Chapter 34 – The Dance of Ōkami and Kitsune
December 31, 2010 0612hrs, Oured Bay, Osea
"It's him!" exclaimed Grimm.
"Who the hell is he?" asked Snow.
"He's the one who killed Chopper," growled Kei.
I could only sit in my plane and glare at Green as he continued to fly towards each other. My mind was swarming with thoughts and emotions knowing that Green was going to try and kill us when we couldn't do anything to fight back except for me. I still had plenty of gun ammo and I knew that he'd try to get to me through my team. It was at that moment that I felt a very familiar sense of anger grip me and I pushed the throttle all the way forward.
"Blaze, what are you doing?" asked Kei.
"All of you stay out of my way," I warned. "He's mine."
"Captain, you can't be serious. You're out of ammo!" exclaimed Snow.
"I don't need missiles to shoot this bastard down! I've killed with less!"
"Are you sure you want to go down this road, Castillo? There's going to be nobody left to stop me from killing your friends once I'm through with you," teased Green.
"I won't give you the satisfaction," I growled. "If anything, I'll clip your wings and let someone else finish you off. God knows that I'm not the only one who wants you dead too."
"Are you hinting that you know you can't beat me?"
"Well seeing as how you can't bear to face us in a fair fight, I have to assume that you're an opportunist who's scared of me."
No sooner had I got done talking did I see another beam of light head towards me. My hand acted on its own as it pushed the stick over to the left while my foot kicked the rudder over so that I was barrel rolling around the beam as it tried to cut through my Wyvern. Not only was I acting on impulse, I began to see everything through a red haze. The beam was too close for comfort for the average pilot, but I wasn't the least bit worried. I could feel the heat the laser emitted as I helically rolled around it. Green couldn't adjust to my tactic because the slightest adjustment of his flightpath would cause the beam to go further off their target, giving me more room to breathe. However, the closer I got, the easier it was for him to try and hit me, but it still didn't do him any good. My heightened reflexes allowed me to avoid his attack and we performed a knife's edge pass. We didn't waste any time turning towards each other.
I pulled the sharpest turn my Wyvern would allow me to as I kept my eye on Green. To my surprise, he was able to turn slightly tighter than I was. I pulled just over eleven Gs and to see that Green pull an even tighter turn at over Mach 1 was impressive. Green managed to squeeze off a burst from his gun and one of the rounds clipped my extended wingtip when I rolled out of the way. I reversed my direction towards Green again only for him to pull inside of my turn again. He was going to attack me again and it came to close in the form of his laser, but I countered it by pulling into a climb. Green fell in behind me as I took the fight into the vertical. He began to attack me with everything he had and I was aggressively avoiding all of them while trying to avoid falling into a trap.
Slowing down was the only way to get behind him, but I needed a way to drop my speed quickly so that Green didn't have the chance to act. I continued to climb and eventually took the fight into the horizontal. Green tried to pull lead on me and I pulled my high G barrel roll on him and was finally able to get on his tail. The red haze I was seeing began to intensify as I gave chase to him and I managed to squeeze off a few rounds but they missed. Green ran and I tried to follow him, but he let me catch up. I had quickly closed the gap on him and I was calmly adjusting my flight path so this plane filled my gunsight. Before I could fire though, Green pulled into a sharp climb and attempted to gain as much altitude as fast as he could. I followed him without hesitation, thinking that he was an idiot, but he soon proved me wrong.
Green pitched back as hard as he could and went into a stall. The nose of his plane opened up and the laser began to activate. I was so surprised by this maneuver that it took me too long to react and I tried to peel away to the right, but Green managed to hit the nose of my plane. The armor that protected all the vital instruments had taken most of the punishment and I was lucky that the laser didn't sever anything from my plane. When I looked back at Green, I could see that he was trying to bring his nose to bear on me, but he couldn't. I noticed that he only had two dimensional thrust vectoring as opposed to my three dimensional. That wasn't the only thing I noticed.
I carefully studied every characteristic of his unusual aircraft and came to an intriguing conclusion. It's amazing that this thing is even able to fly (like seriously). The aircraft's wings and fuselage didn't have a sufficient surface area to provide significant lift. Its wings gave it enough lift to sustain flight, but only at high speeds. However, the wing design made them prone to damage if high speeds were sustained for too long. The point where the wing went from sweeping back to sweeping forward was a weak point. My plane overcame this problem by retracting the outer section of the wing at high speeds at the sacrifice of maneuverability. One advantage that Green's plane design gave him was an extremely high angle of attack. When I thought about this, I thought his plane was designed as a high speed interceptor, but it also had characteristics of a fighter as well. It wasn't until I saw Green pull out of his stall that I began to realize what kind of aircraft he was flying. As I watched him recover from his stall, his plane picked up speed faster than a plane catapulting off an aircraft carrier. He basically went from 0 to 250 in less than a second. The long pointed nose of his plane allowed him to easily pierce through the air with the help of those large engines of his. What's more is that he was able to recover from his stall at an even lower speed than I had expected. In spite of all of this, something about all of this puzzled me. My reaction time was considered 'superhuman', yet he was able to match mine. I need Intel on his bird. Nothing adds up.
"I'm actually impressed you're able to move that quickly in something like that. I thought accelerating that quickly would kill you," I said over the radio.
"Yeah, well, I am flying to most advanced aircraft in the world," said Green.
"Horse shit, my Wyvern's the best piece of equipment in the sky and you know it!"
"Don't make me laugh," mocked Green.
"It's a highly maneuverable, multirole, carrier based, stealth aircraft with a geometric wing configuration and a top speed close to Mach 3. It can carry more ordinance than yours, and has a range of three thousand miles," I teased.
"Oh, does yours have an integrated tactical laser system? Does it have a graphene airframe? Does it have a neural interface?"
Got you….
"A what," I asked probing for more information.
"There's no need for me to go into full detail because I know that's what you want by asking these questions," said Green.
"Whatever, I got what I needed," I said as I turned to make another head on pass with him.
Green's plane had to have been built using materials that were stronger and lighter than aluminum and titanium. This allowed for his incredible acceleration and maneuverability without sacrificing the airframe's strength, but I still didn't know how durable it was. Given what little I might've known about the material, I had to save all my remaining ammo for when I knew I could do some serious damage. However, this was the least of my problems. I didn't know what to expect from the neural interface Green mentioned. For all I knew, he wasn't even in the plane. He could've been controlling that thing from a satellite relay somewhere in Belka. Green could've probably had some kind of implant in his head that allowed him to fly the plane with the assistance of his thoughts. If that were the case, then his plane must've been loaded with so much technology that the slightest bit of damage could cause something to go wrong. I just need to get a hit in.
Green fired another salvo of missiles at me from head on and tried to cut me down with the laser. Never the less I managed to and pass by him unscathed. However, as I was passing him, I noticed the dimensions of the top part of the plane's nose. It was too small for an average person to sit in. Even if the design allowed him to sit like he would on the floor, it'd still be too small.
"It must be nice being able to fly while lying down. The controls must've been a pain in the ass to get used to," I said.
"Not even a little. They were pretty straight forward," said Green.
Really, I know it'd take me a few minutes to adjust to flying while lying down. When I saw Green turning towards me, I noticed that it took him slightly longer to turn after me than he did before. Neural interface… It was then that I realized to key factors in Green's plane design. He's controlling everything by his thoughts! The fact that someone was able to integrate something like this into an aircraft was amazing. I didn't know exactly how it all worked but it did. This was the reason behind his quicker reaction time. The second thing that I noticed, and would probably be the factor that could give me the upper hand was that he had to focus on what he wanted his plane to do. His refusing to talk was evidence enough that he knew that he had to focus on this fight more than anything. Dammit, I wish Chopper were here!
I tried to run again and Green followed without hesitation. His superior speed allowed him to catch up to me with no problem and he soon began to fire his laser. Green still couldn't hit anything as I evaded his attacks and I knew that his frustration would only cloud his judgment. At the same time though, it was only a matter of time before I slipped up. He knew exactly how I flew and he knew all my tricks. This meant I had to become extremely creative on the fly, but that was easier said than done even for me. If all else failed, I still had an ace up my sleeve, but it would be extremely risky.
Anyways, I was leading Green through every maneuver in the book, but he stuck to me. Through all the maneuvering, I kept my speed over four-hundred mph because I wanted him to get comfortable. Green was getting closer and closer with every attack and I knew that it was my turn to go on the offensive. I began to draw him closer now that he thought he had the upper hand. When he least expected it I pulled a barrel roll over him and quickly latched onto his tail, but I couldn't line him up in my sights fast enough. He used his superior mobility to quickly shake me off and ran to get out of my gun range.
"You know, that plane suits you. Even if you can't hit me and I finally get the chance to get on your tail, you'll never give me the satisfaction for letting me shoot you down, so you just run away and come back until you have the upper hand. I mean, that's what you do every time we fight," I said as I watched Green turn back towards me. "Tell me something, why do you want me dead so badly? Why is it that you specifically tried to kill me fourteen years ago?" I asked but Green didn't say anything as he fired another beam from his laser and launched another salvo of missiles. "Is it because you like killing? Is it because your superiors had some kind of grudge against my family? Or is it because your ego is as delicate as Yellow 13's?"
"Don't you ever compare me to that son-of-a-bitch," growled Green. "I'm better than him and you know it."
"Give me a break. At least he was able to take me on in a fair fight even if he did have help with his four friends," I said as we passed by each other. "Unlike you, he didn't try to kick me while I was down. One thing you two have in common was that you both got extremely butt hurt over the fact that I beat you."
"That remains to be seen," said Green as we both turned back towards each other. "When I finally kill you, I won't have anything to worry about in these skies."
"So you are trying to boost your ego," I said.
"Well that's part of it, but this is mostly about revenge."
"I find it hard to believe that I ever did anything to you fifteen years ago."
"I didn't have a grudge against you until you nearly shot me down over Apito."
I continued trying to gain the advantage over Green, but I was thrown off a little by what he was telling me. Green had a chip on his shoulder, but it wasn't because of me. He wanted revenge on someone who was close to me, but none of my remaining family members fit the criteria of being capable of some sort of government level conspiracy, except for my dad. He was the only one who made sense out of the rest of my family. Mom was only an SSgt (Staff Sergeant) during that time and not really in a position to retain vital information. And remembering what Harkin told me about the attack on Curtis, he aimed to kill a lot of important people. Harkin…
"You're after him, aren't you?" I asked.
"Wow, you're smarter than I thought," said Green. "Anyways, you're right that I want him dead. Killing you will make him easier to kill."
"Psychological manipulation," I asked. "Wouldn't it have made more sense than to kill someone closer to him like his son?"
Green didn't say anything as he latched onto my tail and began to fire. I counter maneuvered by pulling a Super Kulbit so that he overshot and he sped out of range again so that he could make another head-on pass. This was going to be the fifth time that we did this and I was sure that he was expecting me to try something different, but I stuck to the strategy of barrel rolling around his beam. However, Green decided that he was going to switch it up too. Instead of firing his laser, he launched a salvo of missiles first. The way he launched them left me with very few options on how I was going to evade them and I could tell that he was going to fire his laser when I evaded his attack. The best possible way out involved me taking a hit, but I didn't know how much damage I would suffer.
I snap rolled to the lower left, then towards the upper right before I rolled under another missile. The fourth missile Green launched was the one I was the most worried about because I knew I couldn't dodge it. Shooting it down with my gun, for me, was child's play, but flying through its debris was my main concern. Nevertheless, I flew through it only to see Green's nose open up in preparation to fire his laser. I knew he was planning to do this and this was going to make it harder for me to get my hit in. Before Green could fire, I kicked the rudder over to the right while I pushed the stick over to the left. The skid I performed threw off Green's aim and his attack shot out in front of me. I how had an opening and I manually folded my wings and continued to fly towards my nemesis from head on. Green was trying to bring his nose on me and fired his gun in vain. I was now flying at full throttle and Green knew I was going to hit him. He tried to pull up to avoid a collision, but it wasn't enough. At the last possible moment, I pulled up as well and kicked the rudder to the right so that my left wing could make better contact with his vertical stabilizer. My plane shuddered heavily as I sheared off one of Green's vital control surfaces. But to my surprise, I hadn't suffered that much damage to my wing. The leading edge of it was dented, but not a whole lot.
"You must be pretty desperate to kill me if you're willing to kill yourself in the process," said Green.
"Believe me, asshole, I'm noting going to sacrifice my life to kill you. You're hardly worth it," I said as we turned back towards each other.
I noticed that Green had taken a longer time to turn towards me due to his lack of a rudder. I gunned my engines and sped to catch up with him, but he knew I was eager to pounce. Green's plane quickly began to fill my gunsight, but he quickly put his plane into a stall so that his nose suddenly pitched down. From here, he rolled so that he could pitch his nose back towards me. I wasn't surprised that this happened and I didn't flinch as several bullets from his gun tore through my right canard and wing as I flew over him. Green tried to finish the maneuver so that he could latch onto my tail from such a close range, but I was going to let him have a taste of how clever I was. Before Green fired his gun on me, I pulled my airbrake and cut the throttle so that I could get him as close to me as he could. Now that he was directly on my tail, I hit the afterburner and looked over my shoulder to see Green's plane get thrown around by my jet wash.
"You're right about me being desperate to kill you, but I won't stoop so low as to relying on cheap tricks to do it. One way or another I will have my revenge!"
I quickly swung my plane around to latch onto Green's tail while he tried to recover from my last attack. When I finally got back onto his tail, I cut loose with my gun and scored some hits on both of his engines before he recovered and attempted to run. Green had lost some of his speed, but only enough to the point where he and I were now on equal terms. He still had his maneuverability advantage over me, but based on our past fights, that wasn't much of an advantage. The fact we gave everything we had in our last fight meant that we each had to become more creative or do something desperate if either of us was going to come out on top.
Green flinched first and began to fly towards the SOLG's burning wreckage as it continued to fall out of the sky. I knew that this would be an extremely risky fight if I followed him, but I didn't care. Nothing was going to stop me at this point. Green led me into a dizzying waltz around the core as flames and debris continued to disintegrate it in midair. He was flying too close to the core and I couldn't get a shot off on him. Dammit, if I had some missiles, I might be able to actually give this guy a hell of a fight. We continued to loop around the core for about a minute before Green managed to out maneuver me. During one of the loops, Green had snapped into a roll away from the core which gave me an opportunity to do some damage. However, a large piece of debris would've sheared off my left wing if I followed him. I had no choice but to break off my attack and I ended up losing my target. My eyes were frantically searching for Green's plane as I flew away from the core, but I couldn't see Green's attack coming from under me. Bullets began to tear through my fuselage and wings before I managed to roll out of the way. I tried running again, but my maneuverability had been reduced and some of my instruments were now rendered useless.
"What was that about revenge?" asked Green. I didn't say anything as I ran with him clinging tightly to my tail. There was no end to his attacks and the only thing I could do for now was run. "Ain't got a smartass comeback, kid? Did I rattle you?"
I quickly pulled myself together and continued to evade Green's attacks. Each one was getting closer and closer and I knew it would only be a matter of time before he got me. As focused as I should've been on the fight, part of my mind was elsewhere. Green's timing here was extremely convenient considering that we had fought our way through dozens of enemy fighters that were bent on destroying the capitol of Osea. He knew that this would happen, which meant that he was working with the Grey Men or another party was involved. But then I thought back to November City. If he wasn't with the Yukes, what was he doing there? None of this made sense and Green was the only one who could give me the answers I wanted. I have to make him slip up again.
"Why go through all the trouble of killing innocent people?" I asked.
"To bring order and balance to this insane species of ours," said Green.
"The world was at peace before you and those fucking Grey Men had to start another war! How was all that death and destruction for the sake of humanity?!"
"Belka was never the same after the last war."
"They were given aid to dig themselves out of debt and get back on their feet! They had no good reason to wage this war!"
"Do you seriously think a country as prideful as Belka would accept the defeat and humiliation of the war 15 years ago? That situation made it too easy for us to manipulate them."
Belka was just another puppet? "If they were just being used, just exactly how was the threat of nuclear war going to save humanity?!" I demanded.
"Billions of people are dying and you're worried about the deaths on a fraction of them?" asked Green.
I had no idea what he was talking about and I thought about it some more. If a nuclear war started on Strangereal, the entire planet would've died. How is 2.4 billion only a fraction of humanity? I was about to ask where another large population of humanity would be located, but then it hit me.
"You're from Earth," I said in realization.
"Wow, you catch on quick," said Green. "You're right that I'm from Earth, but I'm here to save all of them from the oppression they're suffering."
"What are you talking about?"
"You forget that Earth was caught in the Ulysses disaster. The entire world order was destroyed and the lack of resources only continues to put pressure on the surviving nations to aid the refugees. Since your world leaders were too stubborn to lend us aid, we were forced to find alternative methods of helping them." Since Strangereal had severed all ties with Earth and became self-sufficient, Earth's nations had no other way to get the resources that it desperately needed to rebuild. As a result, they were willing to do anything they could to make Strangereal cooperate. "Also, aren't you supposed to be a US Marine? Didn't you swear an oath to defend the US from all threats foreign and domestic?" asked Green.
America is the key player in all of this? I loved my country. I would've done anything for it. But seeing as how I was billions of miles from it and seeing as how Earth wanted to kill everyone on the planet to save itself, I sure as hell wasn't going to help commit a mass murder to help them. A country that's willing to resort to something like this was one I would lead to destroy.
"Haven't you heard; the remnants of the US military had been disbanded. I no longer have my rank or my title as a Marine," I said grimly "Even if I did; I wouldn't just sit by and watch everyone die just because some asshole told you. I'll protect these people with my life and I'll kill anyone who says otherwise!"
"Quit acting so self-righteous! There are more people whose lives are in danger and you're only worried about a group that abandoned their roots for their own selfish gain!"
"They abandoned the people whose only goal in their life was to fight!"
"And look where they're at now! Even after the first settlements were established, there have been several wars and the threat of super weapons keeps sprouting like weeds! Humanity has made great strides in technology since we got here and all you want to do is hoard it for yourselves."
"And you'd let Earth suffer the same strife we face here?! You're making it impossible for me to believe that you're only out for Earth's best interests. First you tell me my death will boost your ego and that this is also about revenge. Now you're telling me that this is all for the sake of Earth's population?"
"It's the perfect situation. I took this mission to save Earth, but my grudge against Harkin was a bonus. Then because of him and you, Earth may die and it will all be because of you!" shouted Green.
"So be it," I growled. "They had their chance. Who the hell are the Grey Men to say that Strangereal has to die? When I'm done here, I'll hunt down and kill all of them to keep them from manipulating this planet!" I said and the red haze intensified even more.
Green was back on my tail and I began to my evasive maneuvering again. I was in a tight left turn and quickly reversed it to the right when Green began to shoot at me. His rounds fell short of their mark and I quickly rolled under him so that I was now giving chase. Green quickly rolled to the left and began to roll as he entered a dive. I mimicked his maneuver flawlessly and continued into the dive after him. When we were finally close enough to the water, Green pulled up as hard as he could and attempted to roll behind me. I began to roll with him and we were flying canopy to canopy while we began to slow do. However, Green couldn't turn fast enough because his lack of a vertical stabilizer made it difficult for him to roll into position behind me fast enough. He knew that his only options were to either run, or do something drastic. He chose to run and I managed to put a stream of rounds into his right engine before he pulled into a straight climb. Is he trying to do that same move Ashley pulled? Just when I thought that Green was going to make his move, Green did something I didn't expect. He leveled out and rolled ninety degrees to the left before he tried to pull a Kulbit maneuver and nosed down into a dive from his stall. I was lucky that he couldn't get his sights on me, but I overshot. I could've attempted to mimic his maneuver, but we would've collided. I pulled into a climb while Green recovered from his stall so that I could dive on him, but it didn't work out the way I had hoped. Green fired a pair of missiles at me so that I couldn't give chase and he seized the moment to get back on my tail.
I led Green into a tight left turn, but he was coming in to the point where he would overshoot if he wasn't careful. Green began to close on me too fast and I thought I would gain the advantage at this point, but he pulled a high yo-yo to reduce his speed and cut inside my turn. But just before he began to roll over and dive on me, I broke into a climbing right turn to throw off Green's aim. However, he expected me to do this and I took another number of hits to my fuselage. Out of desperation, I pulled a super Kulbit which forced Green to overshoot and I was able to pay him back a little. More of my bullets tore into Green's bird and a couple of them caused one of his engines to start smoking. Green attempted to counter again by rolling into position behind me, but I wouldn't let him and he drew closer. He has to know by now that he can't effectively roll like that. Green rolled several more time until his plane had almost filled my entire gunsight.
I felt a grin form on my face when my finger began to close around the trigger, but I fucked up royally. Green hit his afterburners and hit me with the sudden back blast of his jet wash. My plane was being thrown around wildly and Green took advantage of the situation to run. I was in a flat spin stall and I watched as Green put some distance between us and loop back around to get back on my tail. He launched a missile at me, but my countermeasures easily confused it. However, I couldn't do anything about his gun run. Green dove straight on top of me and began to score hit after hit on my plane. The noise was deafening and all I could do was try to correct the stall.
Alarms began to blare and one of my engines started trailing heavy black smoke. The forward swept section of my left wing was completely torn off and several more of my instruments had been knocked out. Some of Green's bullets had found their way into the nose of my plane and an explosion in the cockpit sent large pieces of shrapnel into my right leg and my abdomen. My screams of agony could've been heard for miles as I continued to try and correct the stall. And by some miracle, I managed to pull out of it and I continued to fly straight.
I was looking at the world through blood redden eyes and I tried to get my thoughts in order. He beat me… he actually did it. I took off my oxygen mask and struggled to draw air into my lungs as I waited for Green to finish me off. The sight of the rising sun on December 31, 2010 would be the last thing I saw. I could probably bail out. I looked at the eject handle of my seat and began to think about whether or not I should pull it. Kei would resurrect me just so she could kill me if I died like this. When I thought about her, I immediately grabbed the lever and pulled it, but to my dismay, nothing happened. I tried pulling it several more times, but the canopy wouldn't blow. It looks like you and me are going down together, Miranda. I tried pulling the lever one last time before I felt my right arm give out. I could barely move it as pain crept through my entire body.
"What's the matter? You through already?" asked Green as he fell into position off my right wing.
I didn't want to say anything, but I couldn't help it. He knew he had me dead to rights, but I knew he just wanted to gloat. "You'll never get an easier shot than this," I muttered.
"It's not like you can do anything else, so I'm not in a rush to kill you yet. I still have your friends to kill as well."
"You son of a bitch, leave them out of this!"
"I have orders, and they're to ensure that the Razgriz are eradicated," said Green as he began to head off towards the others
I was helpless to do anything. I could do nothing but sit and watch as that animal, that wolf, began to chase after my allies.
Shame! I could hear my Cipher's voice in my head as I imagined him scolding me. You're just going to let that bastard destroy all you've worked for? You would seriously just let him and his friends bring about the death of the world?!
I can't do anything!
Bullshit! If you can still breathe, you can still fight! Isn't that what I've always taught you?! Didn't you tell me once that the only time you'd stop fighting was when you were dead?!
I'm as good as dead now…
Fine, Blaze is dead, but Antonio Castillo is not! Where is the man who fought over a hundred super soldiers just to save the woman he loved, single handedly toppled a corrupt international pharmaceutical company, and flew into the depths of hell twice to save the world? Where is the man who devoted his life towards helping others?!
Kill… My heart began to pound inside my chest and adrenaline began to surge through my body. Kill… The pain I was feeling didn't bother me anymore and I proceeded to do a quick inflight check. Kill… The extinguishers to my engines were still working somehow and they managed to put out the fire. Kill him… My controls were still working, but my speed had been reduced even further. Kill him… Maneuverability had been crippled as well as the stability of my plane. I had to fly with my wings retracted to compensate for my damaged right wing. Kill that war wolf! I could hear the rest of my team over the radio as they tried to evade Green. With no weapons to fight back with, they were completely helpless. I'm going to kill that motherfucker!
I gave my Wyvern all the power I could and raced towards the fight. I could see Green's tracers off in the distance as he tried to slice through Snow's plane, but Green couldn't keep up with him after all the damage that I had done to his plane. Even so, he somehow managed to keep up the pace so that even they were having a hard time evading his attacks.
"You're only delaying the inevitable," said Green as he continued to gun after Snow.
"I'm going to kill you," growled Kei.
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, Captain Nagase?" mocked Green.
"I'll ram my plane into yours!"
There's my opening. Even though some people I knew would've never thought I'd considered using my team as cannon fodder, I had use them if I wanted stop Green. That meant that I couldn't even warn them. And knowing how stubborn Kei was, none of the others would be able to stop her. Then again, maybe they'd do the same thing. Green continued to chase after Snow, but he couldn't stay on him for long. Snow's erratic flying style made it difficult for him to get a bead on him. I was flying towards them as fast as I could, but I could only reach 670 mph. It was more than enough for now, but I needed to cripple Green's speed even further and I only had one chance.
Snow led Green into a tight loop that he couldn't keep up with. Green didn't have enough speed to keep up and Kei took advantage of the situation to keep her promise to Green. Kei was coming in at full speed, but Green easily avoided her and gave chase. Kei tried as hard as she could to try and shake him off, but she couldn't. How is he still that maneuverable? She led him through every maneuver she could think of, but it wasn't any good. She was mimicking my flying style to a tee which was why Green didn't have a problem keeping track of her. The last thing she tried was a Cobra turn, but Green was waiting for her to do it. As soon as Kei's nose pitched up, Green's nose opened up to reveal his laser. He was so focused on shooting her down that he didn't see me coming from his six o' clock low. Green managed to get a shot off on Kei, but the laser didn't do enough damage to bring her down. His beam was only on Kei's plane for like a second before I had him in my sights and fired my gun into his engine. Thick oily smoke began to trail behind him and he immediately broke off his pursuit of Kei.
"Blaze!" shouted Kei.
"Leave this asshole to me," I growled viciously. "You should know better than to leave in the middle of a fight," I said to Green.
"How are you still able to fight?!" he shouted.
"Simple, I have a drive stronger than anyone else in existence," I said as I gave chase for the last time.
As I stayed glued to his tail, I was able to find out how much I had crippled Green. His airspeed had been reduced to around 700mph, but his maneuverability had suffered greatly compared to mine. It was more than I needed to finish him off, but Green knew that he had a crucial advantage over me. The high G maneuvering would increase my blood loss exponentially making it more likely that I'd die before I had my chance to get my revenge.
"Okay, you now have my full attention. I'm going to kill you before I finish off your friends," said Green.
"No one else is dying on my watch," I said and I pushed the throttle forward
It was funny how this fight turned out at this point. Both of us were flying some of the most highly advanced aircraft in existence, but they moved like the first generation jet fighters. Our reduced speed and maneuverability would force us to rely on older dogfighting tactics. Stalling was going to be the deciding factor in this fight, and we both knew it. I couldn't go below 430mph or else I'd run the risk of stalling, but Green didn't have that harsh of a restriction.
Green led me into a series of tight turns and I had no problem keeping up with him. I was focused on his every move and I needed him to mess up. I needed him to try something creative and counter him there. The only trick was that I had to choose when and how I was going to counter him. I had already sunk my teeth into my target and he knew that I wasn't going to let him go. With my remaining ammo being as low as it was, I had to make these last shots count. However, time was running out as well. Even with my resolve, my wounds made the G effects have an even harsher effect on my body. I was losing blood and I couldn't stop to treat my wounds at this point in time. Deal with it! I kept my distance from Green as he tried to throw off my aim. With his maneuverability restricted, I didn't have to worry about him whipping around in some kind of super maneuver. If he wanted to get me, he'd have to find some way to turn on a dime. Given the condition of his plane and the fact that we were both highly experience in our trade, I knew what he was going to do, but he'd only do it if he was desperate.
Green pulled into a left bank as hard as he could, but it wasn't enough to throw me off. I easily pulled lead on him, but it was harder for me to breath. Green thought that tight turns would cause me to react less quickly because of the stress on my body, but I hadn't lost my touch. He snapped a roll to the right to shake me but it only gave me the opportunity I needed to make him grow desperate. I fired a short burst into the left side of his cockpit and I saw a white vapor trail coming from the holes. Green's cockpit must've been pressurized because he dove to a lower altitude with me in tow. Once he was low enough, he pulled out of the dive and attempted to go into a climb. When I followed him into the climb, I felt myself fading even faster. We pulled out at over eight Gs and my clothes became soaked in my own blood. You're almost there. Hang on just a little longer.
Green continued his climb towards a higher altitude where he began to lose speed rapidly. I wasn't losing it at fast and I knew that now was the time to make my move. When Green's speed began to stagnate, his nose opened up to reveal his laser for the last time. It was then that he hit his afterburners and pulled back on the stick. Green's nose went from facing straight up to facing straight down, the exact same way Ashley had done during our fight. His laser was already firing in preparation to cut through my plane one final time. It was the maneuver that would decide the outcome of this fight, but I was going to come out on top. His ego got the best of him.
When Green's nose pointed straight down, I was nowhere to be seen directly ahead of him. While we were still climbing, I veered off to the side and began to climb with Green until he made his move. When he put his plane into a stall, I turned to come in from his nine o' clock. In doing so, I lost a lot of speed and I would've stalled if I didn't have enough lift, so unfolded my wings. With only one wing, I had to compensate for the uneven amount of lift on my plane, but I made it work to my advantage. The thrust vectoring on my plane was still functioning which allowed me to maintain my intended flight path as I skidded into position around Green's plane. I was now in a wide flat spin that was circling Green's plane as he continued to dive back towards the ground and I now had him in my sights. He couldn't pick up speed quickly enough and he knew that this was where the fight would end. As soon as I had my gunsight on him, I pulled the trigger and felt my plane shudder from my gun's recoil. Each of my bullets found their mark into Green's fuselage and tore it to shreds.
I made four rotations around his plane before I saw the entire fuselage catch fire and Green had somehow pulled out of the dive. I nosed over to correct my stall and I was struggling to remain conscious as I pulled into position behind Green. His plane was still on fire and he couldn't do anything. All I need is one more burst inside of his fuel tanks and he's dead. I was about to pull the trigger, but then I felt myself cough up a lot of blood. It's almost that time.
"What are you waiting for," asked Green. "Kill me already."
I can't follow you if you're only doing this for revenge.
What's happened to you?
Don't let him become a monster.
Promise me that you won't let him become hateful again.
I know just how to deal with an ego maniacal asshole.
"I'm not going to kill you," I said.
"Let me guess you're finally out of ammo," teased Green, but he soon turned quiet when I fired a stream of bullets over his right wing.
"From this moment on, you're going to live knowing that you were out flown by the best pilot you've ever faced. You will see your death in your dreams many times over and you will be haunted by the fact that you were never the best. You will keep your fucking feet on the ground while you're on this planet or, I swear to God, Allah, Buddha, and every other deity out there that I will kill you slowly. I will murder every single person you hold dear to you before I finally rip your arms off and beat you to death with them if I ever catch you in my sky again," I growled.
"You won't be able to stop the coming storm," said Green hesitantly.
"Take a look towards your eleven o' clock," I said referring to the remnants of the SOLG. "Your superiors will keep sending threats like that in an attempt to destroy us, but it will only end in failure each time. As long as I'm on this planet, I will continue to protect it from anyone who threatens the peace here. If it comes to it, I'll go to Earth and destroy it from the inside out."
"I'm supposed to believe you?"
"I'm one of the Grey Men's failed experiments that exceeded all but one of their expectations. That should be enough to convince you just who the fuck I am."
"Blaze," said Kei suddenly. "Just kill him now."
"I'll let nature decide. I'm better than that," I said.
The rest of my team fell into formation around me as we continued to fly behind Green. It wasn't long before we saw him bail out of his plane just moments before it burst into flames. With that out of the way, I finally began to look over myself. I was still bleeding and I was about to activate my USD when I noticed that I had a piece of shrapnel sticking out of it. Knowing that I wasn't going to last much longer I looked over at each of my team members one last time before we noticed that the SOLG's core had finally exploded into a brilliant ball of light while its fragments fell to the ground in flames. We did it. We actually did it. Out of joy, I rolled my plane once and pulled into a climb so that we could finally head home while everyone cheered for us over the radio. The war was finally over….and so was this chapter of my life.
0708hrs Oured, Osea, Capitol District AFB
I could see the SOLG's fragments falling out of the sky and I knew that they had finally succeeded in saving the city. If there was one thing I could count on, it was him doing the impossible. Mr. Harkin drove me and a couple of the others towards the base so that we could finally give the Razgriz a place to land instead of the freeway. I couldn't wait to see Antonio again and finally give him the tickets that he asked me for the other day. When we got there, we waited on the flight line for them to come in. It felt like hours had passed until I finally saw four groups of lights descending down from the darker part of the sky. The first three X-02s I seemed fine, but the last one was badly damaged. Knowing Antonio, it was probably him. He's always so reckless. All four planes parked on the flight line and a swarm of military personnel began crowding them as each of the pilots opened up their canopies. Kei Nagase was the first one I saw followed by Mr. Snow, and Hans. Everyone rushed to give the pilots hugs and pats on the back, but I held off at a distance because I was waiting for him. What's taking him so long? I started to grow impatient and ran off to Antonio's plane only to see that he was still sitting in the cockpit. What surprised me even more was the amount of damaged that I saw on his plane. The left wing was missing, the engines were leaking fluids, and the nose had burn marks on it that almost looked like a shark's mouth. That's when it occurred to me that something was wrong.
I ran up to the side of Antonio's plane and lowered the ladder so that I could climb up to the cockpit. When I got there, I saw that Antonio was badly hurt. His right leg looked mangles and his clothes were drenched in blood. When I took off his flight helmet, his eyes were closed and I could see blood trails coming out of his mouth. No… I gently placed my fingers on his neck, but I couldn't feel his pulse and he wasn't breathing. His face was pale and he was cold to the touch.
"Somebody, help," I shouted.
Mr. Harkin come running with several other people. They had brought a bigger ladder so that they could carry Antonio out of the cockpit and paramedics began to work on him. My hands were shaking and I felt my eyes watering as I watched him being carted off towards an ambulance. Then I noticed his team. Kei brought her hand to her mouth and Hans looked like he was trying to stay optimistic about his recovery. Mr. Snow on the other hand, he looked like he knew that he had to accept the possibility. I looked at Antonio one last time before the paramedics put him into the back of an ambulance and I noticed that he was smiling slightly. Don't leave me… Please don't leave me too!
"Naomi," called Mr. Harkin as he came running up to me. "Are you okay?"
"He's going to be alright, right, sir?" I asked, but he wouldn't say anything. "Please tell me that he's going to be okay."
Mr. Harkin continued to look at me with unsure eyes before he pulled me in for a hug. He knew that Antonio had suffered some serious injuries before, but this didn't look good. I didn't want this to be the day that I told him goodbye. I didn't want to go almost two years since I last saw him and only spend one night with him just to have him die on me like this. Keeping myself together despite of all this was nearly impossible and I figured Kei was trying to do the same.
"Kei, what happened up there?" I asked to which she lowered her head. "Hans, Mr. Snow, please tell me what happened."
Snow didn't know what to say, but Hans pulled me aside to tell me everything. I was shocked to find out everything that happened and I didn't know how to react now that Antonio finally had gotten his revenge. He had avenged his dad, Miranda, and everyone else who was affected by the attack on Curtis.
"It's my fault." Hans and I turned to see Harkin staring at the ground like he just had a shocking realization. "This is my fault," he muttered.
"Lt. Colonel Harkin, who was that man the Captain fought," asked Grimm.
Kei heard his question and came running as well. "Who was that bastard, Colonel?" she demanded.
"His name is William Bishop. He was one of the men I trained when I was stationed back on Earth," said the Colonel.
Harkin went on to explain that he became an instructor at Top Gun and went on to train US Air Force pilots in 1991 before he came to Strangereal. As an instructor, Mr. Harkin pushed every cadet to their limits to forge some of the best pilots that ever served in the US Air Force. One of them was William Bishop. Harkin describe Bishop as a ruthless pilot who only fixates on the mission regardless of the consequences. During one of their missions in Bosnia, Harkin witnessed Bishop Kill numerous civilians while trying to destroy hostile armored vehicles without considering their safety. Harkin reported the matter to his superiors and Bishop ended up getting an NJP (Non-Judicial Punishment) that caused him several years of hardship. It was because of this that Bishop was denied a duty station when US forces were still coming to Strangereal.
Harkin told us all of this as we rode to the hospital Antonio was taken to. When we got there, we could only wait outside the ER for the doctor to give us the news. He's going to be alright. He always defies the odds. A couple hours had passed before someone finally came out to give us the news. We all stood up in preparation to hear about Antonio's condition and I could feel how anxious everyone was.
"Your friend didn't make it," said the doctor.
An unbearable pain in my chest began to form in my chest and I couldn't breathe. Everyone else was just as shocked as I was. Nothing in the universe could hide our collective sorrow. My legs gave out soon after the doctor pronounced him dead and my tears came like tidal waves. I've only experienced this pain once before and it couldn't bear to go through it again. Please, God, no! Please tell me this is some kind of nightmare! I thought I'd be taking it the worst, but then I saw Mr. Harkin. I had just noticed that he was screaming, demanding that he see Antonio while Mr. Snow and a couple MPs tried holding him back, but he broke loose of their hold and ran into the ER. Kei, Hans, and I followed him without a second thought and arrived at the room Antonio was being held in.
When we got there, no one could say anything as we gawked at Antonio as he lied motionless in bed. I didn't know what to do at this point in time. Everyone else had already gathered at his bed side with tears in their eyes while I just sat in a chair away from everyone. There was nothing I could do except cry for the next ten minutes. Mr. Harkin grasped one of Antonio's hands and prayed that this wasn't happening. The doctor that gave us the news came back and told us that we had to leave so that they could take care of him. Everyone started to leave the room and said their final goodbyes, but Kei and I stayed for a little longer so that we could say our final words to Antonio. I moved my chair over to Antonio's bedside and looked over him one last time.
"I really didn't think you were serious when you said that you wouldn't die until you had your revenge, but then again you always kept your promises. You were right when you said I was second guessing my decision when I told you 'no'. God knows how much I wanted to say 'yes', but I felt like you wouldn't have come back if I did. I've always loved you and I always will. Until we meet again, farewell," I said softly.
I grasped Antonio's hand tightly for the last time before I stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Kei alone with him. However, I really wanted to know how she really felt about him. I stood out of sight, but I was close enough to hear what Kei had to say.
"I can't believe that you're actually gone," she said softly. "I thought we'd see the end of the war together and that we'd see what peace looked like through war torn hearts, but you left. I promised that I wouldn't lose another flight lead, but you've done it this time. I don't know how many times you've nearly made me break my promise and it doesn't matter now. I never thought I'd be this angry with you after death."
I had no idea what she was on about, but I don't think she should've been angry at Antonio. As weird as it may have seemed, I think they should've been happy for him knowing that he had finally gotten what he wanted. His fight was now over and now he could rest easy. Kei soon came out of the room, but I didn't look at her. Everyone was clearly devastated about Antonio's death, but there was nothing we could do about it except cry. Mr. Harkin was the closest person to me and I hugged him as we both continued to grieve. Even though this was an extremely heartbreaking moment for him, I've never seen him like this. Mr. Harkin always struck me as a very serious man that rarely ever let his true emotion show. But knowing his true relationship with Antonio, I couldn't say that I was surprised to see him cry for the first time.
"I'm so sorry, Nathan," I said softly. Mr. Harkin didn't say anything and I felt him starting to tense up. A few seconds passed before he pushed me away and turned towards the others.
"Tell me he at least killed him," said Harkin to Kei. She could only look at him and hung her head. "He got away?"
Mr. Harkin's rage became apparent with each passing second and when it reached its peak, he ran his fist as hard as he could into a wall and left a hole. I knew how he felt and I wanted blood for this. We all did. Mr. Harkin pulled his hand out of the wall and I grabbed a clean cloth from a nearby medical tray to bandage the wound. It was the least I could do at this point. However, while I was cleaning his hand, I noticed that he had a really bad rash. I doubt he even noticed it, but the rash was on both of his hands. It was an allergic reaction he had, but Mr. Harkin was only allergic to latex. Latex…
Bishop was one of the most two-dimensional characters in my opinion in the Ace Combat series. He was all about business and it seemed like he lacked a personality. His interactions with Guts and Janice seemed like they was forced and his presence as an actual character didn't seem necessary. I couldn't get my hands on a copy of the book Assault Horizon was based off of so I couldn't really come up with a better understanding about the kind of person he was. I just went off of my own judgment. Other than that, I thought Ace Combat Assault Horizon was just straight up poo-poo compared to the other Ace combat games because it focused more on the fact that they were fighting the war instead of the characters' personal feelings on the matter. The character development and personal struggles they face is what draws me to Ace Combat franchise.