Chapter Ten: Of all the greatest laid plans…
Wild Bill took the two of them to a small airfield several miles away. He landed the Tomahawk on the field and cut the engines. He unbuckled the safety latch and got up; walking to the back to find the two pilots. He saw them sitting close to each other and felt guilty that he had to drag them away from such a fun time. He wanted to give them a moment, but orders were orders and this was necessary.
"Sorry 'bout draggin' you two away from a special moment."
Ace looked up and smiled. "Don't worry about it, Bill. We have all of the time in the world. We were discussing…"
"I know." Wild Bill smiled under his mustache. "Sally and I did this when we first were dating as well. I hope you two can just understand what you have."
Sidewinder nodded. "I think I understand, Bill. Thank you." With that, the two of them stood up and followed Wild Bill out of the bay of the Tomahawk. They followed them to the only hangar that was on the airfield. They walked in the hangar and Bill shut the door from the outside. Sidewinder looked and giggled to what she saw. Ace looked over to her confused.
"I thought that I'd never get to see a Rattler up close. In Badhakistan, I shot down fifteen of these things. They are hard to take down. They're a flying tank."
"They are hard to take down. We actually had to steal this one." Spoke a voice from behind them. Sidewinder and Act turned around. They both noticed General Hawk standing there with a big smile on his face. The two of them saluted the General.
"Sorry about my exuberance, sir. I've always wanted to be this close to one. I've piloted an A-10, but I was curious if this was any different." Sidewinder blushed.
"There isn't much of a difference." Hawk smiled, walking closer. "I've seen these up close and they're pretty close." Hawk put an arm around her shoulder, causing Sidewinder to turn a brighter shade of red. Ace smiled to her and stood back a little. He wanted to see how she would react. What really happened was less innocent. The general walked her around the Rattler and explained the differences. They returned to where Ace was standing; where Ace was all smiles. Hawk took his arm off of Sidewinder and turned back to the table that was behind him beforehand. Sidewinder noticed three people next to the General.
"Sidewinder let me introduce to a few Joes. You already know Firewall." Sidewinder smiled to her room-mate and she smiled back. "This is Kenneth Rich, otherwise known as Psyche-Out. Not only is he the Joe psychologist, he had a background on how to act with Cobra." The two shook hands. Hawk moved over to the other man.
"This is Richard, otherwise known as Mercer." Mercer nodded. "Mercer is the only Viper to survive getting out of Cobra. He's seen the light and works for us. Not only could he have you acting the part of a Cobra, but having you believe that you are one. We're going to have to talk about your mission."
Sidewinder was in the pilot's seat of the Rattler. She was tugging at the Strato-Viper uniform that she was wearing. She felt odd about this mission. Something in the pit of her stomach told her this wouldn't work. Needless to say, both Ace and herself said that they would do this. The mission was simple: investigate an island just south of the Florida Keys. Satellite intelligence was showing a new Terrordrome being built in the area. They just needed some photos of the site. In and out in less than an hour: no more or less. She was getting a sinking feeling about this and couldn't describe it.
"Hey, why are you so quiet up there?" She heard Ace over the Joe communicator.
"It's just a feeling I'm having, Ace. That's all." She was trying to sound confident, but she could tell that she was failing.
"Don't be nervous. We'll be fine. The first one is the scariest."
"Are you psychic, Ace?"
"Nah, I was the same on my first mission." Sidewinder nodded. The radio in the Rattler came to life.
"Come in Rattler, come in."
"Yeah, yeah; I heard you the first time." Sidewinder snarled. "Strato-constrictor-two-six, reporting. I have a gunner's mate in the gun station."
"Gunner's mate, come in." Spoke the Tele-Viper.
"Pit Viper-constrictor-two-six. You want my measurements as well, pervert?" Ace joked.
"I don't know what is worse, the Strato-viper's attitude or the Pit-viper's jokes. Take it past the south part of the island. Land there and wait for instruction."
"Kiss my ass, nerd." Sidewinder snarled again. "We'll park it wherever." With that, she clicked off the radio. "Ace, where is the building?"
"Due south, Sidewinder. Do a slow fly-by. I'll snap a few and we do a fly-for patrol." They flew to the south to find the Terrordrome. They spotted it and Ace snapped the recon photos.
"We're done. Land, find the crew chief and tell them that you're doing a perimeter check and we're out of here." Ace sighed. Sidewinder did the same. She landed on one of the empty landing zones. There was a crew there and they stood around for a few moments. Sidewinder got into her character and yelled at the crew for a few minutes until the guard-master came out.
"Well, you're late." Said the Cobra officer, smiling under his mask. "Of course, we've got to go out of our way for pilots."
"Well, I had to wait on your sorry ass. Now I'm late for patrol. You mind giving me my orders? I'm late for a poker game." Sidewinder shouted. Ace snickered.
"Something funny?"
"Yeah, you're idea of running this area." Ace smiled. "We've been doing this longer than you've been an officer. How's about our assignment?" The officer sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He gave them a report; it said to check the Keys for any Joe activity.
"We've got intel that some Joes are in the area. Keep an eye out." The officer said.
"Yeah, I'll keep both eyes out on this." Ace joked. The officer smacked Ace on the back of the helmet. Sidewinder shoved the officer, where he landed on his ass. Sidewinder pulled her sidearm and aimed at the officer's head.
"Don't go messing up my gunner's head, dumb fuck! I had to cap my last one and I just got this trained. Next time I cap you, you dig?" The officer nodded and stood back up. He dusted himself off and walked off to another crew. Sidewinder holstered her sidearm and walked back to the Rattler.
"Laid it on a little thick there, didn't you?" Ace whispered.
"It worked, didn't it?" Sidewinder whispered back. "Anyway, let's get the hell out of here." She started back up the ladder when the officer came back.
"What's your call sign again, pilot?" the officer asked.
"Strato-constrictor-two-six and if I have to repeat myself again, I'm gonna get pissed." The officer reached for his sidearm and so did Sidewinder. The officer yelled out that they were imposters, but Sidewinder shot him point-blank in the face. She shot two of the ground crew dead and got in the pilot seat. Ace jumped in the gunner's position just as Sidewinder was taking off. The alarms started blaring over the island.
"So much for the element of surprise!" Ace shouted, closing the gunner's hatch. "Punch it, Cassie and get us out of here!" Sidewinder pushed the jets and took off. She barely missed the treeline by inches. She pushed the throttle and slammed the Rattler into the sky. She was dodging the anti-aircraft guns from the A.S.P. gun emplacements. There were some narrow misses, but Sidewinder did some wild maneuvers to dodge all of the shots. They got into American airspace and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Not bad there, Cassie. I thought we were done for." Ace laughed.
"Yeah, well we're not home yet. We'll celebrate when we get there." Sidewinder replied, removing the Strato-viper helmet. That feeling that something was going to happen was still with her. The radio chimed again.
"Unidentified aircraft, please identify yourself."
Sidewinder wasn't sure if it was a trick or not. She decided that they were entering airspace near Georgia that they were safe.
"Secret channel Alpha-Omega. Government officials on a top secret mission. If you have a problem, contact General Abernathy out of Fort Wadsworth."
"See, that was your first mistake." Spoke the voice. Before she could react, the canopy exploded, raining glass onto Sidewinder. The Rattler did a sudden jolt and started into a nosedive. Ace grabbed the co-pilot stick and took over, trying his best to get control. The Rattler was slammed with another shot, tearing the left wing and engine right off. They were now in an uncontrolled spin.
"Cassie! Can you hear me? Cass!" Ace shouted. There was silence. "Cass!" Ace started to try to control the Rattler again, but his stick was locked out. "Cass, let me take over." It was the last time he would hear her voice.
"I love you, Brad." Ace's hatch was blown and his seat ejected him out of the Rattler. He was sent out of the Rattler, watching the whole episode happen in front of him. His chute opened and he watched the Rattler come out of the spin, but continuing in a nosedive. He could have sworn that he heard the Rattler's nose cannon being fired on the way down. The Rattler continued on its nosedive into a beginning housing development. He watched in horror as the Rattler crashed and exploded taking out a group of trailers.
"Cassidy! NO!" Ace screamed. It was the only thing that he could do. He hung his head, sad for the sacrifice of her life for his. He had a mission to complete. He looked at his compass and took record of his coordinates.
"Omega channel, are you online?" Ace said. "This is Easter Egg to the Bunny."
The radio screeched and popped. He heard Lady Jaye's voice. "This is Bunny to Easter Egg. We read you. What's your status?"
"Jaye, it's Ace. Status is mission complete." Ace sighed. "Allie, you better put me through to Hawk. There has been a casualty. I repeat, there has been a casualty." The other side was silence, except for whatever Jaye dropped. Then he heard Firewall screaming in the background. Ace could only hang his head.
"Ace, it's Hawk. Report status."
"General, I need a pickup team at my current coordinates. I also need a recovery team."
"What happened?"
"I'll fill you in when you come in for pickup. I'm landing shortly." Ace cut out the radio to base. He landed in a field less than one-hundred yards away. He ditched the parachute and took off to the crash site. He reached as close as he could to the fire, but the heat kept him from getting any closer. He started looking around the crashed plane and looking around the destroyed trailers. He saw a couple of bodies lying in the burning trailers and they were dead. He got closer and noticed that there was some machines were broken as well. He walked around to another trailer and noticed the same thing. He bent over and looked through some of the rubble. He spotted something that seemed out of place: a Cobra assault rifle.
"The hell is this doing here?" Ace heard a noise from behind him and aimed the rifle. He noticed that there was a Viper coming at him. The Viper's uniform was tattered and torn, with parts of it smoldering from a fire. The helmet that he was wearing was broken so that Ace could see his face. He was holding a pistol in his hand.
"Seems that you stepped into another one of our hideouts, pilot. It's a pity that you'll never tell any of your Joe buddies about this." Ace pulled the trigger of the rifle, but the rifle was jammed. The Viper smiled and lifted his pistol. Ace didn't want to go out like this, but at least he would be with her. The gunshot rang out in the night. Ace actually jumped and he checked himself, looking for a bullet wound. He looked over to the Viper; the smile on his face was gone. There was blood trickling from the hole in the middle of his forehead. He fell backwards and was dead. Ace turned around and noticed who fired the shot. It was Sidewinder.