The Aces of Razgriz

by Blaze118

Becoming a pilot was a dream for Antonio "Blaze" Castillo ever since he was young, and then it became an obsession when his father died during a mysterious attack on an air show when he was eight. With his goal of becoming a pilot completed, Antonio must fight a war that no one saw coming while fighting to keep his humanity and other dark secrets intact.

6. The Bird of Peace

Chapter 5 – The Bird of Peace

September 30, 2010 1929hrs Aurick Bay

We were flying over Aurick Bay, headed for Heierlark. I honestly thought Chopper would've been talking about something the whole time. Whether it was swearing up a storm at me or just him talking about random shit, I honestly didn't want to fly in total silence. It was five minutes later when Kei and Grimm broke the silence by talking about the craters the Belkan nukes left behind from the last war. I never fully understood the reason behind the war let alone this current war.

"It's sad to think that a country's government could do that to their people," said Kei

"I thought that war would be a thing of the past after all of that," said Grimm.

War is in our nature, humans don't need a reason to fight each other.

"War will always exist, Grimm. As much as we want it to end, somebody somewhere looks for a fight. Hell, Kid could look at me the wrong way and I'll get the urge to beat the shit out of him," interrupted Chopper.

I wanted to deck Chopper right then and there just so I could get him to shut up about his animosity towards me. There was nothing I could've done to prevent those missile attacks and everyone knew it.

"Chopper, what the hell is your problem?" said Kei. "Is there a stick up your ass or something?"

"He's going to have my foot up his ass if he keeps it up," I muttered.

"Oh, he talks. Next, you're gonna tell me that I don't want none of you. Is that right?" asked Chopper.

"I'm a man of action, Chopper, and I don't make hollow threats."

"Is that a fact?" he asked doubtfully.

"Try me," I growled.

Chopper didn't say anything for the few seconds before we heard him cut off his mic. Kei and Grimm were still conversing about the boarder of North and South Belka. Seven cities were destroyed along with all of their inhabitants. There were a total of 36,584,167 casualties because of those explosions, all because Belka was too proud to accept defeat. It all started because Belka wanted to reclaim all the land it had lost when its other states seceded. It's in war that a state really comes into its own: swelling in power, in population, in pride, in absolute domination over the economy and society. The war was the only thing that dug Belka out of its economic crisis, but it came at a huge cost. Osea claimed a large portion of Belka's remaining territory after the war ended fifteen years ago and Belka was still in ruin afterwards. Heierlark was located in a state entrusted to Osean rule. The locals still referred to the territory as South Belk while Oseans referred to it as North Osea. This was just one small dispute between people with different ideals over boundaries.

2007hrs Heierlark AFB

We landed our F-18s and taxied towards the hangers. The snow storm had intensified just seconds after we had landed and the bitter cold took my breath away as soon as I popped the canopy. The ground crews swarmed all around us and towed our planes inside the hangers so that they didn't suffer weather damage overnight. Master Sergeant Russell was the first familiar face I saw when I got out of my cockpit. He almost looked happy to see me, but I wasn't really sure.

"You know, I heard you were coming, but I thought the brass was screwing with us," said Russell.

"Nice to see you too Russell, I bet Major Pesi will be thrilled to see me," I said sarcastically.

I saw Russell's smile vanish as he started to look down at the ground in front of me. Kei walked up to us just in time to hear that Major Pesi was KIA over the Ceres ocean while shooting down enemy bombers headed for a major allied military harbor on the west coast. The remaining nuggets from Kei and I's class were already deployed all over the west coast in an attempt to quickly establish an air force. The only remaining pilots on the base were nuggets that were far less experienced then the others of my class. They were around the same age I was and oblivious to the reality of war.

Word got around that my squad was on the base and all the nuggets were rushing towards the rec room to hear about our combat sorties. Apparently, Genette's news article about us made it here faster than we did. I found it strange that we were already gaining notoriety among the people of Osea. Chopper joked that if we drew more attention to ourselves, then the Yukes would put a price on our heads. Even if it was a joke, I still didn't like the thought of it. We were already the most experienced squadron in the Osean military and a lot was riding on us. I just hope that the brass didn't ask us to do the impossible.

The nuggets gathered around us in the rec room as Chopper went on and on about what we've done in the last couple of weeks. Chopper made himself seem like a bigger loud mouth than he already was by telling everyone about all the enemy planes he had shot down and how the ladies were already barking up his tree. Grimm and Kei could only smile and shake their heads, while I stood in the corner watching these gullible nuggets take it all in. They were awestruck with everything we had accomplished so far, even against the impossible odds we faced. However, the more he talked, the more the nuggets' attitude changed. Some of them were more eager than ever before to become part of the action and some seemed nervous about it.

After Chopper was done, we relaxed amongst the nuggets in the rec room. They had gotten a piano put in after Kei and I had left and I sat down behind it and played some lounge music on it. A snow storm going on outside, a fire in the fireplace and almost everyone drinking coffee had such a great feeling in the room that my piano playing just added to the mood. Playing the piano was one of the few things that took my mind off of everything and I felt like I could get lost in this feeling forever.

"I didn't know you could play the piano," said Kei.

I looked up to see Kei standing beside me, watching as I played. "Yeah, this is just one of my many talents," I said.

"Oh? What other talents do you have that I don't know about?"

"Well I know four different styles of hand to hand combat. Five if you include the hand to hand you learn in basic. I know pi to thirty four places, I also love composing various kinds of music on my laptop, mostly orchestral, and I know how to say the alphabet backwards. Those are just a few."

She gave me a surprised confused look as I told her my last talent, though I'm not sure that I should call it a talent. I just got bored in algebra one day when I was in high school and kept typing it in with my graphing calculator until I memorized it. It got to the point where it's actually difficult for me to say the alphabet normally.

"Wow, I didn't know you did any of that. I'm actually impressed," said Kei.

I could only blush and continue playing the piano. I had a feeling that I was getting somewhere with Kei. I leaned my head on her shoulder as she sat next to me on the piano bench and she leaned her head on mine. I felt a familiar sense of happiness that I hadn't felt since high school as we sat there. The moment was interrupted when Master Sergeant Russell called me over for some reason. I lifted my head off of Kei's shoulder and sighed heavily.

"Duty calls," I muttered and I headed to meet Russell.

Russell was leaning in the doorway of the rec room and as I got closer to him, I could see the smirk on his face. He had been watching me and Kei the whole time.

"I was right, wasn't I?" said Russell.

"Right about what," I asked.

"Don't play stupid with me, Lieutenant…"

"It's Captain," I said pointing out my rank insignia on my chest.

"Well excuse me, sir, but did I see some fraternization between you and your wingman?"

"I don't know yet."

"You got a crush on her now, don't you," teased Russell.

I looked at him totally annoyed and he dropped the subject right then and there. He led me to the base commander's office where I met with a bunch of higher ranked officers. With the losses our allies were taking, the brass was desperately looking for a way to repel the Yuktobanian advance on Osea. I took a seat with some of the other officers on the base and listened closely to the presentation the Brigadier General prepared for us. Osean intelligence was able to find out that the Yukes had deployed a super submarine called the Scinfaxi. It was capable of launching burst missiles and VTOL aircraft anywhere on the planet while remaining almost undetectable by sonar. The brass still had no idea how the Yukes found out about our plans to regroup all Osean carriers but they assumed that the Scinfaxi was shadowing them, waiting for the perfect time to strike. My gut, on the other hand, suggested that it was a mole. No one was able to get a visual on the Scinfaxi and I couldn't imagine what the submarine looked like but I knew how huge it had to be if it was capable of launching missiles and aircraft. I figured it must've been twice the size of the Kestrel. This Intel was unsettling and I had no idea about how the Osean military was going to counter this new threat. However, the brass had a plan set in motion and it would take a couple days to get everything set up.

September 31, 2010 0751hrs McNealy AFB

We were approaching McNealy AFB with all the nuggets from Heierlark. It had been almost two hours since we left. We were ordered to take the nuggets to bases along the west coast so they could help with the air defense effort. These nuggets didn't have nearly enough flight time to perform mid-air refueling so we had to land at every base along the way.

"Man, we better thank Pops for this," said Chopper.

"Why's that," asked Grimm.

"Cause, he's the guy that pounded basic fighter maneuvers into us, now we can lord it over all these guys,"

Glad to see you finally mellowed out, Chopper.

October 3, 2010

I woke up later than usual and I had to drag myself out of bed because I didn't want to deal with the nuggets today. We stayed at McNealy for a couple days teaching the nuggets what we learned from our instructors. They were very slow to learn and that's what worried me the most. This war had me yelling at them and telling them that they had to learn fast or die. I wasn't normally like this but I just wanted to give these nuggets some kind of preparation. I found myself becoming a little like Captain Bartlett. I also found it strange that we were ordered to fly here for a special assignment that was given to Wardog but we didn't know anything about, until today.

When we got to the briefing room, we sat down and one of the majors in the room started our briefing. Our mission was to fly towards the Basset Space Center and protect the launch facility as they conducted their launch preparations for an SSTO craft that was supposed to transport laser a cannon into space so it could be installed into something called the Arkbird. Radar detected enemy aircraft en route towards the space center and we all knew that they weren't there to make nice in anyway. The base commander stepped in and told us that he didn't want the nuggets flying with us because they were just kids. I think his reason for grounding them was way different. He knew we needed all of them to defend the west coast. Whatever his reason was, I was glad they weren't being put in harm's way.

We sat in the hangers while the ground crews finished refueling and rearming our planes with various air to air and air to ground weapons. Our F-18s were fitted with two sidewinders, four AMRAAMs, and four AGM Maverick missiles. I was nervous about this whole mission because I didn't know what we'd encounter over the space center. The possibility of enemy aircraft was obvious but I was scared that the Scinfaxi might send us a few missiles to crash the party. Hell, if it were up to me, the Scinfaxi's missiles would've been my first choice. The again, having this space center under enemy control would give them a huge advantage in this war. If we ended up failing this mission, there was no other way for Osea to go on the offensive in the future. Thinking about this mission started to get to all of us, but Kei seemed to be affected by it the most. She was sitting by herself at the hanger's main doors, staring up at the clear blue sky.

"Something's bothering her, Kid, you should go talk to her," said Chopper.

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because you're her boyfriend"

"What? No I'm not!"

"Really now, what was all that business I saw with you two in the rec room the other night?"

"None of your damn business," I snapped.

"Come on Kid, I'm not an idiot, there's something going on with you two, isn't there?"

"Why do you assume that?"

"Kid, I studied psychology in college, this isn't something that I would assume without some kind of evidence, either way if you two ain't an item yet, you should still talk to her because you seem to get through to her better than me or Grimm."

I gave Chopper an annoyed look and realized he was right. "Alright fine, I'll talk to her," I said and started to walk over to Kei.

"Told you I could get him to do it," said Chopper softly to Grimm. I looked back and saw Grimm frown as he slapped a twenty dollar bill in Chopper's hand.

That sly bastard! I didn't know what I was going to say to Kei because I didn't know what was wrong with her. Maybe she's on the rag. If that was the case, then I had to be careful with my words. I stood next to Kei and looked up in the sky, trying to see if she was looking at something in particular. There was nothing but a few thin wispy clouds.

"Hey, everything alright," I asked.

Kei turned her head quickly like I had startled her, but she calmly replied. "Just thinking about things, you don't need to worry about it. It won't affect my flying any," she said softly.

"Okay, now I'm worried about your flying being affected, what's wrong?"

Kei looked at the ground for a moment and then looked at me. The usual sadness in her eyes seemed to intensify, but she wasn't crying. It was clear that something was bothering her and I needed to know what it was.

"The Arkbird," she said softly.

"What about it," I asked, trying to sound compassionate.

"I remembered when my mother was selected as the head of the project. She would take me along at times to watch how its construction would progress. My mom even took me to watch it lift off into space when it was finished. It was a combined effort between Yuktobania and Osea to show that they could work together in peace to benefit the both of them."

"So, you're thinking about how ironic all of this is?" I said softly.

She nodded and looked back towards the sky. "Using the Arkbird for war just seems like a huge step backwards. I wanted to see it complete its mission."

I didn't know what to say, but before anything could come to mind, we were ordered to head for our planes and launch. I still didn't know what to say to Kei on the entire way there. Chopper's rambling about how that the war would be over sooner with all of these super weapons showing up everywhere, didn't help the mood at all. His logic about them was flawed, more super weapons would appear and the war would drag on. The worst case scenario was that all these super weapons would bring about the destruction of this world.

1200hrs Basset Space Center

We arrived at the space center and saw that everything was calm. The size of Basset was amazing. It had multiple launch platforms for rockets and shuttles. But the most distinctive thing about it was the size of the mass driver. It was seven and a half miles long and curved up ward towards the end like a ski ramp. The apex of the ramp was several hundred feet tall. I continued to gaze at the space center until Grimm spotted the Arkbird. I really didn't know much about it besides what Kei had told me. I was curious to know what its true purpose was. It looked like a white isosceles triangle but something about its looks made it seem obvious that this spacecraft's mission was a peaceful one. It was right then that I realized why Kei was so bothered by the brass equipping it with a laser.

"Hey listen, isn't that thing supposed to work like a satellite? Why'd it climb down all this way?" asked Chopper.

"It's a maneuverable orbiting space craft," replied Grimm.

"I know that. I'm just saying; if the system uses atmospheric friction to change its orbit, then wouldn't that make it pretty hard to defend its self?"

"Hmm… I guess it'd be in trouble if someone started firing at it right now"

"Yeah, so shouldn't it be higher up then?"

"Let's just hope the Yukes aren't that clever," I said.

I heard someone halt the countdown when they noticed enemy C-130's inbound towards the space center from multiple directions. They were launching an air assault to capture the base. Yuktobania was actually going to invade Osea. This was a hell of a way to escalate the war.

"Airborne tanks dropping from the transport planes, if we shoot the parachutes before the tanks detach, we'll smash them into the ground, you with me?" said Chopper.

"Go ahead," I said.

"I guess we don't have a choice. I can't believe that's our strategy."

"Look I don't care what you do, shoot the transports, shoot the parachutes, or kamikaze into them, just protect the launch facility," I said as I sent a tank plummeting into the ground.

The C-130's were coming in from all directions and in great numbers too. More tanks were being dropped and some of them made it to the ground in one piece. I order all weapons free and within minutes, we had used all of our AGM's. One missile for each tank was enough to destroy them. The amount of enemy forces being deployed was overwhelming and we couldn't keep attacking them like this.

"Edge, secure the north east sector. Chopper cover the northwest and Grimm, take the southwest sector. Try to shoot down those transports before they can drop anymore tanks," I ordered. But as soon as I ordered them to head towards their assigned sectors, the transports stopped coming. Ground control spotted cruise missiles headed for the mass driver. We halted the Yuktobanian invasion but now they wanted to destroy the base. "Nothing's changed, head to your sectors and don't let any of those things get near the mass driver," I said.

I sped towards the southeast sector of the base and started to shoot down the missiles before they got anywhere close to the mass driver. Another wave of missiles was inbound and I quickly got to work. As I shot down a missile with my gun, I was locked by a missile. I looked over my left shoulder and saw it streaking towards me with an F-20 following closely behind it. The missile flew only a few feet away from my canopy as I broke left to dodge it. I wasn't going to let this bastard get me and stop me from continuing the operation. Shooting down the cruise missiles by themselves was bad enough, but trying to shoot down missiles with fighter escorts trying to kill me added a new level of stress that wanted me to just quit. But I couldn't, I had my orders. I slammed the throttle forward and gained altitude. I watched my attacker follow as I hoped he would, but as I looked back, I saw the very familiar shape of a single B-2 stealth bomber. That's where the missiles are coming from. I chopped the throttle and pulled back on the stick which caused my plane to stall and fall towards the ground. I had lost my pursuer and I flew towards the B-2. I locked onto it with a sidewinder and fired, but it failed to track when the bomber launched flares. Dammit, missiles won't work on this guy. I gained altitude again and dove on the bomber so that I could open fire on it with my gun. The engines exploded when my bullets ripped into it which caused the right wing to be blown off entirely and I watched the bomber break apart as it fell out of the sky.

"I can't shoot them all down," shouted Grimm.

"Wardog, the cruise missiles are being launched by enemy stealth bombers, you have to get a visual if you want to track them," I said.

"Kid is the launch facility safe? I can't tell from here," said Chopper.

I looked towards the mass driver and it appeared okay. "It's still intact from what I see."

"Ah good, I'll continue the operation then."

I applied full throttle and headed for the launch facility. There were still enemy aircraft in the air and I had to thin them out. I was at fifteen hundred feet when I noticed a Panavia Tornado diving on me. I snap rolled left, cut power, and watched him fly right past me. He dove away and tried making a run for it, but I locked onto him with an AMRAAM and fired. He tried breaking into it but the missile flew into his cockpit and exploded. I looked to my ten o' clock high and saw another Tornado circling over the SSTO. He's going to attack it! I raced towards him and he started his dive. I lined up a shot on him with my gun and fired. My bullets ripped into his left horizontal stabilizer and his plane bucked as he broke off his attack. He tried pulling his plane out of the dive but couldn't do it in time.

"Guys, did you take out those bombers yet?" I shouted.

"I took mine down Captain, I'm now pursuing the remaining missiles it fired," said Grimm.

"I took out mine too, headed back your way, Blaze," said Kei.

"Chopper, how you doing over there?" I said.

"I got fighters all over my ass over here. They won't let me get near the bomber," said Chopper.

"Alright Edge and Archer, get over there and help him out. I'll stay here and fend off any missiles and remaining fighters."

They acknowledged and broke off to help Chopper. I scanned the sky for enemy fighters and saw that the remaining six Tornados and F-20's had formed a Lufbery circle over me. I was trapped. They would dive on me and I couldn't run in any direction. I had to figure something out, but what? I was as helpless as a fly in a spiders' web.

I looked up to see an F-20 dive on me. His nose was engulfed in flames as he fired his guns at me during his pass. A snap roll to the left evaded his attack but put me in position to be attacked from another direction. I rolled to the left again to dodge another attacker that dove on me. One by one, they each took turns trying to shoot me down, but I dodged every single one of their attacks.

I could feel my right arm going numb and the sweat dripping down my forehead. I couldn't wipe it away because I didn't have the time. I had to keep rolling away from their attacks. At the same time I was worried about all the stress I was putting on my F-18. All this rolling had to be causing a lot of stress on the wings. If I kept it up any longer, I would kill myself. Fuck the wings, keep rolling! I was getting angrier and angrier as they kept up their attacks. I kept doing the same move over and over but they just didn't seem to learn. That's it, waste all your ammo! I'll knock your asses out of the sky once your weapons are dry! Wait, why should I keep evading such a stupid enemy?

I rolled away from another enemy pass and chased after him. One of the F-20's broke off and tried to clear me off of his friend's tail, but I knew just how to handle him. I barrel rolled over him and just as I was about to light him up, the sweat from my brow had gotten in my eye. I cursed at my luck and broke off from the chase. I wiped my eyes as quickly as I could before I was attacked again, but it wasn't fast enough. I jumped as I heard the cannon shells of one of the Tornados rip into my right wing. It was light damage but it still scared the crap out of me. I pushed the throttle all the way forward and started my evasive maneuvers. All six of them stuck to me like glue.

I had to do something, my hornet could only do so much and it wasn't as maneuverable as some of the fourth generation aircraft I could've chose to fly. I had to fool all of them at once. I could try and fly in between and around the legs of the mass driver, but if they crashed into them; it would damage the mass driver and cause it to collapse. I had to use some of the clouds that were scattered all over the sky.

I climbed for the clouds at a near ninety degree angle with cannon shells and missiles narrowly flying past my F-18. Come on sweetheart, we're almost there. Keep going! As soon as I got into one of the clouds, I cut power and leveled off as quickly as I could. I didn't see where my pursuers went so I kept flying straight at eight thousand feet. I relaxed a little, but it didn't last long. I was flying wingtip to wingtip with one of the enemy F-20s. I then took a complete look around and saw I was flying in formation with the other enemy planes. You got to be kidding me, I thought and I rolled my eyes. I swear the enemy pilot saw me as I did that.

I was fed up with all of this. I pulled back on the stick, cut power, and extended my flaps. My F-18's nose went straight up as I entered a half-assed Pugachev's Cobra and stalled. My plane was falling towards the ground backwards. My hands and feet were a frenzy of movement as I quickly turned my plane around and regained control. I had finally lost the enemy planes and made my way back over to the SSTO.

"Guys, what's your status? Did you take care of that last bomber?"

"Yeah, we got it but we're still caught up in this fur ball of enemy fighters," said Kei.

"Alright listen, try and make a break for the launch facility. We still need to protect it."

I kept a look out for those enemy fighters that tried to bounce me and I saw a straggling F-20 to my two o' clock high. I double checked to make sure he was alone before I went on the offensive. As soon as I saw I was clear, I gave my F-18 full power and rose up to meet him. It was the easiest kill I had gotten all day and I knew the other enemy planes would've seen the flaming wreckage fall out of the sky. I was about to gain more altitude until I saw two more enemy Tornados flying side by side at lower altitude. I wonder if this will work. I lined up behind and to the right of one of the lead plane and dove on him at full speed. I have to time this just right. I was coming in at a seventy-five degree angle and was four hundred yards behind them when I applied full power. As I streaked past the two enemy fighters, I watched the one I flew closest by buck uncontrollably and slam into his wingman. It worked! As I flew past them, I had reached Mach one and the sonic boom had knocked one of the fighters into the other. Sweet!

"Ground control, how much longer until that thing is ready to launch?" I yelled.

"Four minutes, we're almost there," they responded.

I saw the rest of my team headed towards the launch facility with five enemies following close behind. They didn't see me yet so I swung around into a wide right turn and got behind the five pursuing enemies. I locked onto them with my remaining AMRAAM missiles and fired. They didn't know where the attack was coming from and they couldn't get out of the way in time. I locked onto another fighter and fired my last sidewinder and turned to shoot down the last fighter with my gun. I had shot down five enemies within seconds of each other.

"Damn Kid, where the hell did you come from," asked Chopper.

"You miss me," I asked as I rolled over Choppers plane and took the lead. "We still got enemy fighters over the airspace. I want it clear for the SSTO when it takes off."

Chopper and Grimm broke off to cover the western sector while I lead Kei to cover the west. There weren't that many enemy fighters left when I started to question the enemy's presence at the space center. Either the Yukes had a well-placed spy in our ranks or the brass can't keep their damn mouths shut.

"Just one minute to go! Wait! Radar is picking up a single enemy aircraft approaching from the north," said ground control.

"Kid, Grimm and I are too tied up to make the intercept, can you or Nagase get him?" said Chopper.

"Edge, on me, we're going after him," I said.

We gunned our engines and sped towards the north. I had a bad feeling about encountering single aircraft after what happened the last time I did, but this time I had Kei with me so I relaxed a little. We were in visual range of the enemy plane and I saw that it was a black MiG 1.44 with no markings. Kei and I were closing in on him when he started his evasive maneuvers. His pane had every advantage in maneuverability, speed, and stealth compared to our Super Hornets. Kei and I were having a hard time keeping up with him as he threw his plane all over the place. This pilot was way different than the other pilots I've flown against. He knew what he was doing. His maneuvers were so simple, but I was having the hardest time trying to keep up. If I had any missiles left, I would've had a better chance to shoot him down from a distance, but I had to stay close to him so that I could get a shot of with my gun. However, when I closed in on him for the first time, I saw that he was carrying a single cruise missile under his wing.

He leveled off and Kei lined up a shot, but she wasn't fast enough. The MiG launched the cruise missile then did a Super Kulbit over the both of us. Time seemed to slow down as he flipped over us and I could see him looking at me. It was him. Those green eyes were still dogging me after all this time. I wanted to reverse my direction and go after him, but I couldn't. As soon as he came out of his maneuver, he filled my right engine with lead and broke off. My F-18 bucked violently and I struggled to maintain control.

"Dammit, I'm hit. Edge, take out that missile," I said.

"Blaze…"

"I'm alright, go!"

I watched as she sped off. I could hear ground control tracking the SSTO launch and I did an in-flight check to make sure I could make it back to McNealy. My caution light was blaring and it wouldn't shut up. I shut off my right engine so that I didn't further damage it. Everything was functioning normally, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. I had to land my bird soon or it would end up being my coffin.

"Mass Driver hit by cruise missile," shouted ground control.

I looked in the direction of the mass driver and saw the SSTO shoot into the sky. If I hadn't seen it launch, I would've chewed out Kei for failing to stop that cruise missile. I could hear the ground crew cheering as they confirmed the SSTO launch. I ordered everyone to form up and head back to McNealy so we could finally get back to Sand Island.

"Hey Kid, why are you trailing smoke," asked Chopper.

"The asshole that launched that cruise missile juked me out and got a shot off. Can you check and see how bad it is?"

"Well it doesn't look like you're leaking any fluids. But just to be safe, we should get you out of the air ASAP."

My thoughts exactly.