right. I don't think that now is a good time either. Swordsman, Rose, we'll debrief you tomorrow morning at 0800 hours.", replied Saki as he started to turn around and head back to the building, only to get slapped in the head by his betrothed.
Turning around, the Heir Quaternary to the Asranian Throne saw the frightening glares being cast his way by the gathered women and quickly changed his mind.
"Make that 1300 hours."
He was ignored by the kissing couple and started to head for the building only to stop when he heard Snow reply to Rose's demand.
"Show me the way home, Honey!!"
And that my fair reader, brings Chapter Four of the engrossing story 'Area 88: The Return of the Razgriz' to an 'interesting' end. I do hope y'all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. The reviews I receive perk up my will to write. I know I take a long time to update my stories but it's because I want to bring the best work I can to my readers. BTW, did y'all like the homage to the movie Top Gun?
In the next chapter, tentatively titled 'Swing Wing Jubilee', things are gonna happen that will set up chapter 6 (tentatively called 'Boondoggle'). The beginning of the chapter will, predictably, contain the only hints of a light citrus scent that will be in this story (I.e. this story ain't about the love lives of the pilots; it's about an aerial grinder of a battlefield that takes the unwary and grinds them into jet fuel-seasoned ground beef). It's brutal, it's bloody, and it's the story of the Mercenary Air Force of Asran and their base:
AREA 88.
So until next time, keep reading, writing, and reviewing. This gritty story will be back.
Knightewolfe
Wolfe's Den
8/08