Expertly Seb piloted the white helicopter towards Hawke's cabin, skirting the edge of the restricted air zone. What he lacked in String's easy finesse with a helicopter he more than made up for in cautious precision. Saint John dozed wearily in the co-pilot's seat beside him.
Casting a watchful glance at his older brother, he pointed out the mountains ahead to Roper.
"Long way from everything and everyone," the other commented.
"Yeah, but it's hard to beat for the peace and quiet," Seb returned. "You can go for miles sometimes and not see another soul."
"Not today," Roper retorted.
"What do you mean?" Seb asked.
Roper pointed above and to the left.
Following the other's direction, Seb stared upward for a long moment. After a long minute he returned his gaze to the instruments.
"Coincidence?" Roper asked, unease prickling his neck.
"Don't believe in it," Seb retorted dryly. "Let's see what happens if we change our heading. Swinging left he headed away from the cabin and towards the dam far above the lake.
Several minutes passed in terse silence. "Well?" he finally asked.
Squinting, Roper shifted around in his seat trying to get a better look above. "Still there," he said at last.
"Great," Seb muttered.
"So, what do we do?" Roper questioned, abruptly missing the heavy armament of the planes he normally flew.
"Pray," Seb retorted shortly. Reaching across the cockpit, he jostled Saint John's arm. "Hey Sinj, wake up!"
Snatching himself awake, Saint John shifted. The abrupt movement pulled across the tender flesh on his ribs and he groaned before catching himself. Gingerly, he shoved himself up in the seat and looked at Seb.
"We got company," he explained tersely, pointing.
Hazel eyes narrowed at Seb, before checking the skies. "How long?" he quieried.
"Last seven minutes or so."
"Nothing out this way except the dam and String's cabin," the older blond stated reaching for the controls. "Get String on the horn, and do it now. We got trouble."
Relinquishing the stick, Seb reached for the radio.
Listening to ten year old Nicky, and sister Amelia squabble in the back of the jet ranger, Caitlin rolled her eyes. Unwitting sympathy welled up for Saint John. He only thought he was being kept out of the battle zone watching these two.
Hawke threw a glance her way as he checked the instruments. His blue eyes crinkled in amusement as he stifled a laugh.
Static crackled across the airways, interrupting the moment. "Santini One, Santini One, this is Angel Two. Do you read?"
Hawke flipped the switch for the radio, a chuckle still in his voice. "Angel Two, this is Santini One. We're headed your way, just running a little behind schedule. Over."
"Hawke," Seb's voice cut across his message, his tone urgent. "We've got bandits. I repeat we've got bandits, turn back."
Horrified blue eyes met Caitlin's blue-green. In a heartbeat, she knew the fear Hawke had for his brothers and other son. Angel Two was weaponless and while Seb was a competent pilot, he most definitely was not Hawke. Suddenly pale beneath his tan, String sat back.
"Enough," he barked out, holding up a hand, his voice harsh. "Tighten up your belts and hang on." Eyes wide, Nicky and Amelia subsided in startled silence as their father swung the aircraft hard left and back the couple miles to Red Star. "Hang on Seb," he whispered. "Hang on, I'm coming."
Caitlin reached for the radio switch and placed a call to Marella, even as Hawke pushed the jet ranger forward as hard as she could go.
Three minutes ticked by like an eternity as the craggy rocks of red Star came into view. Swinging the jet ranger around the point, Hawke spotted Airwolf crouched and waiting on the tarmac below. He flared the nose of the jet ranger up and set her down on her skids with a thump that had Caitlin's teeth rattling.
Eight year old Amelia whimpered from the back - more from fear for the others she picked up from her father, than the teeth gnashing landing. Nicky for once didn't tease his sister, but instead grabbed her hand comfortingly. "Daddy?"
Hawke didn't answer, his attention focused on shutting down the jet ranger. Overhead the rotors whopped to a slow halt, flattening Marella's dress against her as she and Michael stepped out from beside Airwolf.
"Come on kids," Cait urged them even as she scrabbled to unfasten her own harness. "We gotta hurry."
Small hands hurriedly clicked open safety harnesses with hours of experience. Scrambling, they clamored out of the jet ranger even as Hawke loped towards Michael and Marella. Caitlin grabbed their hands as they trailed a half-step behind following him.
"Come here kids," Marella encouraged holding her arms out to them as Cait and Hawke spoke in hurried tones with Michael.
"Daddy?" Amelia whimpered plaintively, her blue eyes huge in her face. Turning, String looked down at his daughter, her lower lip trembling as she tried not to cry.
His heart clenched. "Come here sweetie," he said, his own voice husky as he knelt down. He gave her a hard hug, feeling his heart break as he let her go.
Holding her back from him, Hawke searched her face. "I'll be back. I promise. Stay with Marella, she'll take good care of you, okay?"
Nodding the child agreed, fat tears sliding down her cheeks. Hawke turned to his son, standing there silently, waiting. "You take good care of your sister," he said gruffly. Nicky nodded somberly. Hawke rached over and hugged the boy around the shoulder. "Love you."
"Love you too, dad," he replied, a frown marring his features as he reached for his sister's hand and pulled her away towards Marella.
Hawke snatched the cockpit door open with a whoosh as Cait climbed into the engineer's seat behind him. Sharp eyes looked to see the children clear, even as his fingers nimbly flipped the cover and pressed the start up buttons to engage the engine and the rotors.
Rotors swooping the air, she reved up for take-off, the whine of her engines increasing in time with the rotors. Flickering to life, the onboard computers lit with the intricities of wind, hydrolics, fuel and the like.
Reaching for the collective, Hawke called back, "Ready?" to Caitlin even as he prepared to ease back on it.
"Ready!" she returned, her voice steady as her fingers danced over the keyboards. Ascending easily, Airwolf rose into the sky above red Star. Watching the monitors, cait knew the instant they safely cleared the reaches of the hanger. "Clear," she called.
Pushing forward on the stick, Hawke hit the turbos. Surging forward, Airwolf flung herself into the wind, her highpitched banshee cry echoing in the air.
Squinting in the sun, Nicky watched Airwolf's sleek, black shape disappear on the horizon a frown creasing his forehead.
"Come on you guys," Marella said brightly, slinging her arms around their shoulders. "Let's go see what we can find to do inside, while we wait." Sheperding them in, her eyes met Michael's the worry in them as visible as the concern in his.
"Loose 'em!" Roper's voice came urgently in Saint John's ear.
"I'm working on it," he bit back. "Seb?"
"Still on our tail," came the reply.
"Great," Saint John muttered. Pushing forward on the cyclic, Angel Two nosed towards the dam. Laying hard on the right rudder pedal, the helicopter veered away at the last instant from the dam wall. The huey behind them began closing the distance between the two helicopters.
"They're gaining on us."
Machine gunfire ripped across the edge of the dam, where they'd been only moments before. Concrete chunks exploded, ricocheting off the tail boom of the helicopter. Cursing, Saint John lowered the collective, swinging low along the edge of the dam.
"Can't shake 'em," he grumbled. "There's just no way this bird can outrun them. Sweat dripped into his eyes and stung along the new gash on his ribs. Swerving hard left, he out-maneuvered another round of gunfire - barely.
"Incoming missile!" Seb yelled.
"Ah, hell," Saint John cursed, swinging the helicopter into a half-roll and implementing a half-loop back the way he'd come along the base of the dam.
"Where's it now?" Saint John panted, as he wrestled the helicopter level again.
"Any sign of them, Cait?" Hawke asked tersely, his hand heavy on the throttle. Airwolf screamed through the air in response.
"No sign," she answered contritely.
"Nothing on radar?"
"Nothing."
"Dammit," Hawke heaved a sigh of frustration. "Okay,
Cait what was their last radio transmission?"
"90 left to 175."
"They were headed for the dam?" he mused. "That sounds more like Saint John than Seb. Grief I hope so. Give me turbos, Cait."
"Turbos," she answered, slamming the lever into place. Airwolf rocketed across the sky, howling a challenge to the sky as she did so. Hawke swung her into a steep half-roll as he headed for the dam.
"There they are," Hawke commented in relief, spotting the white helicopter.
"Huey on their six. They've got off a missile, String," fingers flying she ran an I.D. "It's a heat seeker!" panic threaded her voice. "They'll never get out of the way in time!"
Diving, Airwolf hurtled in a suicidal sweep between the jet ranger and the missile, her downwash rocking the other aircraft as she ripped by. The missile whipped past the white jet ranger picking up Airwolf's hotter heat signature.
"We're between you and them Seb," Hawke radioed. "Get the heck out of here while we run interference."
Saint John's voice came across the radio. "Boy am I glad to see you little brother," his relief evident even as he wrestled the jet ranger back under control."
"Missile acquired," Caitlin cried, her voice tense as she clung to the engineering console. Hawke said nothing, Airwolf hurtling towards the water below in a screaming falcon's dive. "Hawke?" Cait cried, "Pull up! Pull up!"
The water rushed up into her view, fear clogging her throat, she braced for the inevitable crash.
Hauling back on the stick at the last minute, Hawke swung Airwolf upwards her frame shuddering with the strain, engines screaming in protest. Skimming feet above the surface of the water, Hawke deftly rolled Airwolf into an Immelman turn, the ascending half-loop snatching him out of missile range as it hit the water. He completed the turn, the half-roll taking him in a 180 degree turn.
The Sidewinder slammed into the water, the explosion as it hit spraying a plume into the air.
Sucking air into her lungs, and remembering to breath Caitlin clung to the console. She shook her head, the grayness from the g-forces disapaiting. Forcing her attention back to the monitor in front of her, she punched up radar.
"They've got another one off," she warned. "It's trying to acquire us."
"Pop a sunburst," he ordered and raise the IR suppression. Agily, he rolled Airwolf out of the missile's range as it swooped towards them.
"Didn't take it, Hawke," she informed, her voice tight.
Eyes widening, he responded, "It's a sniffer." Pulluing hard on the stick he toof Airwolf into a 360 degree aileron roll. "Gimme a Hellfire," he rasped, even as he pulled her out of the corkscrew-like maneuver.
Sweeping in behind the missile, Hawke aimed, his right thumb hitting the firing button. Targeting with deadly precision, the Hellfire exploded on contact with the other missile."
Rolling away from the explosion, Hawke came up behind the Huey even as it turned in the direction of Saint John's slower chopper.
"Chain guns," Hawke ordered, his voice as cold and icy as his eyes.
"You got 'em."
Letting loose a straffing burst, he fired on the Huey in front of him. The first rounds missed, the second took out the cockpit. The ensuing explosion shook Airwolf even as she climbed away from it.
"Hey, Sinj," Hawke called, hitting the transmit button on the panel even as he leveled out Airwolf's flight. "You okay?"
"Yeah, but next time I'm trading you birds," his brother retorted.
Hawke laughed. "We'll see. Hey, I thought Seb was flying that thing."
"He was, and he is," Saint John stated shortly, motioning for Seb to take the controls. "I'm beat."
"That's what happens when you get old," Hawke taunted, feeling the adrenaline ebb in his own body.
"Huh," Saint John snorted in disgust. "You best watch it little brother. You're not that far behind me."
Hawke laughed. "See you back at the cabin?"
"Sounds good," Saint John replied. Wearily, he leaned back in the co-pilot's seat.
"Hey, Seb?" Hawke radioed back.
"Yeah, String?" he replied.
"You be careful landing that bird. I don't need my trees trimmed."
"Yeah, yeah. Very funny."
"Seriously," Hawke rejoined. "Leave me some room when you land that thing. I'll get Marella to bring the kids, but I think I'd feel safer if the Lady stayed with us."
"Will do," he answered. "Over and out."