Chapter Sixty-Five: Hush
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Selatapura, Usea.
November 1st, 2019.
0700hrs.
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The sun was starting to rise above the horizon, painting the sky soft shades of blue and pink. It was peaceful and quiet. Almost perfect. The scattered cloud cover here and there kept the morning from being too perfect, but it was still a beautiful sight to Naomi. She'd had a nice view of it from inside the hangars, but she was eager to get up in the sky and see it up close and personal. Even if they had a hard battle waiting for them, at least there'd be something beautiful out there waiting at the end of it all.
Naomi settled into the seat of her F-22 as the cockpit closed, taking a deep breath and trying to settle down her nerves. She was shaking as she fastened herself in and started going over all of her pre-flight checks, but she made sure she focused on the task at hand so she didn't screw anything up. While she went through all the standard procedures, the ground crew backed her Raptor onto the elevator situated on the side of the carrier. When said elevator began to lift her aircraft to the flight deck with a heavy metal clunk and a loud whirring sound, she was reaching the end of her checks.
She took a deep breath, watching as the aircraft in the hangar below disappeared from view as her plane was slowly lifted to the deck. Overhead, if she looked past the island in the dead center of the carrier she was greeted by a clear view of the sky. That was a much better sight. The deck itself was livelier than it had been the previous day, with their throw-together operating crew sprinting back and forth across the deck, directing their fighters through the takeoff procedures as best they could. They were shouting orders back and forth if they weren't too far from one another but she could only hear what was coming in through the radio.
As the elevator came to a halt, now perfectly level with the deck, a familiar voice came over the radio as they radioed her to clear her for taxi. "Can I use this? It should only take a minute. Thanks." Avril, who had likely only just woken up and gotten moving, took over the radio and caught Naomi by surprise. Her voice was clearer when she spoke up again. "Hey, can you hear me?"
"I can hear you loud and clear," Naomi replied, admittedly relieved to have a chance to talk to her before they left. No doubt Tabloid already got his goodbyes out of the way with her, but Naomi hadn't had the chance. "You're just in time for the show."
"Yeah, yeah, you're funny. I would have been able to see you off at the briefing, but I was busy working my ass off on your plane last night," Avril retorted. She wasn't snapping, but she didn't waste the limited time they had. "That craft is in peak condition. Stabilization and maneuverability should be a bit better, the engine oughta hold up, and it's armed to the teeth with your usual so I don't think those drones'll stand a chance." She paused once she was done going down the list, and her tone softened a bit. Like she was smiling a little. "I even buffed up the canopy for a nice shine, so you can really see the sky."
Naomi began to taxi out onto the deck as they guided her forward, smiling a little as she answered Avril. "You never disappoint, huh? Thanks for this, Avril. I mean it." She chuckled a little. "Dunno what I would have done without you all this time."
"Let's not get too sappy over the radio, alright?" Avril said, sounding a bit embarrassed. She took another second, then added, "Bring everyone back, alright? And keep 'em from doing anything stupid…especially Tabloid." Of course she'd be fussing over him…there wasn't any surprise there. She went on. "Take care, Trigger. And when you get back you can tell me all about it."
"See you later, Avril," Naomi said. Whether or not she heard or if she had just walked off by then, she didn't know, since Avril didn't say anything else to that. She started to go over the last of her pre-flight checks, finishing up as they kept marshaling her forward.
"Here, lemme see that." Lanza's voice suddenly filled the silence. "Trigger, wish we could've flown with you for this one. Those drones wouldn't know what hit 'em!"
"A bunch of dinged up planes and injured pilots would only slow you down. I feel for him, though," Fencer said, jumping into the conversation as well. Was everyone getting in on this? Seemed like it. "I know you aren't gonna let us down, though. Good luck up there."
"We'll be waiting for you when you get back, Major," Skald added. "Show those drones what the new King of the Skies has to offer, alright?"
"Thanks, guys. Keep out of trouble while I'm gone," Naomi said, chuckling slightly at him calling her by General Shilage's moniker. She'd give anything to have their banter and encouragement up there too, but they were probably better off staying aboard the ship. It was bad enough she had the others to worry about. "I'll see y'all around."
Nothing else was said to that, and if anyone else even had more to say they were out of time. Naomi stopped where they told her to, fastening her mask in place and lowering her visor. She took a good look around the deck of the ship, at the makeshift crew they had, and she felt a sudden swell of emotions when she noticed everyone had dropped what they were doing and lined up. Each and every last one of them had dropped what they were doing and snapped to attention, having saluted her as she taxied into place. Never in a million years would she have expected a sendoff like that.
Naomi looked around at them, taking a breath and trying not to get overwhelmed by everything she was feeling, and she returned their salutes with one of her own. It was brief and far from perfect or proper considering she was stuck in a cockpit, but it was the best she could do to show her gratitude towards them. She made it as quick as she could, since she heard them clear her for takeoff over the radio.
Their makeshift shooter dropped to the ground a moment later and signaled her forward, and just like that she was off. She throttled up and felt the familiar rumble of the engines as her Raptor shot forward, down the deck. Before she reached the end she pulled up and the nose of her plane lifted off the Admiral Andersen, sending her up into the sky overhead. On the radio she heard someone call out, "Take care!"
"Whatever happens, it ends here," another man declared. "The outcome's mostly up to her now."
"Huh…so, this is the gal? Three Strikes?" a third guy asked.
"Oh yeah, she's the one who took off just now," the man from before answered with a light chuckle.
In the mood for a flashy sendoff and feeling cocky after listening in on their conversation, as soon as her landing gear retracted Naomi decided to perform an aileron roll for them. Actually it was mostly for her own amusement and she even let out an involuntary laugh at the stunt, feeling exhilarated in spite of her nerves. If anything, that one stupid little stunt to show off was helping her nerves, since she wasn't shaking anymore. There was a long fight waiting for her and she was going to savor the last few minutes of peace and recklessness she could have before the weight of the world was on her shoulders.
Naomi kept climbing up until she cleared the clouds, the morning sun beating down full force through her canopy as soon as she did. She maintained her course towards the elevator, spotting Golem and Mage Squadrons already up and waiting for her in a holding position, with the rest of her wingmen no doubt on the way up behind her. On her radar, she could spot a cluster of allies approaching from the peninsula, likely the Osean and Erusean planes that managed to make it back to the city, which was good news as far as she was concerned.
It wasn't long before her wingmen joined her, followed by the two pilots from Sol Squadron. Jaeger and Húxiān formed up on her right wing, while Count loyally took up his position on her left as always. As their newfound Erusean allies all started to converge on their position, it was Count that broke the silence with an observation. "Y'know, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact we've got so many Eruseans with us."
"Well, we knew the Oseans would be sticking around and we couldn't let you show us up," Seymour joked in response, quick to have a comeback. He was clever, Naomi could give him that.
"C'mon, guys, it doesn't matter what country anyone's from," Naomi said, not that she was scolding them. They were just joking around, but she didn't want anyone to take that sort of thing to heart. Even if things were still a little tense, she was trusting them in this battle. Just like she'd done the day before. They were her allies and she was going to look after them just like the others. "We're all fighting for the same thing."
Knocker let out a chuckle, and she knew he was among the people that would have probably had the hardest time adjusting to their new allies. But he actually sounded friendly as he said, "Besides, what counts is knowing who the real enemy is, right guys?"
"You can say that again," Tabloid put in. He didn't sound nervous. "Moments like this, when we set aside stuff like that…it's pretty powerful, huh?"
"Well said. And I think everyone here knows the score. We all know who we need to follow," Long Caster cut into the conversation. He didn't waste any time getting right down to business, though. "Enemy aircraft are entering the AO."
"I see them, Long Caster," Jaeger said, almost growling. Naomi checked her own HUD and radar and sure enough the drones were closing in on their position from the east.
"Commence operation!" Long Caster ordered them. "All aircraft, follow Trigger!"
"Righto!" Count called out, and the others sounded off one by one after him, then the Eruseans joined in.
Naomi turned her nose towards the enemy aircraft and throttled up, all of her allies following behind her. "Alright, let's do this! Strider 1 engaging!"
Although her plan was to try hitting them head on at first, they quickly proved it was easier said than done. For one they were flying against the sun, much like Mr. X often did, which meant they probably had a good grasp on that tactic of his. Then before Naomi was even in range, the two Ravens began to weave back and forth and were already tracking her and likely the others on radar before a sharp, extremely loud ringing sound came from the two of them followed by a beam of light. Lasers, just like the Arsenal Bird.
They were all forced to break off their formation early on to avoid getting hit, and Naomi narrowly avoided losing her tail. She recovered as quickly as she could, pulling a high-G turn to get back around to face them, and she jumped on the first one she spotted. She thought she had a solid lock and fired, but at the last second the drone veered sharply to the side and pulled up, shaking off the missiles like it was nothing. If Mr. X was bad about evading their hits there wasn't any doubt that these guys were going to be a literal nightmare, but they were already prepared for that. It was still scary to actually see in action.
Over the radio, everyone was already struggling to keep up, and missile contrails quickly filled the sky around them. None of the others risked getting close to any of them while their lasers were still active, but Naomi was willing to risk it. There didn't seem to be any accuracy with the weapon, or not a whole lot, but that didn't make it any less dangerous…she'd done stupider things before. She angled her Raptor towards their tails as the two Ravens regrouped, one of them keeping its tail to her while the other came at her head on, and she had to make a dive underneath it to avoid getting hit right before its laser went out. It shot past her cockpit and she craned her neck to watch where it flew off to, in time to catch a brief glimpse of her allies moving to intercept.
"Shit, these guys are no joke," Naomi spat, straining as she made another hard turn, dividing her attention between her radar and her view out of her cockpit to keep tabs on them. "Keep an eye on where their noses are pointed! Same as a rail gun or the Arsenal Bird's lasers!"
"Everyone, I just want to reiterate everything that's on the line here. With the communications infrastructure down, the space elevator is the only place capable of wide-area data transmission," Long Caster said, speaking quickly. "We've got about thirty minutes before the space elevator comes back online, so don't lose focus. The drones are no doubt waiting for it to power up again."
"Clever little bastards," Count spat. "I bet they're toying with us just to waste time."
"Yeah, well I'm not in the mood today," Húxiān snapped, trying her hardest to predict their movements and keep up without colliding with everyone else.
"Trigger, we need a strategy," Clown called out, grunting to evade a series of missiles they fired. It was almost at random, like they were wasting ammo in hopes they'd hit something. Not that Naomi and the others were any different. He sounded out of breath when he added, "We can't just go back and forth like this forever!"
"Dammit, they're really making us work for this," Naomi grumbled. She was just glad that last minute, on the spot strategy was her greatest skill. "Alright, Salamander, Skoll, and Rigel Squadron form a perimeter and keep them from spreading us out too far. Strider, Golem, Mage, and Sol Squadron you're all with me. Partner up and take them down, don't give them a chance to slip away." She wasn't sure if it was actually going to work, but it could be adjusted if they needed it to be. "Everyone got it?"
"Strider 3, copy," Jaeger said. "Let's do it, Húxiān!"
"Wilco, I'm with you," Húxiān called out to him.
"Tabloid, you're with me," Knocker said, and he and Tabloid broke off from the rest of Golem Squadron. "Boggard, Footpad, you two send 'em our way if you can. Don't give them the chance to even try and break our perimeter."
"Tailor, we're gonna open them up," Clown called out to his own wingman.
Tailor sounded a bit nervous, and he was probably still scared out of his mind from yesterday's battle, but he didn't hesitate. "Got it!"
"Count, stay with me," Naomi called out to her wingman now, watching the others break off and start trying to corral the drones. While the Erusean squadrons and Salamander Squadron formed the perimeter, the rest of them worked to chase them into range of their allies. And she had a pretty good feeling that once the Ravens got desperate enough they were gonna start fighting back for real, like an animal backed into a corner. "And no one go and start playing hero out here, alright? We're all coming home from this."
"Just lead and I'll follow, Trig," Count replied quickly. "I'm not planning on dying here."
"Not gonna be a problem as long as she's still flying," Tabloid pointed out, arguably sounding the most optimistic even though he also sounded exhausted from the fight already. "If we lose you we lose this fight, Trigger."
"Alright, alright, knock it off," Naomi said, admittedly a bit too distracted to worry about that right now. She didn't care that much if anything happened to her, but she also knew if she wanted to keep them all alive then she had to stay alive too. It wasn't some big secret. "Everyone just shut up and shoot back!"
Just like that they managed to dive back into the action, but her plan started to fall apart almost instantly. It took less than a minute for the drones to become more erratic as they all tried to keep them within a tight area, forcing them right in front of another ally to fire only for the drones to evade at the last second. They began to make tight loops around the space elevator, and Naomi and the others had to try to intercept them when they finally broke away to avoid crashing into the windbreak or each other. They let themselves get spread out, only able to keep up with their own wingmen as they all partnered off, and whenever they tried to regroup and try corralling them again the drones made a dive for the base of the elevator and gave them the slip.
They made for their other allies as Skoll Squadron and Salamander Squadron moved to intercept, trying to tighten the perimeter and force them back towards Naomi and the others. The drones dodged the spray of missiles and gunfire that came at them, only to pull up and perform a Kulbit maneuver to shoot down the fighter on its tail. It was the fastest Naomi had ever seen the maneuver performed, so much so that even if they saw it coming the pilot couldn't react in time. At least with a human pilot you had a chance.
The cry over the radio came in an instant as the missile practically blew the aircraft in half. "No, dammit! I've lost control! Ejec–"
The plane disappeared in a burst of flame and smoke before he even had the chance. By now a member of Skoll Squadron had already made the move to intercept, trying to cover him, but he was their next target. They surrounded him in an instant, and while he tried to evade his flight lead called out to him. "Skoll 2, just get out of there!"
"Shit!" Skoll 2 cursed as one of the missiles collided with his engine, causing the plane to start to combust. "This is Skoll 2, I'm hit, I'm hit! My engine –"
Before he could even finish the sentence or eject the other Raven fired a second missile to finish him off. Naomi managed to reach them, with Count right behind her, and although she tried to land a hit on them she wasn't able to. But she was able to send them back towards the space elevator where the others tried their luck, all the while Long Caster couldn't do anything more than announce their losses. "Salamander 3, Skoll 2, lost! Dammit, that was fast…"
"I've never seen anyone move that fast!" Boggard called out. He let his guard out for a second and suddenly let out a pained grunt as he tried to shake one of them off. "Oh, shit! Footpad, gimme some support over here!"
"On it!" Footpad, along with just about everyone else trying to get in range, fired a volley of missiles to try and throw the drone off.
Naomi had already turned and made to chase after them, pretty sure Avril was going to give her hell for burning the engines out, and she managed to break one off of him and chase it up into the sky. Although she kept it from finishing the job, she was a second too late. He managed to dodge a pair of missiles from the first drone – Hugin, the one that Naomi was chasing – but he rolled right into a third missile fired by the second one, Munin. She felt her stomach twist in knots when she heard him over the radio.
"Dammit, I can't save it! I'm punching out!" Boggard managed to get out before his transmission cut to static, and a moment before his plane broke apart he managed to bail out. The allied aircraft all steered clear of the shoot, trying to keep the Ravens off him while he drifted down to safety.
"Shit, Golem 3 is down! Another friendly lost!" Long Caster spat.
"Dammit!" Count cursed.
"He's fine. Probably safer on the ground than up here…" Knocker grumbled. His voice became harsh as he called out to Naomi, "Trigger, it's time for some of your bullshit! Don't let 'em get away with this!"
"I'm on it, stay focused on the others!" Naomi called back, locked in her pursuit of Hugin.
She was starting to figure out their patterns. They had subtle differences she was able to pick up on. Hugin was a lot more predictable of the two of them, the most clear cut copy of Mr. X, while Munin was the more erratic of the two. It wasn't too hard for her to memorize and match Hugin's movements, at least as far as figuring out how she had to move and maneuver her plane. The hard part came with being able to tolerate the amount of Gs she was hit with just to keep up with them.
The thing that pushed her forward though was Boggard going down. Even if he was alive, she wasn't going to stand by and lose anymore allies. The others were making it out of this, even if she had to push her plane and body way past their limits. This was ending here. She was throwing everything she had at them. Gritting her teeth to follow the drone through its weaving and diving and climbing, she stayed glued to the drone, firing a pair of missiles and quickly switching over to her QAAMs and firing a round of those. With four missiles to evade, it sharply arced up and managed to outrun them. But it had not managed to outrun Naomi herself.
She followed Hugin into its climb, pulling up as sharply as she could manage and switching over to her pulse lasers. She lined up the shot, staying right below it in the climb, and held her finger on the trigger. Just straight firing without stopping wasn't the greatest idea, and it probably came with its own set of issues like potential overheating and frying, but one way or another she was getting a hit in. Hugin tried to evade with small, precise movements in its climb, but she managed to land a few hits, swiftly switching back over to her QAAMs and firing another pair before she had to break off her climb. She strained, leveling back out and glancing up overhead to see if she managed to do anything.
Hugin began to break off its climb as soon as the missiles started to close in, but its reaction time was a little too slow. One of them managed to clip the wingtip, leaving it to make a strange, metallic screech over the open radio line like a pilot or…an animal crying out in pain. It made Naomi's ears hurt, but even if it was chilling it didn't make her feel bad about it. It was a ruthless machine. That thing wasn't alive but it could still be killed and she was going to make sure of that.
"Trigger scored a hit!" Count announced to everyone, and everyone let out the best cheer of victory they were able to. "We can do it, just aim well and shoot 'em down!" But the battle wasn't over yet, as both he and Munin quickly reminded everyone. "Trigger, heads up, the other one is coming your way!"
While she'd been turning, trying to find where Hugin was trying to flee to, Count had been pursuing Munin while it went straight for Naomi following the hit she landed on Hugin. It could have easily finished her off, but instead it shot right past her, barely missing her cockpit and rounded on her to try and face her head on. She spotted the light underneath its nose, along with that same ringing from before, and she figured out it was readying to fire the laser again. Although Count broke off his pursuit, trying to circle around to cover her, Naomi had no problem facing it head on.
She throttled up, flying straight towards it and not letting herself be thrown off. If she was fast enough, she could try and hit it before it got the laser fully charged up and fired. She stayed on the throttle, her QAAMs at the ready, and waited until the last possible second. The two of them had to have been practically touching by the time she fired, banking to the right suddenly and firing a pair of missiles and just barely rolling clear as it fired the laser. The shockwave from an explosion shook her plane as she flew past the Raven, but she didn't know right away if that was her missile connecting or a hit scored on her.
Seymour answered the question for her. "Another hit! She's the only one getting anywhere out here!" He sounded more than a little frustrated as he added, "Those damn things move just like Mihaly…"
"They're like complete copies of him, they've just received some serious upgrades. I thought we could keep up, but…" Wit trailed off on the thought, probably dealing with a set of doubts about the whole thing. He pulled himself back together in an instant, though. "Seymour, we have to keep them separated. If we let them work together it's just gonna spell disaster."
As they all tried to move together to separate Hugin and Munin, a bunch of new blips appeared on radar. Naomi looked down, then checked her HUD to find several new targets on radar. Next thing she knew, they were all surrounded by a bunch of lasers. A moment later, Long Caster warned them, "All aircraft, launch detected from UAVs! They're small drones!"
"These guys have quite the bag of tricks," Húxiān said with a huff, rolling to avoid the lasers coming in practically every direction. "Trigger, what do we do?"
"Gah! Dammit!" Naomi grunted, barely managing to slip between the lasers herself. Her targeting system was only locking onto the smaller UAVs, and she noticed that was because the Ravens had disappeared all of a sudden, but just from her HUD and radar. "Those bastards are using these things as cover! Don't let them slip away!"
"Wait, I've still got a visual on the Ravens," Tabloid announced to all of them. "Looks like they're trying to regroup!"
"Stop 'em!" Tailor called out, making a dive alongside Tabloid towards the base of the space elevator to cut the drones off.
Naomi locked on to one of the smaller weapon UAVs and fired a missile, managing to strike it, before she banked and pitched her nose down towards the two Ravens. Clown, Tabloid, and Tailor managed to cut Hugin off and send him back towards Naomi. She followed it through the gaps at the elevator's base and back up into the sky, using her pulse lasers to shoot at it while the HUD still refused to pick them. She managed to get a few hits in while she was climbing, and just before Hugin moved to arc over her and out of its climb she was able to get a lock on it. She fired a set of missiles like before, then a pair of QAAMs and managed to hit it dead on.
"Yes!" She couldn't help but exclaim, breaking out of her own climb. Now they were getting somewhere.
She heard Clown let out a shout. "Ahaha! That's it, Trigger!"
"She got another hit!" Footpad joined in. "There you go!"
"Target hit! Target hit!" Long Caster called out, sounding like he was unable to keep from smiling as well. "Damage confirmed, but those suckers are tough!"
"Don't let up, people!" Count called out his own bit of encouragement. "Remember, it's not machines that rule the skies, but us humans! C'mon, Trigger!"
Naomi circled back around and singled out Munin while Hugin managed to slip away, occupied by the others. She was flying at whichever one was trying to get a lock on her, and when she got on one the other was quick to try and help it. Count and Tabloid were already on Munin's tail, forcing it to break off from Naomi's while she moved to aid them. She dropped a set of flares to avoid a missile from Hugin and left the weapon UAVs to the others, who were taking them out one by one every chance they had.
Munin took them down towards the ocean and through the space elevator's base again, but didn't take them into a climb. Instead it juked like it was going one way and in a split second changed direction like it was nothing, causing Naomi and Count to have to counter as quickly as they could with a high-G turn while Tabloid had a slightly more delayed reaction. But the three of them were on the drone's tail again in an instant. Naomi fired two missiles and a volley of pulse lasers, causing Munin to turn, but Count went wide and cut it off while Tabloid moved in on the other side.
Naomi matched its movements as best as she could, grunting from the force of the Gs on her body, not so much worried about her own pain as much as she was worried about the others. Every so often the others would cry out from the effort of trying to pull the same maneuvers, while Naomi was just starting to feel the full strain of it all as her exhaustion caught up to her. She refused to let up, though, matching every twitch to the side the drone tried to make while Tabloid and Count did their job in keeping it from slipping away. A gut instinct told her to pull up, so she did, just in time for Munin to do the same.
She pulled the trigger on her pulse lasers, managing to score a few hits directly in Munin's engine. It started to trail smoke, but it refused to let up. It tried to take her for another ride, then shake her, and Naomi couldn't do anything but dive and climb whenever it did while Count and Tabloid tried to catch up again. As a result of the damage she'd managed to do, the drone's maneuverability was reduced some. It wasn't a huge difference, but every little bit helped. It tried to pull up, but Count caught it and managed to strafe it with some gunfire, forcing it back into Naomi's sights. She waited for the tone, watching and listening as she tried and failed to get a solid lock. Munin tried to take her back through the clouds, but Tabloid cut it off and forced it away, back in front of Naomi.
It was just a split second of an opening, but she was able to react in time. The tone sounded in her ear and she fired a missile and a QAAM, praying one of them would hit. The drone managed to evade the standard missile, but the QAAM honed in on it and slammed right into the engine before it knew what hit it. Naomi pulled clear of the aircraft as Munin began to ignite, letting out that same static, almost metallic sounding screech that she'd heard when she first hit Munin. The transmission cut to static, and a moment later the radio was full of cheers followed by Long Caster proudly announcing the kill.
"There we go! One down! One down!" Long Caster said through the cheers. "Target is losing altitude rapidly!"
"The downed enemy has black smoke billowing from it! I saw it myself!" one of the remaining Skoll Squadron pilots announced.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Knocker added in his own encouragement. "Attagirl!"
"Should've known that Three Strikes was the real deal," Wit said with a chuckle. "I was starting to lose hope."
"Let's finish this, Trigger!" Jaeger said, unusually energetic to get back in the fight.
"I'm way ahead of you," Naomi said, already picking up where Hugin was and heading towards it. It wasn't as damaged as Munin had been, but it seemed to be lagging anyways, more like it was slowed down out of grief or something. If it could feel something like that then she might feel sorry for it, but at that moment Hugin had maneuvered onto Wit's tail and Naomi wasn't going to stand for it. "Hey! Get away from him you son of a bitch!"
Naomi fired off a missile just to shake the drone, not at all surprised when it missed. But when Hugin had to break away to dodge it gave Wit a chance to slip away while Naomi moved to stay in pursuit. She grunted, matching the drone's turn, and fired another set of QAAMs. She only had a few left, and she was sure the shot was going to miss, but the drone turned too late. The missile struck it and it began to spiral out of the sky, bursts of flame and smoke igniting along its entire tail end. Naomi's plane shot past it, and she flew clear of the blast, leveling up alongside her allies further up while she let the kill sink in.
It wasn't until she heard her allies start praising her once again that she realized she really had done it. Jaeger was the first one to draw attention to it. "Trigger's missile hit! Ha! That one looks like it hurt!"
"Holy shit, did it actually…" Naomi cut herself off as she went from shocked to relieved to excited, letting out a high, breathy chuckle she hadn't expected.
"Trigger has scored a kill!" Count said through an obvious smile. The thought of him smiling at the victory, laughing, and the way he said it made her heart race. "Haha! Hell yeah! You finally did it!"
"Way to shoot, ace!" Jaeger praised her.
Naomi was about to thank him, all of them, and ask Long Caster if they were clear to go home, but something caught her eye and the whole mood was ruined. As Hugin began to fall in a ball of fire towards the ocean, something detached from its body and circled back around towards them. Although it was black like the body of the Raven, its shape and movements were very familiar. She gritted her teeth. "Oh, what now?"
"Hey, is anyone else seeing this?" Tailor asked them nervously.
"Look! That stupid thing discarded its wings!" Count snapped as the new enemy circled around wide, until it was just out of their missile range, performing a little airshow to taunt them. "What the…hey Trig, is that…?"
"Yup, looks just like it," Naomi said with a frustrated huff, recalling the fight perfectly even though it was months ago. Of course things weren't going to go smoothly. "I'm not in the mood for this shit again. Ugly little bastard…"
"You two wanna share with the rest of us or what?" Tabloid asked, sounding just as caught off guard by it.
"It looks just like the drone that Trigger shot down at Bulgurdarest. The one Wiseman and Cyclops were tailing," Count said, filling him in on it. Tabloid had heard the story second hand before but when you constantly had things being thrown at you it was hard to remember one isolated weird drone incident out of a billion others. "I guess the prototype that Wiseman was talking about got finished."
"Shit, that thing gave us hell the first time we saw it and that wasn't even the real deal," Húxiān said with an irritated growl. "I swear to God I'd give anything to deck whatever morons made this thing!"
"Worry 'bout that later, right now get your head in the game," Clown suggested to her, but really it probably went for all of them.
Unfortunately, not many of them had a good chance against it. Naomi managed to catch up with it, following it into its little spirals and arcs as best as she was able to. Compared to both Hugin and Munin as well as the prototype from Bulgurdarest, this thing had received some serious upgrades as far as maneuverability was, but as far as weapons were concerned all she had to worry about were pulse lasers. If she could have gotten a clean shot her own lasers could have burned right through it, but the target didn't seem interested in a dogfight. It avoided the others, continuously baiting her and nimbly slipping away anytime her wingmen moved to aid her.
Naomi followed it every step of the way, practically dancing in the air with it. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt sick to her stomach, almost a bit dizzy, but she wasn't about to let herself black out. Trying to keep up with it was hell, but she did it, chasing after every single opening it gave her even if it seemed a little too easy. She, Count, and Seymour managed to follow it up into a climb, everyone including the three of them throwing volleys of missiles and gunfire at it in hopes of hitting it and trashing each and every shot. Even with her alternating between her weapons, getting closer and closer to completely depleting her reserves, it still evaded them like it was nothing. They'd only managed to hit it with gunfire and lasers, and that barely did anything to slow it down.
The drone completed yet another arc, pulling a post-stall maneuver like it was nothing and gliding past her cockpit like it was nothing. It was so close to her that she probably could have touched it, and it terrified her. She broke her own climb, rolling and trying to get her bearings and figure out where it went. When she caught up to it again, it seemed to have clumsily predicted what she was going to do, slowing and speeding up and keeping the chase up as it tried to match her moves instead of the other way around.
Jaeger was the first one to point this out, reassuring Naomi that she hadn't lost her mind yet. "Hang on, is it just me or is that thing trying to read Trigger's reactions?"
"It's observing Strider 1 for sure," Seymour said, sounding a bit surprised and maybe even fascinated by it. "It's like it's trying to learn from her…"
"You've gotta be kidding me," Naomi said through a grunt as she turned to follow the drone. She was pretty sure that talking while trying to fight this thing wasn't helping her any, but she wasn't going to just sit on something like that. "I know they say you're your own worst enemy, but I don't think this is what they had in mind."
"If they learn to fly like you, who's gonna shoot 'em down?" Count asked her, sounding both afraid and a bit amazed, even. The fact he thought she was that good of a pilot was another thing she'd never have expected from him when they first met. "Like, talk about the impossible…we'd never be able to stop them."
"Not to mention they can manufacture a whole lot of them, too," Seymour pointed out.
"Combine her flying style with Mihaly's and you're looking at an endless war," Wit added, sounding a bit more concerned than Seymour did. "Even with a whole squadron of miracle aces we'd barely stand a chance."
Naomi didn't say anything, but the idea of losing here was not something she was going to accept. She didn't make it all this way to die. If this thing wanted to learn to fly like her then she wanted to show it a thing or two about recklessness and unpredictability. Two things she was infamous for and things that were kind of key to her flying style. As the drone dove towards the ocean, Naomi followed it only half way and fired a set of missiles, and just like she expected it started climbing again to avoid them. After that the chase was on.
She followed it as it took her around the space elevator in spirals and completed twists and arcs, and it was watching how she reacted to each of these things. And since it was watching her, predicting and reading everything she did, she decided to fake it out. She wanted to see what would happen if she made it chase her, so she broke off her pursuit and let the others try and wrangle it for a bit, not quite disengaging from the fight but trying to test if this would actually work.
Sure enough, it broke off to follow her, trying to bait her into chasing it again. Naomi didn't fall for it. She almost matched its speed, flying off its wing as if they were in a formation together, with the arrogant thing rolling and gliding around like some kind of bird. Suddenly, Naomi banked slightly towards its wing, as if she was going to try and get on its tail, and as expected it broke in the opposite direction. Then Naomi practically ripped the stick off to the side as she rolled her plane towards it the second it reacted, catching it as it made a wide turn and firing the last of her QAAMs at it. It didn't have time to calculate or react before both missiles made contact with it.
The aircraft began to ignite, breaking apart as it went spiraling out of the sky until it completely disappeared in one final explosion. Just like before, everyone praised the kill, Footpad the first one to announce it. "Direct hit! It was Strider 1's missile!"
"UAV is down!" Long Caster confirmed, sounding almost as relieved as Naomi felt. "Radar signal is lost! Incredible work!"
Naomi pulled away from the smoke and back up towards the others as they all lined up behind her, waiting for the order to go home or anything else to happen. She leaned her head back some, relaxing her muscles a bit. She was exhausted but she still put on a smile, trying to sound a little cheerful. "Guess I did it…whew."
"Our top ace showin' us how it's done!" Clown called out through a laugh. "That's our girl!"
"When I get home I can't wait to go bragging to my son about living through this. What a day…" Jaeger said through an audible smile and a tired sigh as he took his place off Naomi's right wing. "That was definitely the most intense thing I've ever been in."
"Long Caster, how's everything looking?" Naomi asked.
"The space elevator has just powered up. Looks like we made it in just the nick of time," Long Caster replied quickly, still keeping professional. "Fortunately, you've all prevented data that may have included Trigger's flying style from leaking. Just like Wit said, if it had gotten out along with Mr. X's data we'd never make it outta this mess alive." He paused, taking a deep breath. "I think we've earned a victory celebration. I've got a special bottle o' wine I've been saving for just such an occasion. What do you say we open it?"
Before anyone could agree to that, the static and screeching sound came over the radio again and Naomi felt a chill run down her spine. Instantly her muscles tensed and her guard went up again. She checked the radar, then began to look wildly around, but she wasn't seeing anything. How was that thing still alive? She saw them all go down, right? She was trying not to panic but that was easier said than done.
To everyone's surprise, including Naomi's, the Princess' voice came over the radio. She must have been monitoring things from the carrier, no doubt along with everyone else they left behind. They'd have a front row seat, arguably one as good as Long Caster's bird eye view of everything. But she must have noticed something he didn't. "Can you all hear me? I think there's still one drone left!"
"How the hell would she know?" Count asked with a slight scoff. "More importantly, I thought Trigger destroyed all the drones. We saw the whole thing."
"It's thrown away its wings, just like the other one, but it's still flying!" the Princess insisted, sounding a bit desperate and maybe even a little frustrated.
Next, Dr. Schroeder joined in, probably watching everything from the support facility. "It's possible it discarded its wings just like Hugin did, and if that's the case, then…" he sounded like he was thinking aloud more than anything. "The chances are incredibly high. Everyone keep your guard up."
"Dammit! Can any of you hear me?!" the Princess practically demanded, again through desperation and frustration, right before something appeared on Naomi's radar. Hearing the girl swear was what really got her attention, and it was a good thing, too. "That aircraft needs to be taken care of!"
"Long Caster?" Naomi asked, more than a little on edge.
"They're right. I see something on the radar! The UAV is still alive and kicking!" Long Caster replied, noticing the new blip for himself. "It must have used some kind of stealth capabilities to wait out the battle. But now it's –"
The drone shot right past their formation like it was nothing, boldly flying directly past Naomi's cockpit like it was taunting her. Taunting all of them. It flew through the clouds, towards the city, and as it rounded on the manmade island it disappeared from view. For a second all of them were left completely dumbfounded, including Naomi. "Long Caster, where'd that thing go?!"
"It looks like it went into the undersea tunnel," Long Caster said, and he didn't sound optimistic about it. "That tunnel leads to the space elevator. No doubt it's heading there to get that data transmitted…"
"Does this mean what I think it does?" Naomi asked slowly, feeling a pit in her stomach. She kept her plane straight ahead. By now she had a perfect view of the city, approaching the port and the island. Whatever had to happen, something told her no one was going to like it. Whether she could handle it was a different story.
"The only way you can get at it is if you fly into the tunnel after the UAV," Long Caster replied slowly, clearly not happy about the news he had to deliver. "I know we've asked a lot of you, Trigger, but I wouldn't put this on you if I didn't know you could do it."
"This day just keeps getting better and better, huh?" Naomi asked with a half-hearted laugh, trying desperately not to sound nervous. She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out of her mouth. She'd done crazier before. "I'll do it. I mean, what's one more death-defying stunt, right?"
"Hey, hey, hang on, you can't just jump into something like that," Footpad called out to her, stumbling over his words. "How on earth do you expect her to make it out of there?"
"He's right. Where's the escape vector?" Wit asked, sounding surprisingly concerned.
"There's enough space for her to turn beneath the elevator," Long Caster said. "I wouldn't send her in there with no way out."
"That's a suicide mission!" Tailor pointed out, his voice cracking a bit. "Even if she could turn, how the hell are you supposed to make it in there, let alone back out! It's too dangerous."
"Look, I don't care about the risks, I'm doing this," Naomi declared, craning her neck to find the tunnel as she circled around from the city. She was pretty sure she was starting to shake again, but she forced herself to calm down. "This is ending right here, right now."
"If there's anyone that can pull this off it's her," Knocker said with a sigh, though he didn't sound like he was happy about the strategy either. "And it's not like we have any other options."
"She's got this, I know she does," Húxiān said, throwing in her own support. No one else argued about it, so Naomi went on her way.
However, right before she made her turn, she spotted Count on her radar as he broke off from the rest of Strider Squadron. She felt a weird mix of worry and anger as her anxiety spiked again, and it seemed he caught the others off guard too as Jaeger – the one that was really keeping everyone in line while she was gone – called him out on it. He sounded both confused, worried, and frustrated. Like a parent scolding their child for running off. "Count, where are you going?!"
"We rely on Trigger too much. She's gonna need help," Count said simply, already dead set on what he was doing.
"You can't be serious, Count!" Húxiān snapped at him.
"What are you, crazy?" Tabloid threw in his own disapproval, clearly as caught off guard as everyone else was. "Don't tell me you're that stupid!"
"Yeah, well, none of you had any problem with Trigger doing the same thing just now," Count retorted with a scoff, clearly not enjoying being snapped at by all of them trying to keep him from getting himself killed.
"Trigger's different," Húxiān pointed out flatly.
"We'll see about that," Count replied. "I'm not leaving her."
"Goddammit, Count, get your ass back in formation! Go look out for the others," Naomi snapped at him, reaching a point where she wasn't going to listen to their back and forth. She wasn't going to just keep her mouth shut, especially not when they were running out of time. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you do this, Count, just go!"
"Hey, I told you I wasn't going anywhere and I meant it! I'm not going to sit back and send you in there alone," Count told her, raising his voice a little. "So unless you plan to shoot me down right now then I don't wanna hear it."
"I don't have the time to argue with you! Just listen to me for once, please!" Naomi raised her voice again. She didn't even know if she was going to come out of this alive, and he had to go and make the stakes that much higher. Make everything that much scarier. She gritted her teeth, trying not to let herself cry from how angry and scared she was. "Don't you dare do this to me, you idiot! I didn't make it this far just to lose you now!"
"You're not going in there without me," Count said, as stubborn as ever. "We've made it this far together, I'm following you to the end of it!"
Naomi sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. She was lined up with the tunnel now, and Count was right behind her. She let out a frustrated sigh, her teeth still clenched together as she finally gave in. "If you do anything stupid in there, I swear I'm gonna…"
"Relax, Trig," he said with a light chuckle, cutting her off. "I'm with you till the end."
"It's bad enough we've gotta send her in there, but now you're seriously asking us to risk both your lives?" Tabloid sounded incredulous when he spoke up, more frustrated than she'd heard him in a long time. She felt bad for leaving him behind, but she didn't need both of them in there with them. He sighed, his tone softening a bit. "Both of you are out of your minds. Just come back, alright?"
"Don't worry. Y'know, I learned something outta all of this," Count said to him, once again sounding as though he was smiling. "'Stick with Trigger and you'll make it.'"
Naomi took a breath as she reached the tunnel opening, checking to make sure Count was still behind her. "Alright…we'll see y'all on the other side."
Staying level with the road, Naomi throttled up until the sky above her disappeared and the tunnel surrounded them both. Her eyes had to adjust to the change in the lighting, though it wasn't too drastic. The tunnel was dingy and gray, with dull white lights lining the top of it with a single red light here and there that Naomi didn't really know the purpose of. It made zipping past them kind of a weird feeling, like she was going a lot faster than she actually was, and it made her nervous but she stayed on her course.
Before they got too far down the tunnel, Long Caster quickly radioed them, "Alright you two, give me your status."
"Alive," Count deadpanned.
"I decided to take a nosedive right into the ground," Naomi added with her own bit of sarcasm. She heard Count let out a snort at the joke.
"Excellent. So you're both okay then?" Long Caster asked, completely ignoring and likely not impressed with their idea of humor.
"Whoah, whoah, whoah, what makes you think that?" Count asked with a chuckle. "It's just like Tabloid said, we're outta our damn minds."
"I'm afraid I don't have time to chat with you guys. The radio will cut out soon so I can't beat around the bush," Long Caster told them right as they entered what looked to be the first junction in a series of several tunnels. "It will take the drone a short time to send over the data. You need to catch up and destroy it as fast as you can. I don't know what tricks it might try, so keep your guards up…and take care, you two."
He barely managed to get the last part out before the radio cut off, and as that happened one of the three heavy gates slammed close and another began to slowly lower to the ground as well. Naomi and Count kept straight ahead, but the middle gate started to close as well. Even if it was at a slower speed than the others, it startled her and she instinctively throttled up and slipped underneath it with Count right behind her. The middle gate closed a few seconds later, just as Count flew underneath it.
Naomi might have been a bit more worried about it if not for the fact that her HUD and radar both picked up the drone, but it was too far away from her for her to get a missile lock. Still, she pointed it out to Count. "Hey, hey look at that!"
"Yes! There it is! UAV spotted, we finally found it!" Count said, sounding more aggressive than thrilled, like he was ready for a fight. "At least it didn't get too much of a head start."
"I think we better pick up the speed or we're not gonna make it in time," Naomi said just as the UAV disappeared, before she or Count could do anything about it. It was risky and the chances of losing control with one wrong motion were a lot higher, but it was a risk they had to take. "I dunno how long these tunnels go on for, but I think it's better safe than sorry."
"Righto, I'm with you," Count told her.
The two of them both throttled up, the tunnel flying past them this time. The lights went flashing by so fast it was enough to start screwing with Naomi's eyes, forcing her to blink a couple times to keep from getting too lost with everything flying past her. It didn't take long for them to reach the end of the tunnel and enter the second junction, and this time it was the gate right in front of them that slammed close with a brief, metal screeching sound and a heavy thud. Naomi cursed under her breath as she had to bank to one side, wobbling as she tried to keep control of her plane and slow her speed some to turn into one of the other tunnels before the gate slammed close on top of her.
"Shit, there's no way this isn't on purpose," Naomi said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself as she slowly increased her speed. "Count?"
"Yup, the way behind us is sealed off, too," Count said with a sigh, sounding a bit shaken up himself. "I heard some static when the gate closed…you don't think the UAV's operating the gates to slow us down, do you?"
"As opposed to them just slamming shut randomly on their own? That little piece of shit is trying to lock us in here," Naomi growled, kicking her foot against her cockpit. "Dammit."
"Shit. Just great, there goes our only way out then. And I thought we were actually gonna pull this off…" Count grumbled, and Naomi tried not to let herself get too frustrated. There was a short pause, then he let out a short sigh and made an attempt at sounding reassuring as he told her, "Just don't worry about it, we'll think of something. I'll find us a way outta here somehow."
"Ah, how reassuring," Naomi said, forcing out a short laugh. It sounded a lot more sarcastic than she meant for it to, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't nervous and on edge.
"They're waiting for you outside, I'm not gonna let you drop here," Count told her, his voice as soft as it had been the night before, when they'd been talking on the deck. She replayed the thought in her head a bit, trying to find something positive to hold on to. As if Count could tell, he playfully added, "Besides, I'm gonna hold you to what you said. Gotta show you I'm serious, right?"
"If you tell me you followed me down here just to show off or something I'm gonna strangle you," Naomi said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at him. Of course he'd go and try and try and lighten the mood. In his own stupid way. She shook that off and returned her focus to the mission at hand though. "Alright, get your head back in the game, I think we're coming up on the end of the tunnel."
"No sign of the drone down this one. I guess it must've taken another path," Count mused out loud. "Doesn't really matter, though, we know where it's going. We can still catch it."
The two of them stayed on their course, Naomi trying her best not to brake or turn too abruptly as she tried to keep level. She kept on the throttle which forced her to have to work the rudder if she didn't want to crash into the ceiling or the ground below, and she was pretty sure Count had to do the same thing. The tunnel they were in was a lot darker than the center one had been, with what looked like some kind of rail line instead of a paved road like the other one, and it somehow felt more enclosed. She could hear how unsteady her breathing was and she felt sweat beading up on her face, but she tried not to think about how little space it felt like she had.
As the tunnel opened up into a third junction, Naomi had to abruptly break for the center opening as the one in front of her started to slide close. The static and screeching sound came over the radio, but as they got deeper through the tunnel Naomi could have sworn she heard a separate transmission overlapping the static. It was just as distorted and garbled, but it sounded like someone saying something, definitely reading off some kind of a callsign, but she didn't recognize it at all. Her worst fear was that the drone had started to mimic actual human voices now instead of just mimicking them with god-awful screeching and static, but she didn't want to think about that.
Maybe it was one of their allies trying to reach them? But the radio shouldn't be able to pick up anyone out there, not considering how far down they were. Naomi checked her altimeter, reading minus 200 on it, and she blew out a breath. Another thing that she really didn't want to think about. But considering that, more likely it was the drone just playing back some recording it picked up during the battle or something, though Naomi didn't think it sounded like her or anyone else on their side.
The tunnel they were in wasn't nearly as long as the ones that came before it, and they went flying through it in a matter of seconds. They reached another junction, this time only one tunnel open for them, and it was closing before they even exited the one before it. Right as they broke out of the tunnel, the drone came twisting out of nowhere and started firing its lasers, causing Naomi's fight instinct to kick in but she forced herself to stay on course. She couldn't turn and fight or they'd be stuck in the cramped space or they'd crash right into the gate. Instead, she steadied her plane and tried to warn her wingman as soon as she saw it.
"Count, watch it!" Naomi called to him.
"Drone on your tail!" Count warned her at almost the same time, and just before the gate closed the drone broke off and shot past them. Naomi got a lock on it for a second, but if she missed she had the chance of them getting caught in the explosion and smoke and risk them crashing. However, right as the drone broke off Count let out a pained, startled cry. "Dammit! It got me! I'm hit! Shit!"
"Count?!" Naomi jerked her head around in her seat, making sure he got through in time when she noticed he'd slowed some, but the relief she felt when she saw he was still there was temporary. He was definitely trailing smoke. She felt her throat tighten, quickly turning her attention back to the path in front of her. She made a hard yaw to the right, barely avoiding scraping her wing on the side after she'd taken her eyes off their path. Trying not to sound panicked, she asked him, "Count, talk to me, how're you holding up?"
"Uh…my wings seem fine, but I'm losing thrust. Is it my engine?" Count said quickly, sounding like he was still trying to figure all of it out himself. He was quick to assess the situation. "Definitely feels like it's my engine. Plane's still in one piece, though, and I'm not getting any fire alarms…trailing smoke, though, which isn't really a great sign."
"What about you?" Naomi asked him, swallowing.
"I'm fine. I can still fly," Count reassured her. It didn't help much. "I'm not getting much thrust, but…I'll be okay."
Naomi checked her radar, noting that he was still keeping up with her. They rounded a turn in the tunnel and they were brought into a straightaway. At the end she could barely make out a flashing red light. She tried to steady her breathing. "Hang on, buddy. I think we're in the home stretch."
She risked throttling up a bit more, letting the lights and the tunnel walls go flying by, ignoring how cramped she felt and how worried she was for both Count's safety and hers. The seconds ticked by and finally the tunnel opened out underneath the space elevator. The chamber was circular, with the elevator jutting through in the middle, but it wasn't nearly as cramped as the junctions and tunnels they'd passed through to get there. Unfortunately, as soon as they flew out from the tunnel the drone sealed the gate shut behind them and locked them in.
Their way back wasn't Naomi's priority at that second, though, as she spotted the drone circling the area and various repeaters set up on the supporting pillars. This was it. "Finally!"
"Drone is turning! It'll send its payload, shoot it down, Trigger!" Count called out to her. "Blow it to pieces!"
"On it!" Naomi replied, turning to move against the drone's path as it lazily circled, likely forced to slow down in order to send the data. That was her guess at least. "Count, on the wall! Can you get the repeaters?"
"Way ahead of you, Trigger!" Count replied as he followed her, firing a missile at the target on the wall while Naomi got out of the way.
The drone was well within range and she fired off a pair of regular missiles, but the drone was able to evade both of them. Naomi let out a frustrated grunt and switched over to her pulse lasers, continuing the circle until the drone was in front of her again. She lined up the shot, adjusting her angle, and she pulled the trigger. The volley of lasers were harder for it to evade and easier for her to aim at that moment, and before the drone could react its wing was practically seared off. It lost its altitude and crashed into the chamber floor.
"It's down! Yeah, baby!" Count announced proudly, right before Naomi took out the last two of the five repeaters for him. It was over. The fight at least. Count let out a laugh but he almost sounded nervous. "I knew you could do it!"
Naomi forced herself to put on a weak, tired smile in hopes it would somehow make the situation better. But as they circled the chamber with no obvious way out she wasn't really feeling that optimistic. Especially not when her wingman was barely staying in the air. "We won, but…now what?" she asked. She sighed. "Count, are you still hanging in there?"
"Well…good news and bad news, I guess. I can't get anymore thrust, but I'm still alive," Count said, sounding a bit hesitant. And he probably knew that that was one of the last things Naomi had wanted to hear. He gave her another laugh. "It was pretty stupid to follow you in here, but I'd rather it be me than you, y'know? I dunno if I'm actually gonna be following you all the way to the end."
"Shut up," Naomi said, trying to snap at him but instead she ended up fighting off tears. And try to calm her breathing. "Don't say stuff like that."
"Look, I'm being serious here," Count told her, ignoring her tone. He took a deep breath. "We're going home. I told you I was gonna find us a way out of here, didn't I?"
"If you've got a plan I'd love to hear it," Naomi said, sounding more annoyed than she meant to. She wasn't annoyed at him, she was annoyed at the situation they were stuck in. "So what've you got?"
"The space elevator. It's a longshot, but the windbreak is hollow and there's no ceiling all the way up. It'll be a straight, vertical climb though…your body and your plane are gonna be handling a shit ton of Gs," Count said, sounding like he'd been thinking about it a lot longer than a few seconds or however long they'd been flying through that tunnel. He chuckled. "But it'll be like a walk in the park for you. Not sure if my bird's gonna be able to handle it, though."
Naomi let the words sink in and she felt her chest and throat tighten. No. No, no, no. Not him too. Not when we're this close. "I'm not leaving you down here by yourself," she told him simply, refusing to let her voice shake. "You said it yourself, we made it this far together. I'm not gonna bail on you now."
"So what, you're just gonna burn fuel until we both crash?" Count challenged her, sounding like he wasn't in the mood to argue any more than she was. "Fly! I know that you can make it! Just get inside the middle column and raise your nose, that'll lead inside the windbreak!"
"I said I'm not leaving you," Naomi snapped back at him, not caring how impractical it was. "I'm not gonna lose you too, I already told you that."
"Look, I'll be fine, alright? I'll attempt a belly landing, now get moving," Count told her. Naomi hesitated, glancing up at the opening in the column. He wasn't going to give in on this. "I know you can make it. Just get outta here, everyone's waiting for you!"
Naomi let out a frustrated groan, slamming her fist against the canopy like that was somehow going to fix anything. She took a few breaths as she circled the chamber, reaching the gate once again, and if she was going to go then it needed to be now. "Just…be careful, alright? Don't die on me."
"Wasn't planning on it," Count told her, letting out a breath. It sounded like he was almost relieved she gave in. She wasn't all that happy about it, though. "Anyways, I could say the same thing to you."
Naomi ignored him, choosing that moment to pull a tight high-G turn. She turned until she was lined up with the column, then carefully pulled up until she was able to fly inside the windbreak. It wasn't as tight of a fit as she was expecting, having just enough space that her wings wouldn't clip the edges, however as she pulled up into it she had to handle the strain of the climb. As she pulled up, through the windbreak she could see the base of the elevator and the sky overhead. So long as she didn't pass out, there was a clear sky waiting for her.
As soon as she managed to fly inside, Naomi lowered her speed and adjusted her approach, keeping an eye on her surroundings. She could feel the weight of the gravity already, but she gritted her teeth and kept going, her only concerns being staying conscious and her wingman. "Count, don't push it, alright? Get out of there before you crash."
"Yeah…I wanted to wait until I had less fuel, but I don't really have a choice. I'm attempting to land now," Count told her with a sigh. "I don't think my plane will make it."
"To hell with the plane, all I care about is you staying alive," Naomi told him. She took a breath, aware of how shallow and unsteady her breathing was becoming, and her head started to feel light. She refused to let herself clock out, though. "I'll see you in a bit…alright?"
"See you in a bit, Trig," Count agreed through what sounded like a small smile. One that Naomi might have returned if she could have actually felt her face at that moment. She kept her eyes on the edge of the tunnel and focused on his voice until she couldn't hear him anymore. "Anyway, here goes…" She could hear the sound of warnings going off in his cockpit as he likely started to ease his plane down. "C'mon, baby. Stay with me just a bit more…easy."
The transmission was cut out following the sound of a heavy metallic whine and a loud clattering sound. Naomi winced when she heard it, letting out a grunt and gasp like it had physically hurt her to hear but it was likely just the result of her fighting against gravity at that moment. She didn't know if the radio had cut out because he had crashed or something had gone wrong or if she had flown out of range and it cut out on its own, but she hoped and prayed it wasn't the former.
As her flight continued, she fought to keep her plane on course against wind and gravity as well as fight off the pain in her body and her lightheadedness. It hurt. Her body was practically forced against the ejection seat, breathing was a challenge, and no amount of the training she had to handle this or her own ability to handle this stuff was going to change the fact that this was the hardest climb of her life. Eventually all other sounds around her started to fade out and become muffled. The sounds of her Raptors instruments in her cockpit, the wind whistling, everything but her own labored breathing.
She could finally see the opening at the top of the windbreak. Clear, dark blue waiting for her if she could just hang in there a little longer. But after the lightheadedness, her limbs started to feel heavy, and little by little her vision was starting to tunnel. Naomi had never experienced g-LOC before, going through flight school without ever passing out or puking, but at that moment she wanted to give in to it. She was tired. Not thinking straight in the slightest. It would have been so easy to stop fighting it and just let gravity do her in.
She was a little more than halfway when she heard static over the radio. People talking. Her allies, from the sound of things. Then the same garbled transmission she heard from before. And then she heard a familiar voice, one that belonged to the Princess, managing to speak out over the static. "Can you hear me?" If Naomi wanted to respond, she couldn't. The Princess sounded worried. "Please make it. We're all waiting for you. A world of darkness needs a light to shine."
Naomi was keeping on the throttle at this point, her body moving mostly out of instinct. The Princess' voice came again. "We're waiting for that beacon of light!"
The last word seemed to echo and fade into a single tone that matched the feeling of the Raptors engines in Naomi's chest right as her vision was starting to go, only able to keep her focus on the single speck of blue waiting for her. And right before she completely lost sight of the sky, she broke out of the windbreak and everything came flooding back as she heard her name called.
"...Trigger!"