Chapter 25 – Old Wounds
December 11, 2010 1204hrs, Kirwin Island OFS Kestrel
Only two hours had passed since we arrived back from my solo recon mission and everything was calm. Kei was trimming my hair like she said she would and from what I could see, she wanted me to grow my hair out to the length of what it was in high school. However, while she was cutting my hair, she noticed the scar on my forehead that I got from when I was two. I told her how my dog, Buster, was chasing me around the house and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I ended up slamming into the corner of the stairwell and cutting myself open. Kei didn't believe me right away because she brought up the fact that I lied about my other scars. Anyways, Kei was just finishing up my haircut when we were reported to head for the crew room.
"Well, now everyone can see how handsome you look now," said Kei.
"I hope 'everyone' doesn't include guys too," I said as I looked at myself in the mirror of our quarters and Kei looked at me, wondering what I was talking about. "Never mind, let's just join the others."
We were headed to the crew room and met up with President Harling, Pops, and the rest of my team. There were also a couple other people in the room with us who I didn't know, but they were part of the fleet's crew. They were all looking over the first picture I took during my recon mission and I could see that everyone was looking at the truck as it pulled something out of the mine. My team and I took our seats before we let Pops tell us what's what.
"We've been going over this photo of yours for the past couple of hours and we've determined that this is something that requires our full attention," said Pops.
"Which is?" I asked.
"What do you think they're pulling out of this mine shaft?"
My mind was racing with possibilities as to what it could be. It could've been a simple mineshaft, but why was it located next to a military airfield? It could be an ammo storage facility, but why would they need a truck like that to transport aircraft ordinance? More importantly, why would someone send us coordinates to this location in the first place? They know something big is going on here, but what?
"They're nukes," I said.
"Exactly," said Pops.
"Whoa, wait, hold on a minute," said Snow. "Are the Belkan's that stupid? They'd set up an End Game strategy that involves the possibility of nuclear war?"
"They were stupid enough to bomb seven of their own cities fifteen years ago. What makes you think that they wouldn't use nukes again," I replied.
"They're seriously going to attack the Super Powers?" asked Kei in shock.
"We don't know for sure," said Pops. "What we do know is that if the aggressors are involved, it can't be good. We also know that this mining facility houses more nuclear weapons than just the ones you saw earlier. Mr. President, it's up to you to decide our course of action from here."
Vincent leaned forward in his seat and ran his hands down his face. A decision like this wasn't an easy one to make but he knew he had to make one. The longer he waited, the more time the Belkans had to deploy more nukes. If we didn't try to stop them, they wouldn't have to deal with any interference from us. It was obvious that we had to do something, but what exactly?
"I know time is of the essence, but I need to think carefully about this," said Vincent.
I could respect his decision for now, but he had to decide what to do before it was too late. We were all dismissed and I headed towards the hangers to see Rico. He was still working on my X-02's cockpit for the past three days and it seemed like he hadn't made any recognizable progress. I still hadn't tuned my engines all the way either so I decided to go for it again. I rolled up my sleeves, grabbed one of the tool boxes, and got to work. As I was working on the combustion chambers, I was overcome by this feeling of overwhelming sadness, but I didn't let it keep me from working. But as I continued to turn my wrench, the feeling grew stronger. I decided to stop working on the engines for now and turned my attention to painting my plane.
"Are you alright, man?" asked Rico.
"Yeah, why," I asked.
"You've had this look on your face ever since you saw your plane again."
"Was that why you were looking at me funny yesterday?"
Rico dropped down from the cockpit and walked over to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder and it was right then that I knew that he was really worried about me. "Look, you can talk to me about what happened. I won't judge you and I won't tell anyone."
"I really don't want to talk about it. I've been trying to forget about it for the past six years," I said glumly.
"Alright," he said and he went back to work on my plane.
I grabbed a painting mask and a spray gun so that I could give my plane its new look. Rico had already prepared the RAM paint and I started to apply it onto the aircraft. It took almost an hour to prepare for my X-02's paint job and it took me three hours to finish the bottom half of the plane. I eventually made my way up to the nose and I was about to paint over Miranda's name, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Try as I might, I couldn't spray over the name. I wanted to put Kei's name on there, but first I needed to paint over Miranda's name. I have to let go!
"Hey, Rico," I said. "Can you finish painting whatever I don't get to today?"
"Yeah, I should be finished with her by the end of the day."
I went back to painting the rest of the plane and I started to think about the name of my plane. It eventually bugged me to the point where I decided to just call it a day. However, as I was making my way out of the hanger, I noticed Grimm sitting in the cockpit of his F-14. The sad look on his face from earlier had returned and it didn't seem like it was going away anytime soon.
"Hans, you okay?" I asked.
Grimm looked up from his cockpit and seemed to glare at me. "I'm just thinking about why the others left. Why did your CO take them with him?"
"I'd be lying if I said I knew, but I know that he had to have a good reason. You're taking this really hard, Grimm. What's really bothering you?"
Grimm got up out of his seat, climbed down from his cockpit, and walked towards me. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black velvet box. I didn't need to be told what was in there because I already had an idea of what it was and I couldn't help but think that it was too damn soon for him to even be thinking about this. I kind of wanted to do the same thing with Kei, but even I knew that four months wasn't long enough for me to pop the question. Grimm presented me the box and I took this as an opportunity to cheer him up a little.
"Grimm, people would usually say that their flattered but I find this very uncomfortable," I said and Grimm gave me an annoyed look as he opened the box to show me that it contained a silver necklace. "Oh, for a second I thought you were going to ask Erica to marry you," I said.
"Not yet. She turns twenty-three next month and I was hoping to give this to her."
"Hans, listen to me. I'm positive that you'll see her before then. At the rate we're going, this war will be over before then. We're going to live through this and we're going to live peaceful lives after it's all over," I said.
"You really think so?" asked Grimm.
"Well, you might. I, on the other hand, will probably be sent off to fight for peace somewhere else, knowing my luck."
"Would you though? I mean, we all have to settle down some time."
"Let's talk about this over chow. I'm hungry," I said and we headed for the mess hall.
It was 1837hrs and dinner was already being served. They were serving beef stew that tasted kick ass. Grimm, Kei, and I all sat together and we all just talked to each other about some of the things we did before we joined the military. Grimm told me about how he was a camp counselor while he was going to school and from what I could gather, he was great with kids. Kei told me that she never had a job while she was in college and that her sister paid off all her classes. When I asked how she was able to afford that, Kei revealed that her sister was the race queen of the Ridge Racing circuit, Reiko Nagase. I had no idea beauty ran in Kei's family. I was very familiar with whom Kei's sister was now and part of me couldn't wait to meet her again. We all continued talking until I noticed Captain Snow sitting by himself on the opposite side of the mess hall. I guess I should get him used to dealing with us. I got up from my seat and headed over to him while the others wondered what I was going to do. Snow saw me coming and he turned his head away from me.
"Come with me," I said.
"Where too?" he said in a low tone.
"Where I tell you to go," I said.
"I'm not moving from this spot, Castillo."
"Okay then," I said and I walked back to the table where the others were. I then grabbed my food tray and told the others to follow me. I led them over to Snow's table and we all sat around him. He looked up at me and glared at us like he was going to kill me. "Since you refuse to come with me, I figured we'd come to you," I continued and Snow grabbed his tray and started to get up. "You know, Snow, if you get up and move after you told me that you weren't going to, then that just tells me a lot about you."
Snow continued to glare at me with the most annoyed look I've ever seen on a person. His scowl was even worse than Perrault's and that actually intimidated me, but I didn't let it show. Snow sat back down and hunch over his tray and continued eating. Grimm looked at me like he didn't know what to do and Kei had a slight smirk on her face.
"So, what do you guys think of our new enemy?" I asked.
"They're defiantly better than what I'm used to dealing with," said Grimm.
"Yeah, but it's nothing we can't handle," said Kei.
"They're still good though. I won't let my guard down for a second next time," I said.
"Who was the best pilot you've flown against, Captain," asked Grimm.
I had to think about my answer because I've flown against so many pilots during all my hours as a combat pilot. The best pilot I've gone head to head with was Green, but the best pilot I've flown against and came out on top was Yellow 13. The thought of him made me smile, but it also made me kind of sad. I honestly never thought a man like him could exist and I guess I partially have him to thank for who I am. However, I remember I hated him for what he did.
"His name was David Jordan and he was the best pilot I've flown against," I said.
"What about the guy we encountered over November City?"
I felt myself frown at the mention of that guy and Grimm just seemed to retreat into silence. Kei looked at me in understanding and touched Grimm's arm to let him know it was okay. I didn't answer his question and he changed the subject when he asked us about our favorite planes. Grimm said the F-14 and Kei said the F-15. I was about to say my X-02 but Kei told me to pick a plane other than that. I thought about all the planes I've flown before and tried to narrow it down while Grimm and Kei argued their points.
"The F-15 is a generation ahead of the F-14, Grimm. Its faster, has a better range, and it's more maneuverable," said Kei.
"Not at slow speeds. The F-14 could easily out turn the F-15 in a turning fight and it's more versatile," argued Grimm
"But a good pilot would know not to enter that kind of fight with the F-14."
"And a good pilot would know how to lure an F-15 pilot into that sort of fight."
"Yeah, but between you and me, I'd win that battle nine times out of ten," said Kei.
"Only because you think I couldn't take you in a fight, Captain Nagase," said Grimm. "You're too hot headed at times and I could easily take advantage of that trait."
"I'm not hot headed! Am I, Antonio?"
It's a trap! "Calm down you two, you're arguing over which plane is better. Think about it like this; which plane would be better for a novice pilot? My vote is the F-18 because it's a multi role fighter suited to almost any situation. It might not be as fast as some of the other fighters out there but it can hold its own in a fight against an F-14 or F-15."
"Ha, you can't compare the F-18 to the F-14, Captain," laughed Snow. "It far superior compared to the Super Hornet."
"Oh, so why did the military officially retire it a few years back?" I said.
"Those meatheads didn't know what they were doing when they pulled that crap. I could easily outfly anyone in the Tomcat," said Snow with a grin.
I wanted to make a sarcastic remark towards him, but doing so would be like poking a bear. From what I've seen from his personality, he wasn't the kind of guy who could take a joke. I had to find some way to get him involved with my group and so far, this argument about which is the better plane was my only way through to him and I had to play this right or else I could end up pissing him off more. I decided to go along with his claim that he could out fly anyone in an F-14 so I was going to test him.
"Have you flown any fighter other than that fossil?" I asked.
"Don't insult my plane, Captain," said Snow.
"I only said that it was old. I wouldn't consider that an insult."
"Whatever, and yes, that's the only plane I've flown throughout my entire time in the military."
"Hmm, and I bet you've encountered a lot of good pilots throughout your time," I added.
"Yes, I have," said Snow as he started to suspect that I was going somewhere with this.
"Have you ever encountered a plane like the one I plan on using next time?"
"No."
"Have you ever encountered pilots like Captain Nagase or First Lieutenant Grimm?"
"All the time," said Snow.
"Alrighty then, now, I want you to think long and hard when I ask you this next set of questions. Have you ever encountered a pilot like me?"
Snow raised an eyebrow at me like he thought I was leading him into a trap, which, in a sense, was correct. As he continued to think about my question, he lowered his eyebrow and started giving me the stink eye. I had him right where I wanted him.
"No," he said.
"Have you ever seen or flown a plane like mine?"
"No, I can't say that I have."
"Now for the bonus question, have you ever encountered a pilot like me that flew a plane like mine?"
"No," said Snow with a scowl.
"So, how is it that you can fly circles around me when you haven't the slightest idea of what I can do at my fullest potential?"
"I don't know."
"I thought so. But, I think I have an idea of what a pilot like YOU can do in a plane like mine. Just thinking about that gives me the goose bumps," I said as I shivered like a cold chill ran down my spine.
"Why does that make you nervous?" he asked.
"With the way you throw your Tomcat all over the place, just imagine how much deadlier you'd be if you flew a plane that was superior."
"Hmm, that is a scary thought," said Kei as she nudged my leg with her knee. She knew what I was getting at.
"What are you saying?" asked Snow suspiciously.
"I'm just thinking out loud. Do you think I'm trying to say anything, Captain Nagase?" I asked as I looked at Kei.
"No, I don't believe you are. What do you think Grimm?" she asked and we both looked at Grimm.
"Actually, you do seem to OW," yelped Grimm as Kei kick his leg and Snow looked at us. We both looked at Grimm in an attempt to play dumb while trying to tell him to play along. "What I meant to say was that he thinks that it would be something to see."
"You want me to fly that ugly ass plane of your," said Snow.
"First off, you said it, not me. And second, don't insult my plane," I said.
"I tell you what, Blaze; I refuse to fly a plane like yours but I will fly a plane other than my F-14 next time to show that I can out fly you, on one condition."
"And that is?"
"If I destroy more aircraft than you, you're going to hand over command of this squadron to me."
"And if I get more kills than you?"
"Then I'll follow your orders to a tee," he said.
"Deal," I said indifferently. I shook his hand to make the deal official.
Snow finished up his meal and left the table with an evil grin on his face. He honestly had no idea what he was getting himself into. Kei and Grimm were nervous about this bet but I knew I could do it. I honestly didn't like the thought of someone else taking charge of my team, but I wasn't that worried about it because I knew I could show Snow up. I agreed to the bet partly because I wanted to accept his terms if I won, but mostly because I felt like it was the only way to make him take me seriously. Grimm, Kei and I all continued eating until Rico decided to join us. He had grease covered band aids on his fingers and I figured that he was working on more than just my X-02's cockpit.
"Miranda's all set to go for your next mission," said Rico as he started eating. "Oh, by the way, I was able to acquire some equipment from the guys at R&D. Come see me in the hanger after your briefing."
"Briefing," said Grimm in confusion.
"The President made his decision on what he wants you guys to do tomorrow. Your briefing starts in six hours," said Rico.
"Well, I'm off to bed," I sighed as I got up and took my tray over to the trashcan.
Grimm followed my lead while Kei stayed behind so that she could finish eating. I kissed her on top of her head before I left the mess hall and headed for my quarters. After a day like today, I couldn't wait to go to sleep. When I opened the door to my room, the first thing I noticed was a foot locker sitting on one of the beds. I opened the foot locker and saw that it contained a bunch of casual clothing for me and Kei. The clothes that were for me were actually something I'd feel comfortable in. Harkin knows me so well. As for clothes he got for Kei, I wouldn't know if she liked them or not. I've only seen Kei wear a skirt twice and there were more of them in here than jeans for her. I completely emptied the foot locker and organized everything neatly on the bed that Kei never slept in. However, I noticed a jar of this clear jell with a red cross on top of it and a note that said 'Amanda's jell but without the trippy side effects'. We'll this should come in handy. I stored the jar into my USD and after that was done, I changed into my t-shirt and sweat pants and turned in for the night.
2345hrs
When I woke up, I saw that Kei was sleeping in the other bunk across from me. I assumed she didn't want to disturb me while I slept so she decided to sleep over there. I got up, woke her up, and we both got ready for our mission for today, but something was off. Kei would usually smile at me when she woke up, but not this time. What also surprised me was that she wasn't wearing the necklace I let her have. This was the first time I haven't seen her wear it. I pretended that I didn't notice and headed towards the briefing room. No words were said between us the entire time and when we took our seats, she sat one seat away from me. Is she on the rag or something?
I shifted my focus off of Kei and started to listen to the briefing. The President had finally made his decision on what he wanted us to do. We didn't know how far along the Belkans were in their plans, but we needed to move fast. I wasn't going to let those bastards get away with those weapons and throw this world into nuclear war. Our mission was to intercept the Belkan aggressors and stop them from transporting the nukes to their destinations. After we intercepted them, we were ordered to seal the mine entrance by any means necessary. I knew our focus had to be on the mine entrance, but while I was on recon earlier, I saw a shit ton of targets of opportunity. We could easily wreak havoc over the Belkans and show them that we were here to stop them. I wasn't going to let these guys off easy after all they started.
"You all know what's at stake here and you know we cannot fail," said Vincent. "I know that you'll be able to pull this off."
"We'll get it done, Sir," I said.
Vincent dismissed us and we all headed out to get ready for our mission. I headed to the 'gym' first and went for a run, followed by some weight training. After that was out of the way, I took my shower and headed to the mess hall for breakfast. A ham and cheese omelet with a side of bacon wasn't my first choice, but it tasted so good. With a stomach full of food, I headed for the hanger on the iceberg to look over my plane. My X-02 was now flying its new colors and our emblem. Rico even painted over Miranda's name and replaced it with Kei's. I had this feeling in my chest that started to eat away at me when I saw this. It bothered me to the point where I was clenching my fist and I started to curse Rico under my breath but I knew it was for the best. As much as I wanted to forget about her, I couldn't. I wished that I could've done things differently but there wasn't any point in thinking about it. I kept thinking about it until I noticed something that was sitting off to the side of my plane. It looked similar to the submunition dispenser I used to use while I was flying as Mobius 1, but this one was different. Next to the dispenser was a rack of missiles. They were very peculiar because of their extremely small size. Each one was no bigger than that of a paper towel reel. What the hell are these? Is this what Rico wanted to show me?
"Antonio." I looked over my shoulder to see Rico coming towards me with a cautious look on his face. "I need you to carefully put that thing back on the rack. Those things are set to detonate on impact."
Oh. I carefully set the missile on the rack and backed away from it. "What are these?" I asked.
"All Direction Multi-Purpose Missiles or ADMMs if you feel like using acronyms" said Rico. "They're a prototype weapon the IOSS has been working on for all their air operations. Anyways, these things might not look like much, but this is the most advanced weapon you have at your disposal."
"I don't see how something this size could be advanced."
"Alright, I'll explain this as simply as I can. These little shits have the explosive capability of Maverick missiles. They use the same kind of technology that's in your watch to give it its explosive power," said Rico.
"How," I asked.
"Okay, you know how you can store things inside you watch? It's pretty much the same concept except all that explosive energy is stored within the missiles and it's released upon impact."
"So kind of like an atom and the energy it releases when you split it?"
"Not exactly, but yeah," said Rico. "Now, these things are capable of tracking six long-range targets at a time, whether they're in the air or on the ground. But when you fire them, they need to drop for about twenty to forty feet before they can head for their target."
"That's it? By the looks of these pods, it seems they could track a hundred targets at once," I said.
"Not if you want to over stress the radar system. Anyways, your plane can carry two of these pods and they carry fifty-six missiles reach, bringing the total to a hundred and eight missiles. Combine that with the twenty-four sidewinders I can load into the storage pylons and you've got the potential to destroy a small third world country in an hour."
"And the fact that you're equipping a sociopath like me with this sort of thing doesn't bother you?"
"It would bother me if I loaded you up with this shit when I first met you. You seem more laid back now and I guess I have Miranda and Nagase to thank for that?" said Rico.
"Rico, be straight with me. After everything that I've done and after everything you've heard about what I've done, do you honestly think that I'm more laid back now?" Rico looked really nervous after I asked him that question and I could tell that he didn't want to answer my question. "Never mind," I said and Rico relaxed.
I spent the next several hours helping Rico load my weapons into the missile bays of my X-02 and I was growing impatient because I felt like we were wasting time while we waited for the order to launch. It was 1136hrs when we got the order to launch and the others arrived on a jeep, ready to go. Kei still look perturbed about something and I still didn't know why. She picked out an EF-2000 and had the ground crews load sidewinders onto two of the outer pylons, Mavericks on four, AMRAAMs on another four, and JDAMs on the two remaining three pylons. Grimm decided to fly an A-10 and armed two pylons with three AGMs on each, Mark 82 bombs on four, a pair of rocket pods on two, and an external fuel tank on the remaining pylon. Snow decided to fly the F-15 again and armed it with sidewinders and AMRAAMs. I was going to fly my X-02 armed with what Rico and I talked about. Once we told the ground crews how we wanted our planes configured, they started to load our weapons into the OSD pylons (Ordinance Storage Device). When they were done loading our planes, we all strapped into our cockpits and got ready for takeoff. While Rico was helping me get situated, I saw Kei looking at us out the corner of my eye.
"So, what did you and Kei talk about after I left the mess hall," I asked.
"Oh you know, just things," he replied.
"Things like what?"
"Just, usual things people talk about?" said Rico like he was playing dumb.
"Alright look, she hasn't spoken to me since we woke up and I'm not looking forward to this mission. I'm tired, I'm stressed beyond belief, and I'm annoyed because I have to finish what Cipher started. The least you can do is fill me in so that I have some sort of insight as to why my girlfriend seems pissed off at me," I said.
Rico sighed and looked at Kei, then back at me. But before he could say anything, we were ordered to takeoff immediately. "I thought she should know. I'll tell you when you get back," he said and he climbed down from my cockpit.
Dammit. If Rico told Kei what I think he told her, then I had some explaining to do later. I never wanted to tell Kei because I thought she'd never trust me again. Even when I try my hardest sometime, I know that it's never good enough and that's what I feared the most about my life. I never wanted to let anyone down again.
December 12, 2010 1312hrs Mt. Schirm, North Belka
I hated the look of this place. I knew it was the same as any other place in the world but I loathed looking at it. The sky was a lot clearer than yesterday and we hadn't encountered any resistance so far. As we approached our AO, I formulated a plan of attack that I shared with the others. Kei and Grimm were both going to head straight for the airfield while Snow and I covered their approach. I warned Snow that if he endangered the others again, he wouldn't return back to base with us and he knew just how serious I was.
"Today will be easy since we don't have to worry about any radar. Right, Captain?" asked Grimm.
"Grimm, they know we're coming this time. You honestly think that this is going to be easier?" I replied.
"I'm sorry, I should know better."
"Don't worry about it. Alright everyone, our target is thirty miles ahead. Commence attack," I ordered.
Kei and Grimm both lowered their altitude to one thousand feet and changed their heading towards the airfield. Grimm had to go easy on the throttle because of all the ordnance he was carrying. Kei was going to fly by him the whole time. Snow followed me to five thousand feet so that we could fly top cover for them.
"I can't believe the Captain flew around this place all by himself…" muttered Grimm. "Just thinking about those nukes that are buried up ahead gives me the goose bumps."
"Those nukes are exactly why the Belkans have lowered themselves to sneaking them around, pitting two countries against each other. You give a man enough weapons, he'll start to think he's more powerful than he really is," said Snow and I saw him looking at me. "Of course, it's beyond me how these people could delude themselves into thinking that they could control the very weapon which wiped out their own cities."
"Weapons can't think for themselves. They knew what they were doing when they set those bombs off," I said.
"I'm sick of seeing all this hatred everywhere we go. We can't let those nukes reach the battlefield and fuel more hate. I won't let it happen," said Kei.
"To tell you the truth, the thought of nuclear weapons just terrifies me," said Grimm. "Do you think they already carried out nuclear weapons?"
"I hate to think like this, but yeah, they might've already made off with some of them," I said.
"Blaze, it's too soon to give up. There may still be something we can do," said Kei.
"How you doing, Blaze? I tell you, nothing beats flying in perfect formation with your comrades. In the past I flew alone, to do battle against my own country," said Pops over the radio. "But look at you. You got all your friends here. Don't you think so?"
Not all of them. "Yeah, I couldn't ask for anything more," I said.
"Yup, it's a good feeling to know that you can all count on each other."
They can count on me… I tried to smile at what Pops had said. Looking at the four of us, I was glad that we were all here. It still didn't feel the same without Chopper, Erica, Kyle and the others, but it still felt good. I wanted to tell them again how great it was to fly with them, but the hits on my radar didn't give me that chance. I told Kei and Grimm to keep going while Snow and I dealt with the enemy fighters. But first, I wanted to know what these assholes thought of us. I switched over to the wideband radio channel and started to listen in on them.
"They're carrying an emblem I've never seen before."
"Is that the same guy from yesterday?"
"Stay sharp, they aren't here to spy on us this time!"
"Too right, mate," I mumbled.
"I hope you three are ready to follow my lead after this mission," said Snow.
"I hope you're ready to follow the lead of your soon to be Captain, sir" said Grimm.
"Ha, you just watch what I can do," said Snow as he opened the throttle and flew towards the closest enemy formation.
We'll I guess I better disappoint him quickly then. I looked at the instruments of my aircraft and I smiled to myself. It feels good to be home. Everything was right where I wanted it to be. All the screens displayed all vital combat and non-combat information. The flight stick and throttle were placed perfectly and the seat was also cushioned better than the other planes I've flown. I could literally reach out and touch everything without looking. I armed my ADMMs first and locked onto six of the incoming enemy fighters. Once I had tone, I fired and watched six of those little missiles fly out from under my plane and streak towards their targets. All six of those Belkan pilots didn't know where the attack was coming from and they all tried to scatter, but to no avail. All six missiles found their marks and sent the enemy planes tumbling towards the ground, trailing smoke and fire.
"Uh oh, I'm already six kills ahead of you, Snow. You might want to pick up the pace," I mocked.
"That's not fair! Why don't I have something like that?"
"Because you refused to fly this plane," I laughed.
"That's it, the deals off. There's no way I can compete against something like that."
"Grimm," I said.
"All bets that are made between anyone in this squadron can only be called off if, and only if, both parties agree to set some kind of termination agreement before said bet is agreed upon," said Grimm.
"That's bullshit! I don't have to follow some kind of crap guidelines you made up on the fly," exclaimed Snow.
"Grimm," I said again.
"Failure to meet the terms of the agreement will result in a forfeit and the automatic victory for the party that upheld the agreement," said Grimm.
"Like I give a shit about that," said Snow.
"Grimm," I said again.
"The forfeiting party will then be reprimanded by the top authority of the squadron, which in this case is President Harling," said Grimm.
"Do you need him to go on, Captain," I asked.
"There's no way the President would agree to this bet!" exclaimed Snow.
"He already did, Sir," said Grimm.
"You said you could outfly me, Snow. But in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I'll only use my sidewinders and my gun on all air targets," I said.
"What's your angle?" asked Snow.
"No angle, I just want to give you a better chance and save you the lecture you'll get from the President if you back out."
"Do those first six kills still count?"
"Grimm?"
"They count," he said.
I heard Snow sigh in frustration and a brief moment of silence followed. "Alright, fine."
Snow went on ahead of me in an attempt to find some more enemy fighters, but Grimm and Kei were about to be intercepted by another formation of enemy fighters. I saw that it was an element of Su-47s coming in from Kei and Grimm's ten o' clock high. I changed my heading and opened the throttle to intercept them before they got within range. When I looked at my wings, I couldn't contain my smile when I saw them fold inward into the inner section of the wing. When I flew over the enemy planes, I rolled over and performed a split S so that I could dive on the targets. My heart was racing from the excitement of finally shooting down an enemy plane with my baby, but I had to keep myself under control. I took a deep breath and tried to relax as I acquired a lock on one of the enemy planes and launched a missile at him. I then quickly switched targets and lined up his wingman in my gun sight to finish him off with my 25mm Bushmaster chain gun. The loud staccato of the gun almost made me jump when I heard it go off but all of my rounds found their mark. My bullets impacted just behind the cockpit of the Su-47 while my missile blew the right engine and wing off of the other.
"HA-HA, IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME!" I shouted as I pulled out of the dive and regained my altitude.
The radar was clear again and I held position over Kei and Grimm while they maintained their course towards the mine. Along the way, we saw a bunch of targets of opportunity and Grimm asked for permission to go after them. I told him that the mine was our main priority and that we would lay waste to this place once our primary objectives were complete.
"I never liked being in Belkan land like this. The air just feels heavier around here," said Kei.
I knew what she meant. Even though this place was the same as any other part of the world, we could feel that something was different about it. I even felt it yesterday and when we rescued President Harling from Stier Castle. This place was just another reminder that the Belkan war was still raging, even after fifteen years of 'peace'. These guys want a war… I'll give them a war.
"Blaze flew through here all alone… Now I'm thinking too much. I got to get a grip on myself," said Kei.
You know we can hear you, right?
I didn't have much time to wonder why Kei was thinking like this because another formation of enemy fighters was converging on her and Grimm. I climbed back up to a higher altitude so that I could get the jump on the enemy formation when I saw them. My radar showed that there were only a two of them again so I didn't think that much about it. They were coming in from four o' clock low and I turned to engage them. However, as I dove after them, Grimm called out another formation of four bandits coming from his twelve o' clock high. Okay, this is going to be kind of tricky. I turned back to engage the four fighter formation first and tried to dive for the deck so that I could bounce them from below, but they saw me and one of the elements broke off to engage me. They were coming in too fast and I snap rolled to the right so that I forced them to overshoot. While they were busy looking for me, I pulled back up to engage the other two fighters that were going after Kei and Grimm. I had a clear shot at the flight lead's belly and I unloaded a stream of bullets into the missile bay to see the plane explode and rock his wingman's plane. The wingman tried peeling away but I locked onto him and fired a sidewinder before he could evade my attack effectively enough. Once those two were deal with, I went back to looking for the other enemy element that was headed for Kei and Grimm, but I was intercepted by the other two Su-47s that I evaded earlier. They were coming in from my seven and five o' clock low while the other element was coming in from my six o'clock. I slammed on my left rudder peddle and pulled the stick in the same direction, causing my X-02 to enter a sharp descending spiral. Two of the enemy fighters broke off while the other two tried reversing their direction to get on my tail. They couldn't pull hard enough and I was able to lose them again. I leveled out of the spiral and began to chase after the other two enemy fighters. I was within missile range in a matter of seconds but I wasn't able to get a lock on before they started to break off their attack from my wingmen. One of them broke right into a climbing right turn while the other dove to the left. Altitude equals potential energy which I can turn into speed. I went after the enemy that went into the climb and we were coming head on with each other. I was smiling because I knew just how to deal with this guy in a way that no one would expect. We continued to speed towards each other and I waited until I was almost a hundred yards away from him before I dipped my nose down to fly under him. This threw off his timing and he was going to try and perform a Split S to try and get on me. He didn't know that I was counting on him to do this though. As I was about to fly under him, I pulled the air brakes and pulled back on the stick to put my plane into a Kulbit maneuver. However, while I was performing the maneuver, I was able to keep him in my gun sight while he came out of the split S and went into an Immelmann turn. I was firing on him with my gun and landed hit after hit on the Su-47's fuselage until it exploded. When I completed my loop, I dove for speed to find the other enemy Su-47 that was attacking me. He was still in the process of turning to engage me and I was turning into him as well. He wasn't in position to get a good shot on me as I flew over his left wing and pulled a split S. The enemy pilot was still pulling his hard right turn as I came out of my maneuver and I knew that I'd over shoot if I tried to engage him from where I was. I used the speed I gained in the dive to climb above the enemy pilot and pull into a high yo-yo. I now had an angle on him and I bounced him from above. 25mm cannon shells impacted the side of the cockpit and sent the plane towards the ground. I didn't waste any time in turning back to join up with Kei and Grimm and I opened the throttle all the way. The last two elements weren't in range of my teammates and they didn't see me coming at them from six o'clock low. Shooting them down wasn't difficult at all. I fired on the flight lead's plane from below and I sent a missile into his wingman when I was about eighty yards away from him. Neither one of them knew what hit them and I fell into formation on Kei's left wing.
"God, I missed this thing," I said in excitement.
"Wow, I've never seen you so excited, Captain," said Grimm.
"Yeah well, it just feels great being with this old lady again. Anyways, how much farther is it to our target?"
"The enemy is right in front of us. We're almost there," said Kei.
I looked all around us and saw that we were clear of all enemy fighters. Captain Snow was nowhere to be seen and part of me thought he already got shot down. I shouldn't be thinking like that. We all continue flying northeast until we arrived over the airfield. Mobile AA units, ground personnel, and enemy fighters were scrambling to get into position to defend the place. Captain Snow soon joined us and I saw that he was completely out of AMRAAMs. I guessed that he had already used all twenty missiles within a span of ten minutes.
"We're over the target area," he said over the radio.
"The Grabacr are already gone," said Grimm.
"They must've already taken away some of the nukes," said Kei.
"Maybe we were too late," said Pops. Nah, you think? "Let's destroy the mine entrance anyways."
"You see that rock bed above the entrance? Shoot at that," said Snow.
"You probably won't be able to bring it down in one shot. Keep on attacking it until it crumbles, understand?"
"I got it, Colonel," I replied.
"Good, I'm counting on you, Blaze. The bedrock looks to be very thick so focus your attacks and keep at it."
"Archer, I'm going to rely on you most of all. Edge will help however she can while Swordsman and I cover you, alright?" I said.
"Uh… the nukes won't blow up if we shoot them, right?"
"We're just destroying the bedrock, Grimm. I don't think you'd have to worry about that, alright?"
"Right, I got it, Sir," said Grimm and he broke off to engage his target with Kei.
"So, Blaze, how many kills do you have right now?" asked Swordsman.
"Fourteen. You," I asked.
"Nine."
I smiled to myself knowing that I was still ahead. There weren't any other fighters in the air and I decided to attack ground target in the meantime. The ground was full of targets of opportunity and I armed my ADMM pods. My radar locked on to a bunch of SAM and AA sites and I fired a volley of missiles to destroy the targets. I still had to weave through the remaining AA defenses. While I was drawing their fire, Grimm was already headed in to attack the bed rock. One of my favorite things to do was watch an A-10 attack its target. The 30mm gun on Grimm's plane roared to life and spat out a long stream of depleted uranium rounds that impacted the bedrock with lethal accuracy and when he was close enough, he dropped four of his bombe before he pulled out of his attack run. Kei wasn't far behind him and fired two AGMs at the bedrock and dropped two of her bombs. When the smoke cleared, I saw that the bed rock had absorbed both of their attacks. Damn, that's thick. I managed to get clear of the airfield and I doubled back to thin out the remaining defenses with another ADMM volley. As soon as I fired though, my missile warning went off and I looked behind me to see a pair of enemy YF-23 diving on me from five o' clock high. I launched a set of flares and broke into their attack, causing them to over shoot. I then reversed my direction to try and intercept them but they ran. I pulled my turn as hard as I could so that I could get back on their tail. I quickly checked my surroundings to make sure I was clear, but I saw Snow coming in from one o' clock high as he dove on the enemy planes. He was going to do whatever it took to make sure he won our bet. He's even more predictable than I thought. I armed my ADMMs and acquired a lock on both of the enemy planes but I didn't fire. Instead, I waited for them to scatter and throw off Snow's timing. Sure enough, both enemy planes broke off in opposite directions and Snow couldn't line them up in time. When the enemy planes broke off, they left themselves open for me to attack them and I fired a missile at the enemy wingman. The missile hit him dead center of the fuselage and I rolled over the wreckage to avoid it. The maneuver also managed to give me an angle on the other enemy fighter so that I could shoot him down with a missile and I took the shot. I was now ahead by seven kills and I couldn't see any other threats in the air.
"So the nuclear weapons have been lying here dormant for fifteen years," said Grimm.
"I guess so. Who knows what else they got buried under there," I said.
"I don't even want to think about it, Sir."
Grimm was already heading in for another attack run and Kei was following him closely. They were landing hit after hit on the bedrock but it still didn't look like it was going to give. I looked over my instruments and saw that we had only twelve minutes left before we ran out of fuel. We better pick up the pace. I fell into formation behind Kei and armed my ADMMs.
"Grimm, I need you to relay the target information to me. I'm going to help out with your attacks," I said.
"Roger that, standby," he replied.
My HUD lit up with more radar signatures that I hadn't been able to acquire by myself and the bedrock was dead ahead. I had good tone on the target and I fired my missiles. They all made a bee line towards their target and as soon as I saw them fly out from under my plane, I switched to my sidewinders and launched both of them at the target. While I waited for my weapons to reload, my gun sight appeared and I started to strafe the bedrock in an effort to loosen it up even more. I pulled out of my attack run and looked back to see that the bedrock was still intact and it looked like we were starting to make some progress, but not enough. When I tried doubling back to go for another attack run, I saw some tracers streak by my canopy and saw that a mobile AA gun was sitting on top of the mountain. Dodging the fire was easy up until my missile warning went off and I tried looking for a SAM sight on the ground but I couldn't see anything. I looked at my radar and it showed that the missiles were coming in from my eight o' clock high. I looked behind me to see an enemy Su-47 firing a missile at me. I didn't have enough time to evade it by maneuvering out of the way and they were too close for my flares to distract it in time. I didn't have much of a choice though. I deployed flares and tried braking hard left. The missiles exploded twenty feet away from me and I felt my plane shudder from the explosion.
I knew I was still alive but I was overcome with this overwhelming sense of déjà vu. I felt myself flash back to when I was flying over San Salvacion and an Erusean Su-37 was targeting my plane. I could see its tracers shooting towards me and impact the left wing of my X-02. I remembered that this was the first time that I feared for my life and I couldn't do much of anything. The Su-37 had just stopped firing on me and my missile warning was blaring as the fighter tried to acquire a missile lock on me. Antonio! I remembered that it was she who screamed my name and I could see an ISAF EF-2000 streak in from behind the Su-37, but the enemy pilot saw her coming. The Su-37 pulled a Super Kulbit over the EF-2000 and fired a missile at it. It impacted just behind the cockpit and separated it from the rest of the plane. Miranda!
"No," I muttered angrily as I snapped back to reality.
I regained control of my plane and barrel rolled over the enemy plane as he shot past me. I was full of rage and I quickly locked onto the enemy plane to send a missile into his cockpit. I was yelling at the top of my lungs as I continued to pour 25mm rounds into his already destroyed plane, but I didn't care. When I felt like he had enough, I looked around to see that I was flying in the middle of a large enemy formation of Su-47s and YF-23s. There were a total of eighteen planes and I felt myself growing angrier. The Belkans weren't going to let us get away with attacking them like this, but I sure as shit wasn't going to let that stop me from showing these guys who we are. I pulled Pugachev's Cobra to bleed off some speed so that I could get behind the entire formation and go to work on these assholes. I locked onto one of trailing Su-47 and launched a missile at him. Once he was out of the way, I shot down three more fighters in rapid succession of each other as they tried to scramble to intercept me and the others. The fourteen remaining enemy planes all applied full throttle to get away from me but when I tried applying the after burner, I wasn't accelerating as effectively as before. I looked in my rearview mirror to see that my left engine was trailing black smoke. All readings on my instrument panel were normal for the most part but the damage was going to affect my combat effectiveness dramatically. The enemy formation was already on top of my team and there wasn't much that I could do. They were all being engaged by the enemy fighters over the airfield but they were ignoring me. But something was wrong, I couldn't see Snow anywhere. Kei and Grimm had seven fighters gunning for them and they didn't have any room to maneuver. I'm not going to let it happen again. I was within range to engage the enemy's on Grimm's tail and I acquired a lock on six of them with my ADMM, but I wasn't able to fire because of Snow's sudden reappearance out of the sun. He dove on the seven enemy fighters and shot three of them down using two of his missiles and his gun. The remaining four fighters scrambled and Grimm took advantage of the situation and managed to shoot down two of the YF-23s that crossed in front of his path. One of the remaining two fighters managed get back on his tail and hit his A-10's engine a few times. I was finally within range to fire a missile but my target was deflecting hard so that my missile wouldn't track successfully.
"Grimm, I might be able to give you an opening but you have to break in the opposite direction he does," I said and he acknowledged.
I locked onto my target, fired the missile, and watched as it flew towards its target. The YF-23 snap rolled to his left and Grimm broke to his right and reversed his direction so that he was now behind the enemy planes tail. Grimm didn't waste any time sending a volley of bullets into the enemy plane's right wing and send it into the ground. Snow was already in the process of shooting down the last enemy plane and I changed my heading to help Kei. She was in deep and was hugging the deck so that her pursuers couldn't dive on her or get a missile lock on her, but they weren't letting up on her at all. My heart was pounding inside my chest because I thought that Kei might end up like Miranda. I couldn't move fast enough to catch up with her and the thought of losing her started to make me grow furious. Get away from her you sons of bitches! I locked onto six of them with my ADMMs and fired.
"You know those kills won't count, Blaze," said Snow.
"I don't give a fuck! I'm not going to lose watch my teammates die because of some stupid ass bet I made," snapped.
"You do realize that the position of flight lead is at stake here, right?"
"If you think the position of flight lead is more important than the lives of my friends, then I was right about you, Snow," I growled.
The fact that Snow was more concerned over our bet than the safety of the others was the last straw. I didn't care if I hurt his feelings or if that was a low blow, but I wasn't going to sacrifice my team for my position as flight lead. I had already seen too many of my friends die and I wasn't going to lose any more. My memories of what had happened to Miranda made my resolve even stronger. A lot of things made sense now and the memories I repressed me realize how confused I was. I can't think about this right now, I have to focus. I turned my attention back towards the enemy fighters that were engaging Kei and all six of my missiles found their mark. Only one plane stood between me and complete air superiority over the area. The last enemy plane broke off of Kei and came towards me. We were both going for a knife edge pass and I had to think of some way for me to gain the upper hand in this fight. The enemy pilot was using a Su-47 and I knew in that in the hands of a good pilot, he could prove to be more than a match for me. When we finally passed each other, I pulled into a hard left turn to go after him and the Belkan pilot did the same thing. If I didn't have three dimensional thrust vectoring, it would've been a stalemate until one of us decided break out of the turn. I was on his tail after we circled each other three times and he tried to shake me off of him by leading me into a vertical rolling scissor. I knew I couldn't follow him because I wouldn't be able to maintain my speed in the climb with my damaged engine. I was at six thousand feet, traveling at four hundred and sixty miles an hour. In this fight, I was going to need all the speed I could get out of my plane but its hampered acceleration kept me from gaining anymore by applying more throttle to the engines. I couldn't chase him into the climb and I watched as he looped over my plane and latched onto my tail. I didn't let him stay there for long before I pulled a high G barrel roll and got behind him. When I came out of the maneuver, I tried to quickly line him up in my gun sight while trying to get a missile lock on him at the same time, but my plane stalled out and nosed over into a dive. Dammit, I have to be faster. I fell for about eight hundred feet before I was able to pick up enough speed to pull out of the stall and the Belkan pilot dove on me from three o' clock high. Avoiding him was easy, but I had to make a choice on whether or not I should chase him when he dove past me. If I turned after him, I would lose speed. I might be able to gain some when I dive on him after he shoots past me but it wouldn't be enough to keep up with him. The Su-47 shot past my left wing and I continued flying straight.
"Hold on, Blaze, I'm coming," said Kei over the radio.
"No, keep attacking the bedrock with Grimm. I'll handle this asshole," I replied.
"Where's Captain Snow?" asked Grimm.
"Don't worry about him. He can take care of himself," I said. That's the only thing he's good at.
The enemy pilot continued making passes at me as I continued to fly sluggishly through the sky. I couldn't do much against this guy be he kept diving on me and climbing out of reach before I had the chance to shoot him down. He knew just how to attack me without exposing himself to danger, but now he needed a way to attack me so that I was forced to screw up. After his fourth pass, the Belkan pilot climbed back up out of my reach and pulled a wide turn so that he could get behind me. Once he was in position he dove on me again and launched a missile followed by a stream of bullets. I launched a set of flares to distract the missile and I pulled Pugachev's Cobra to avoid his stream of bullets while giving him a smaller target to hit, but it cost me all my speed. To make matters worse, he flew within close proximity to me at supersonic speed and the shock wave forced my X-02 into a tumble towards the ground. Son of a bitch! I tried regaining control but I was limited to what I could do. My damaged engine made it hard for me to yaw left or right and the tumbling of my plane made it extremely disorienting to the point that I had difficulty trying to focus on the ground. I only have one shot at this. I manually folded the wings in so that I could stabilize my plane at the right moment. I had to wait for the exact moment that my plane was right side up while the nose was pitching up so that when I extended my wings, the sudden increase in drag would force my plane to stabilize and fly properly again. I took a few deep breaths as I tried to concentrate on my timing. Everything was a blur and I couldn't rely solely on my eyes to judge when I should make my move. I must've fallen for about four thousand feet before the moment finally came. I extended my wings which caused the nose of my plane drop. I was now in a perfect dive but I had to wait to pick up enough speed before I could pull up. I was too close to the ground and thought I wouldn't be able to pull out in time, but slowly I felt the nose start to rise. I was eighty feet above the ground when I was finally able to regain full control of my plane and I began to climb at a steady pace to regain some altitude. As I was nearing two hundred feet, I was bounced by the same enemy fighter that forced me to lose control of my plane. I snap rolled out of the way to avoid his missile and he pulled up out of range again before I could get a bead on him. However, I was being spiked by another enemy fighter. I looked back to see another Su-47 coming after me from behind. If I tried to maneuver over him, I would lose my airspeed again and crash. I couldn't avoid him and I couldn't see any other way out of this situation. I was a sitting duck and just as I was about to accept my fate, Captain Snow streaked out from the sun to obliterate the enemy fighter before he got within gun range of me.
"Get out of there, Blaze, he's coming back around."
I tried to throttle back up but my left engine wasn't responding at all. I was flying on one engine now and I couldn't do much of anything. No, I refuse to get shot down here. I'm not going to die today! I diverted all remaining power to my right engine and gave it all the power it could so that way I could gain a little bit more altitude , but the first Su-47 was right on top of me. He was firing his gun at me and he hit my left wing a couple times. Out of sheer rage, I snapped the stick back and applied right rudder to compensate for a skid while I pulled a Super Kulbit over my attacker. My reflexes kicked in as I completed the loop and saw the enemy pilot appear in my gun sight. I was screaming at the top of my lungs as I landed hit after hit on the cockpit of the plane with my 25mm gun. The shattered remains of the canopy were covered in blood while the pilot's mangled body smeared blood against plane's white fuselage as it fell out of the cockpit. I wanted to see that plane crash into the ground but my plane had stalled out and was headed for the ground again. Shit! I gave my engine all the power I could while I pulled back on the stick. I was still going down and I knew I wouldn't be able to pull out in time. I need more lift! For some reason, I armed my remaining ADMMs and fired a volley of them while my altimeter indicated I was thirty-seven feet off the ground. The missiles detonated as soon as they hit the ground and I felt the explosions rock my plane. My altimeter showed that I was back at forty feet but I was still losing altitude. I fired another volley of ADMMs and the explosions rocked my plane again, but this time I felt it lung forward. I had gained some speed and some altitude. Come on, sweetheart, pull up! My heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest because of the intensity of my situation. I fired one more volley of ADMMs as I flew over the docks and I must've hit a fuel tank because I felt my plane lunged forwards violently from a huge explosion. I looked at my air speed and saw that I was now going over two hundred miles an hour, enough for me to maintain altitude. My speed was still increasing at a slow rate but I was still in the air.
"Hell yeah," I shouted.
"Blaze, how did you know that would work," asked Snow.
"I didn't. How's that mine entrance coming?" I asked.
"Captain Nagase and I nearly exhausted all of our weapons and that thing's still holding. Captain, can you help us out?" asked Grimm.
"Standby I'm on my way. Snow, keep providing top cover," I said and he acknowledged.
I wasn't going fast enough to make a sharp turn towards the mine so I had to carefully pull a wide right back. While I was turning, I looked over all the damage that was done to my plane. A great sense of grief swept over me as I saw all the bullet and shrapnel holes. This bird was in the same condition as the day I last saw Miranda alive. I closed my eyes and fought to hold back the tears. I tried to forget about her but she was always there. Everything that I thought I had with Becca was actually what I had with Miranda. I remembered that Becca and I was never even an item. She was just a girl I went with on a double date with once and she turned out to be bat-shit crazy over me to the point that she kept the necklace that I had given to Miranda on her birthday. Everything was clear as day now. I decided to forget about it for now as I approached the mine entrance. I armed my remaining ADMMs and fired volley after volley until I was out of them. Each of them hit the bedrock with deadly accuracy and I saw that it was almost about to crumble when I pulled out of my attack run.
"Grimm, finish it off," I said glumly.
Grimm headed in for an attack run and the rest of us just watched as he fired his remaining gun ammo into the bedrock followed by his bombs. When his last bomb hit, the bedrock had finally collapsed under the stress we put on it. Boulders were rolling down hill and one by one, they landed in front of the mine entrance and sealed the remaining nuclear weapons inside the mountain. As the rest of my team fell into formation around me, I went back to thinking about what I had repressed so long ago. This was something I had to tell Kei about, but I figured she already knew. I had to talk to her about it anyways, but I didn't know how to. Even after six years, I still didn't want to talk about it because it was too painful for me to remember. I wish I could talk to someone about it who'd understand. I wish I could talk to Captain Bartlett.
Note: I know I was a little vague on Antonio's past relationship but now you know why. I won't go into full detail about it but I'll touch on it as this story continues. If you want to know what happened to Miranda, follow my other story, The Ribbon, to fully understand why Antonio pushes himself so hard to keep Kei in his life. Apart from that, I ran into a bunch of obstacles while I was reviewing my ideas on how this story was going to progress and it's going to take longer for me to actually turn out future chapters. Please don't hate me. I'll try to straighten everything out as fast as I can. My followers, reviewers, and viewers are the most awesome people in the world, remember that.