Three Strikes

by bluebellwren

Naomi Foulke - TAC 'Trigger' - the latest in a line of air force prodigies, becomes the OADF's scapegoat when she's wrongfully accused of murdering former President Harling. In the midst of war against Erusea, she's sent to a penal unit to atone. Determined to redeem herself and swiftly end the war, she finds herself facing threats from all sides as she grows from prisoner to hero.

62. The Daredevil

Chapter Sixty-One: The Daredevil

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Selatapura, Usea.
October 31st, 2019.
1456hrs.

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The skies over Gunther Bay were nothing short of sheer chaos when the LRSSG arrived.

A furball wasn't unexpected given the circumstances. In the distance, through the clouds and smoke, Naomi could barely make out the shapes of several aircraft already going toe to toe and tangling with their enemy. If not for her radar and the UNKNOWNs that appeared on her HUD it would have been hard to spot them. Or at least hard to tell if they were really there or not, especially when you combined the speed and distance they were all flying.

Over the radio, it wasn't much better. Almost as soon as they were within range, they picked up the voices of several pilots. Some of them clearly Osean while others had the slightest hint of an Erusean accent when they spoke. There were cries of encouragement and gratitude or cries for help from their allies, and there was little in between. Clearly they'd been at it for a while. Which meant Naomi and the others were late to the party.

"I need help!" came the cry of an Osean pilot.

"Don't let 'em damage more!" another shouted.

"Shit, they're beating us down out here," groaned an Erusean. To another ally, he abruptly warned, "On your six!"

"Let's show them what the Erusean – no, what fighter pilots are made of!" That was the only battle cry any of them needed.

Although it wasn't the welcome party any of them had in mind, Naomi wasn't about to just sit by. They didn't have time to sit and think or let everyone know what was going on. In that moment, they acted purely on instinct as they dove into the fight, everyone maintaining a tight formation as they did. Through the mess of clouds and contrails Naomi managed to find a target and stick to it, going for a group that was chasing down what looked to be an Erusean fighter.

Normally she might have hesitated to engage before they fully knew what was going on, but she had gotten close enough to her target to spot that red line underneath, and she spotted it on several other nearby aircraft. They were up against drones, and there were Erusean fighters among their allies or so she'd been told. According to Avril's message that was the case. No real pilots or misunderstandings to worry about. In what had become a rare moment in this entire, godforsaken war there was a black and white battle to be had.

In the blink of an eye, several blips disappeared from her radar as each of the four squadrons got the jump on the drone fighters. Each flight lead moved in perfect sync with their wingmen, each pilot locking on to whatever target they could and firing as soon as they had a solid tone. Missiles streaked across the sky, striking their targets almost simultaneously. The drones never stood a chance, too slow to break off their pursuit and evade, breaking apart in a ball of fire and smoke.

"Holy shi– where'd that come from?!" one pilot managed to sputter out, though Naomi had no idea if they were one of the Oseans or the Eruseans.

"Wait, is that…" another unfamiliar pilot started. He let out a breathy laugh. "No way."

"Well, if it isn't the LRSSG! Looks like our luck has turned!" a new voice chirped. He sounded a bit winded, but hardly as bad as some of the pilots sounded. If Naomi had to guess, he wasn't up here fighting with them. "It's about damn time you guys showed up…I was starting to think your guys were lying to us when they said you all sent them. Should have known you'd never hang us out to dry…"

"This is AWACS Long Caster, entering the AO. Glad to see that coalition we heard about is still hanging in there," Long Caster said, quick to announce his presence before Naomi could respond to the guy. He went on, getting right down to business. "I'm picking up plenty of Osean and Erusean aircraft, but it's gonna be tedious if we can't tell the Erusean pilots from those drones. I can keep things straight, but I'm trusting you can lend a hand?"

"Sending the data link through now. We've got…a lot of Eruseans on our side out here," the commander explained through a slight laugh. "They've been identified as friendly via the data link. Erusean government aircraft and the drones will show up as hostiles. And thanks to Three Strikes, we shouldn't have any trouble telling you all apart from the crowd."

"Just confirmed it. Everyone's IFF should be updated…now," Long Caster said, and on cue Naomi's HUD now displayed several groups of allies ahead of her, mixed in alongside the enemy aircraft.

"We've got it. Looking good, Long Caster, thanks," Naomi said. She took a deep breath as she and the rest of Strider Squadron circled around, searching for her next target. It definitely wasn't going to be an easy fight, but as long as they stayed focused on the end goal they'd have a chance. She put on a smile, trying to sound confident even though no one could see her face. She could have bluffed just fine without it…probably. Maybe. "Alright, everyone ready for this? I'm looking forward to wiping the floor with these guys."

"Ready as we'll ever be," Knocker told her, trying not to sound too eager for a fight but not really doing a good job at hiding it. Not with the edge he had to his voice. "I've been waiting for this, too."

"LRSSG, as you can probably assume, you will be securing air superiority while we draw out the Arsenal Bird," the commander from before said, well aware he wasn't telling them anything they didn't know but probably trying to keep everyone focused. "If everything we've heard is true – and I'm sure it is – then that shouldn't be a problem for you. You two ace squadrons, I'm thinking it's time to show us what you've got."

"We've got more than just two now. Guess nobody told them it wasn't just us anymore," Count observed with a breathy chuckle.

"Why don't we give 'em what they're askin' for, see if they forget about us then," Clown said with a sly chuckle. Unlike Knocker, he didn't even try and disguise how gung-ho he was feeling about the whole thing. "You gonna let us loose for real now, Trigger?"

"Couldn't stop you if I tried, now could I?" Naomi said with a slight chuckle. She craned her neck to look over her shoulder on each side, then checked her radar and surroundings for the target she'd picked up. She throttled up and rolled, the first one to break formation and make a dive for the F/A-18 drone she'd spotted. As she did this, she called out to the others, "All squadrons, engage!"

Everyone broke formation as soon as they heard the order, teaming up with their allies and throwing themselves into the action properly. It wasn't hard to find a spot to jump in. There were several formations surrounding the elevator, and no telling how many reinforcements they might have waiting. If they had any chance of taking down the Arsenal Bird after all this then they'd have to be careful, both with their ammunition and their own safety. It was always do or die but today they had the fate of two countries riding on the success of this operation. No one was going to screw up if they could prevent it.

Naomi singled out one of the drones, breaking it off from its allies. She stayed glued to it, never once easing off of the throttle while the rest of Strider Squadron jumped on the rest of the drone squadron. After a few sharp turns and rolls, the drone desperately attempted to shake her off and even managed to match her when she tried to switch up her pursuit tactics. All of that happened in maybe less than a minute. Naomi had plenty of practice with these things and she wasn't about to go easy on them. It banked abruptly, trying to lose her in the clouds, and that was when Naomi got a solid lock. She pulled her nose around as soon as she realized what it was about to do, and it turned right into her sights. As soon as she got the tone she fired one missile, waiting only long enough for the missile to connect and blow the drone out of the sky before she broke off.

Count had already managed to down the drone he was tangling with, circling his Eagle around to catch up with Naomi. Meanwhile, Jaeger and Húxiān finished off with their own targets. Húxiān was the first of the two to take out her target, firing a missile alongside a spray of gunfire for good measure until the engine caught fire and the aircraft fell into a downward spiral before breaking apart just above the ocean. After that she banked hard to the left and helped Jaeger corral his, keeping the drone from slipping away and securing the kill from Jaeger. The two of them easily overwhelmed it.

The rest of their allies had similar success. Fencer and Skald paired off to go after one of the Radicals' Flankers, though Naomi had no idea if it was a drone or one of their manned fighters. She didn't imagine they had very many of the latter with how hard they'd been pushing this drone thing the whole time, but they probably needed some real pilots up in the air. None of them were too worried about that, definitely not at that moment anyways. They were focused entirely on their objective.

Lanza and Tabloid went after the other Flanker – it was a pair of Flanker-Es, according to the IFF and radar – while Fencer and Skald chased down their target. Their teamwork was as flawless as Strider Squadron's, not that she would have expected anything less. They kept their enemies in check the whole way, bobbing and weaving and rolling through the sky, forcing the aircraft to move how they wanted until they got an opening. It was over for the two in a matter of seconds, Fencer and Skald both firing on their target almost at the same time, though it looked like Fencer was the one that got in the kill. There wasn't any way to know for sure, though, not with how close it had been. On Tabloid and Lanza's end, Lanza ended up playing the bait, leading the enemy through the clouds as Tabloid circled his plane wide around said cloud. When the two emerged a few moments later, Lanza rolled into a dive while Tabloid came for the enemy head on, firing and pulling clear of the explosion.

Mage and Golem Squadrons were handling the squadrons on the perimeter, catching the drone fighters trying to withdraw after the other Erusean and Osean pilots chased them out there while also being the first to intercept any reinforcements that might come their way. All of them were holding their own like pro, moving with each other in sync, Kathryn, Hans, Tailor, and Clown all firing on the same target simultaneously down to the point it was impossible to tell which of the four of them had actually shot the enemy down. Knocker and the rest of Golem spread themselves out a bit in comparison, taking down the enemy one-on-one or going at it in pairs, but they were handling themselves just as well.

In the few minutes that had gone by since they dove into the action, more aircraft appeared on the edge of the AO, practically on every side from the looks of things. Naomi broke her attention away from the fight long enough to warn everyone of it, in case they hadn't noticed. "Heads up everyone, we've got inbound from every direction."

"I see them," Kathryn replied in an instant, keeping her calm. She let out a short, almost irritated huff. "And just when we started to make a dent…are they all bad guys or what?"

A new voice came over the radio, speaking with an almost nonexistent Erusean accent. "This is Skoll Squadron and Rigel Squadron of the Erusean Air Force, we're here on our own," the newcomer – likely the leader of one of those two squadrons – told them. Naomi actually breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they identified themselves as allies. "There's about twelve of us entering your airspace, Long Caster."

"Happy to have you all on board," Jaeger said with a breath of relief of his own, clearly speaking through a smile. "Sorry it isn't more of a welcome."

About as soon as everyone let themselves feel relieved that at least some of the Eruseans moving in were allies it was quickly crushed as soon as yet another man spoke up. And although it wasn't quite as shock and terror-inducing as Mr. X's voice, it was still one she immediately recognized from the operation of Shilage. Not that there was any doubt as soon as he introduced himself. "This is Sol 2 to all allied aircraft. Republic of Voslage aircraft also moving to rendezvous."

"There's only one squadron, though," a different man, his wingman, responded. He let out a short, dry laugh. "Well, more of a team, really. But we're here to help."

"You're kidding me, right?" Húxiān said through gritted teeth as she dodged a missile from the drone that had been tailing her while also trying to stick to the tail of her target. Jaeger quickly came to her aid, and once the drone was gone she continued to voice her frustration. A dead giveaway she wasn't taken aback by the enemy, but instead by their new allies. "Someone tell me I'm hearing things."

"You're not…it's Mr. X's crew…" Count practically snarled. "Can't believe they followed us here."

"Count, ease up and stay with me," Naomi called out, ignoring her own rush of feelings. Shock, confusion, maybe a bit of anger or fear. But they were here on their side. And although she was trying to take things a step at a time, she knew full well they would need them before all was said and done. They were good pilots if nothing else, and now they were on their side. She wasn't sure she sounded like she was much better, but she wasn't about to lose it out here. "We've got bigger problems, remember?"

"She's right. Engagement is forbidden," Long Caster added, almost sounding a bit worried but there was a stern edge to his words. "Don't lose your heads out there."

"Alright, alright, relax you two. Don't worry, I know," Count said, grunting as he rolled to follow one of the enemy fighters into a dive. He downed it quickly, sounding out of breath as he admitted, "We're gonna need every bird we can call upon. Even if they were flying with the guy that killed Wiseman."

"You can settle scores on your own time, it's neither here nor there right now," Hans pointed out, though even he didn't sound all that thrilled about their new allies. Definitely not angry, either, it was something closer to reluctance and maybe a hint of frustration, but not outright anger. Either way, he was right.

The remainder of the forces closing in on them turned out to be reinforcements, and everyone quickly had their hands full. No one cared about who was on their side, too worried about the people and drones that weren't on their side. At first the drones weren't discriminating against their targets too much, but after Naomi caught their attention she was just about the only one they were interested in going after. Her and the rest of Strider Squadron, at least. Which meant she was desperately trying to keep them off her allies while they were trying to get them off of her.

The sky was filled with contrails from missiles and aircraft alike as well as the spray of haphazardly aimed gunfire. Naomi's missile alerts were blaring in her ear, and between pulling evasive maneuvers and tailing her target she was doing the best she could to keep things together. She rolled clear of a missile and into a dive, following the drone she was chasing as it tried to lose her over the water. She didn't relent, pitching up as soon as she noticed her target doing the same. She got a solid tone, fired, then scanned the skies around her for the fighter that had been chasing her.

The warning in her ear told her it was still there, but she couldn't get a visual on it herself. She checked her radar as she dropped flares and pulled up, finding herself surrounded by two different fighters. She could probably shake one of them and shoot it down, but the same trick wasn't going to work twice…not unless she was careful. The warning in her ear became more rapid. Naomi banked left, then right, and then pulled up, gritting her teeth until the alert stopped. She braked hard and leveled out, managing to catch one by surprise. Although she had plenty of weapons at her disposal, she would have preferred not to waste more than she could on them…even so, she didn't want the aircraft to get away from her.

Switching over to her QAAMs, she fired as soon as she had a radar lock. In an instant, before the enemy drone could counter, the QAAM hit the mark. The F/A-18's wing was blown clean off, and it was sent into a spiral down towards the sea. Its wingman didn't have better luck as Naomi soon found out, trying to find where it had gone in time to see Count down it. She should have known he'd jump on top of it as soon as he could. He'd probably been chasing it as long as it had been after her.

Not far away, Knocker was having a hard time shaking the enemy on his tail, forced to break off his pursuit of the Hornet he had gone after thanks to the drone fighter's stubbornness. He grunted, pulling just about every evasive maneuver in the book, but the thing wouldn't stop. "Dammit, someone give me a hand with a bastard!" he managed to practically spit out, clearly frustrated by the whole thing. "I need help!"

Without a word, one of the Sol Squadron pilots broke off from his wingman and moved in to help. About as soon as he fired on the drone, it had no choice but to break and attempt to evade, which gave Knocker a chance to escape. The Sol pilot didn't let up, though, following the plane as it pulled up and away from him. He matched the drone move for move, like he could predict where he was going, and downed it right as it moved like it was going to evade. He leveled out, sounding as though he hadn't even broken a sweat when he spoke. "This is Sol 3, bandit is down."

Knocker pulled around, leveling out beside him. He blew out a breath. "Thanks, I owe you for that."

"No sweat," Sol 3 replied, almost like they'd always been on the same side. As Knocker banked to rejoin Faun, Sol 3 flew in the opposite direction to regroup with his own wingman.

"Well, I guess this is as good a time as any, now that the clock is ticking down," the Osean commander from before suddenly came over the radio. He sounded hesitant at first, but he quickly cleared his throat. "To all of you who have gathered here, regardless of your nation, this is headquarters of the Osean Army southern command…wait, you can forget that designation…anyway. We are a coalition formed exclusively for the sole purpose of taking down the Arsenal Bird. You will wait until we're ready to strike the Arsenal Bird in unison, while our ground forces secure the space elevator." There was a pause, one that Naomi almost didn't notice with so much on her plate, then he added, "Oh, and at the suggestion of a ragtag group of soldiers from the LRSSG, we'll be broadcasting the operation in an attempt to…educate the world the best way we can."

Naomi furrowed her brow. "The hell does that mean?"

She could imagine who the ragtag group was, but of all the ideas they'd gotten in their head that was…a new one. Live broadcasting military operations wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't exactly all that common. Especially not when most of the world was cut off from one another…then again, stranger things had happened. And considering the circumstances and how many missiles were flying at her she wasn't really all that worried about it.

Even though she had guessed whose idea it was, and although she knew they were all safe, Naomi still felt a rush of relief as soon as she heard a familiar voice over the radio. It was awkward and far more stilted than usual, but it was still a voice Naomi would recognize anywhere. "Okay, on that note…commencing transmission…let's see how good my improv skills are. Or whatever I gotta have to make this work," Avril's voice came to life over the radio after just a moment of interference. "I wish I had time to chat, but it's all business out here. I'm speaking over both terrestrial broadcasting and video transmission networks. To those of you that don't know, well, it's not important who I – or, no, who any of us are. If nothing else, I'm sure everyone is aware of our air support. They're the real stars of this show."

"Haha! Never thought I'd hear the day she'd try and flatter us," Count said with a laugh before he tried to catch his breath, downing a drone that Naomi had sent flying his way. "Hey, Tabloid, you catching all of this?"

"Kind of hard not to." It sounded like Tabloid was barely holding back a smile as he spoke, grunting slightly as he dropped flares and rolled clear, immediately turning and firing on the nearest plane he saw. He quickly added, though, "The Scrap Queen, ladies and gentlemen. As humble as they come. But boy if she doesn't like to brag about us."

"That elusive soft side of hers," Skald added with a snort of laughter. And they found out whose expense that was at as soon as he added, "We all know who she saves that for."

"Something tells me she knows what she's doing," Jaeger mused, chuckling slightly.

"Still, what're they doing putting all of this through an open channel? Let alone letting the public in on it?" Faun asked, sounding more concerned than annoyed. "Any enemy out there that isn't a drone is gonna be able to hear everything they're saying."

"There's no choice. We've got Erusean fighters in the coalition, and on top of that the whole world is probably pissed off to no end," Clown pointed out to him. "You can't keep our allies out of the loop and you can't risk the world revolting because they don't know what's goin' on. Or that the war's over."

"This is gonna go down in history," Boggard said almost smugly. Even he was a bit strained, though. "Might as well have an audience when it goes down, right?"

"To any curious, I'm able to hear exactly what's going on both on the ground and in the air. For the most part, though not directly, this is to help keep the flyboys up to date as well," Avril said in the most pointed and forcedly 'pleasant' tone she had ever taken on. There was even a hint of exasperation in her voice, too, but she actually did a good job covering that up. There was a bit of scattered laughter, which she evidently definitely heard, but she ignored it and went on, "First, our goals are simple…same as everyone else here. We take back the space elevator and take down the Arsenal Bird. Second, we're going to find a way to cut the power to the drone factory in order to put a stop to all of the war and chaos that its products cause. And lastly, once that's achieved, we'll bring an end to this pointless war. Simple enough, right? Everyone's got a job to do out here…and for now, mine is to tell the world what's going on here. Here goes…"

As she began to explain everything they saw on Tyler Island and things that were happening over the rest of the continent, Naomi and the others kept their focus on the fight they were in. As far as fights go, things were going almost a little smoothly. Eventually Avril did pause as the fighting on the ground picked up, informing all of them and everyone else that was listening or watching that they were pushing through the enemy's ranks. Which was something easier said than done, as Naomi herself was quite aware of thanks to their own fight.

The drones seemed to have taken things up a notch. Their evasive and combat maneuvers were faster and more precise, and just when Naomi had thought they were starting to make a dent in their numbers. Not to mention, Erusea apparently had their hands on some more advanced fighters…whether they were drones or not, Naomi couldn't tell. It's not that she couldn't get close enough, it was that they were flying so fast that when she did get close to them she was barely able to make out the markings on their tail let alone whether they were manned aircraft or not. That didn't change her approach to them, though. If she could take on an advanced next-gen aircraft with a hardened veteran flying then she could take on a couple of ordinary pilots in standard fifth-generation fighters. She may not be flying anything better than them, but she was more than capable.

Although it was rare to see an Erusean F-22, they had gotten their hands on a small handful of them, along with a couple of Su-57s. They were all accompanied by an abundance of F/A-18Fs, Rafales, Su-35s, and Su-33s, the numbers of each group varying. She'd seen some funky squadron lineups before, even been in one, but this dogfight was something else. Say nothing of the numbers and the way they were flying. Not that things were looking any better on their end, with how many Osean and Erusean fighters they had on their side, but at least they had a semblance of structure. She wasn't the only one that noticed it, either.

"Some of their squadrons are in weird formations," Count observed. "I've seen some weird stuff but the way they're flying is…just about as weird."

"They have manned fighters leading UAVs in slave mode," Sol 3 – Seymour, if she recalled correctly – told him quickly, getting right to the point. Figured if anyone would know it'd be him. "The UAVs are fully autonomous, but when you're in a battlefield like this it helps to have wingmen that don't feel anything."

"So how many do we have to shoot down?" Footpad asked with an exhausted huff.

"Just take 'em down one at a time, they're bound to run out eventually," Húxiān replied through panting as she tried to catch her breath. She sounded like she was going to say something else, but she had to drop flares and evade an incoming missile, twisting her plane around to gun down one of the aircraft tailing her while Jaeger went after the other. Although it clearly was taking a toll on her, she shot the plane down with a pair of missiles like it was nothing. Naomi could hear the smile on her face when she spoke, though she still sounded winded. "See? Ain't nothing to it!"

"I dunno, this is all starting to get real old," Lanza griped in response, though he continued fighting regardless of that.

"Don't bite off more than you can chew, trust me these guys aren't going anywhere," Naomi told them all with a huff. She angled her nose towards a few Erusean fighters trying to regroup and throttled up, flying right through them in an attempt to throw them off, trying to separate whichever was the manned aircraft. It was just a theory she had, but she wanted to get rid of what little structure they had. Drones caved a lot faster and dropped whatever act they were putting on as soon as they did, at least from what she'd seen. "Everyone, try and single out the squadron leaders. I wanna see what happens when they have to make up their own orders…"

"Huh. You might be onto something there," Sol 2, Wit was what he was called, said. And he sounded almost impressed when he spoke. Calling out to Seymour and any other aircraft he said, "Alright, let's follow Three Strikes' example."

Before the subject changed too drastically, one of the pilots from the allied Erusean squadrons spoke up, sounding both surprised and enthusiastic. "Wait, hang on, I heard you guys mention she might be here before we showed up, but you were all being serious?!" he asked. It was a rhetorical question, since before anyone could answer he let out a delighted laugh and said, "Three Strikes is on our side?! That's the best news I've heard in a long time!"

"You guys seriously didn't look at your allies?" Tailor asked them incredulously, letting out an irritated snort. "She's right there, plain as day!"

"Maybe you oughta try chasing them down, Trigger," Kathryn said, sounding way too thoughtful considering she wasn't being serious. "It might help fix their situational awareness or whatever."

"Sure, there's an idea," Naomi scoffed. She had better things to worry about, but it was funny. And she had to admit that some banter was doing wonders for morale…it was hard to be afraid or worry about what had to be done or what could go wrong when you were able to joke with soldiers you'd faced on opposing sides before. Of all the ways things could have gone, this was…good. "Jog their memory a little, too. Whaddya say, guys? For old time's sake?"

Another Erusean pilot let out a laugh. "Against Three Strikes? Uh-uh, never again."

Naomi couldn't help but smile a bit at that. As if she needed anyone else out there stroking her ego. She didn't think she was some kind of hero or something, but if she gave people confidence just by being on their side then she must have done something right. Maybe it meant she was a good pilot or passing as a leader, she wasn't sure, but she'd take it. It was a small and meaningless victory, but she guessed it was a victory nonetheless. No matter how briefly happy she felt, though, she quickly turned her attention back to the fight they had on their hands.

"Count –" Naomi was about to ask him to come and give her a hand, both covering her and helping her break up and corral the aircraft she assumed was the flight lead's, but she realized he'd already circled around from where he'd been and was right on her wing. He cut her off before she even had to order him.

"Already on it, Trig, just lead and I'll follow," Count told her, like he just fell in beside her on instinct. "Let's go get 'em."

Together, they jumped back into the action. It wasn't hard to separate the flight leads from their squadron, since the real pilots seemed to be the ones in the Rafales, Felons, and Raptors. For the latter two they might have had some flashier, bigger aircraft but in exchange they were easier to pick out in a fight. And that was exactly what they did. The others followed their lead, doing exactly what she told and singling out whichever pilot they thought was the leader while the rest covered them to keep the drones off of them.

Naomi and Count worked together to drive the enemy fighter away from the drones, and eventually the pilot pulled straight up abruptly in an attempt to shake them off. Naomi followed, her hands reacting faster than she thought was even possible as she picked up speed, then pulled a high-G turn in order to follow. She grunted, but adjusted quickly, and thankfully the enemy was kind enough to not fly towards the sun so her vision wasn't impaired. That was lucky for her, but not so lucky for him.

Once she lined up the shot, Naomi waited for the tone and fired as soon as she had it, not wanting to risk losing it. She fired two missiles just in case, one standard before she quickly switched to the QAAMs and fired one, and she was glad she did since he pulled back as if he was going to pull a Kulbit and managed to dodge the first one, but the QAAM collided with the engine. The tail went flying off as the engine ignited in a blaze and the pilot wasn't able to recover the plane once the rest started to follow suit. Naomi blew out a breath of relief and leveled out before she dove for the drones.

What used to be four drones was down to two as soon as Count got ahold of them, jumping on them as soon as he had broken off the pursuit of the lead fighter. He downed the first one before the lead plane had gone down, and the second was the result of the plane turning into a sitting duck as soon as the leader went down. He let out a short whistle. "Looks like you were right on the money, Trigger," he said. "The drones were sluggish once the leader went down."

"Drones without leaders are slow as hell…I might've guessed as much," Seymour commented with a short laugh. "Nice catch, Strider 1."

"At this rate we'll be done in no time," Boggard said, still as confident as he was when they started. "And hopefully then we'll be warmed up enough to take on that damn Arsenal Bird."

"Speaking of…" Knocker said quickly. "Long Caster, how're we looking on time?"

"Arsenal Bird's estimated time to intercept is about twenty minutes," Long Caster replied after only about a beat or two. He sounded as calm as he always did for them, but realizing they only had a few more minutes suddenly made everything seem very real to Naomi. He continued, completely unaware. "A little over half the hostiles remain, and from the sound of things the operation to take back the space elevator itself is well underway."

"Perfect. I'm sure we can hold out until then," Wit said. He sounded…confident, but not like it was going to his head. Actually he reminded Naomi a bit of Mr. X. "Whatever happens here is going to shape the future, so everyone keep your wits about you."

"No kiddin'. Gotta love stakes like this," Clown said with a snort.

So far he was holding his own as well as Naomi would expect. All of them were. Even Tailor was flying well enough to keep up with his allies, and considering how seasoned they were that was an accomplishment in itself. She wasn't sure how many they'd all shot down by now but she did know those numbers kept going up. They were downing the drones and their flight leads one by one, almost having to race one another just to get a kill in, but they were all holding up just fine. Naomi had a feeling that might change once the Arsenal Bird showed up, but she kept her focus. They still had time. Even just a bit of time.

After spending what had felt like hours fighting alongside one another, the Osean and Erusean and IUN forces were adapting to one another's fighting styles little by little. It wasn't perfect but they were managing some level of teamwork. They were learning to read their new wingmates, playing off the other to help down the enemy fighters, watching each other's backs and jumping on anyone that tried to get on their six. Naomi and Count even managed to work with Wit and Seymour, albeit only to wrangle a few fighters. It wasn't anything spectacular by any means, but when she thought about the fact they'd been actively trying to kill each other literally a week or so ago then it became one of the most incredible things she'd seen. The pit in her stomach didn't go away, but the show of teamwork was enough to settle it a bit.

As the fight continued on, Naomi tried to ignore the fact that her body was begging for some relief. She was sore and her eyes were burning from the strain and the fact she was barely blinking, and that all just made the exhaustion even worse. Even though she was used to it. She kept herself together, though, not about to come all this way just to screw up and get her wingmen or herself killed. She kept on her targets' tails, refusing to let up and shaking every missile that came her way, reasoning that nothing she was facing now was anything compared to her fight against Mr. X. Sure, they moved like him, but she'd take these guys over him any day…and she still had a bit of a score to settle with them, anyways.

Down below, Avril's voice finally came over the radio once again. She sounded out of breath and the sound of gunfire and explosions could be faintly heard in the background, but she swallowed and then spoke anyway. "Back to what I was explaining, everyone take a good look at that cable going up past the horizon. It goes up as far as the eye can see. Cool, yeah?" she said, speaking to the audience and on some level to them. Naomi wanted to talk directly to her, to get some confirmation everyone down there was okay, but she had her hands full and didn't want to interrupt. "Not many people are aware, but the space elevator is actually the world's tallest transmission tower…as well as an incredibly powerful energy source. In theory, its range should cover half the globe. That fun fact's courtesy of our cameraman, Genette."

"Well, this has turned into a fun little lesson," Kathryn commented with a grunt as she rolled to evade a missile and fire one at a fighter at the same time. "Leave it to Genette to come up with something like this."

"He always did love a good exposition," Hans said with a breathy laugh, jumping on the aircraft that had been chasing her. "I would say he has a flair for the dramatic, but I think that's an understatement."

"Anyways, point is, we've jacked the signal to reach out to you all, with some help from the military. But…er…with the communications infrastructure down, it can only be transmitted to certain regions," Avril explained, stumbling over the words a little. It sounded like she shook it off, snapping herself back. "Ugh, anyways, enough of that…what I'm trying to say is that if you can access the server, consider yourself lucky. You get to see a real live princess." She paused, then encouraged the aforementioned princess with, "Hey, Cossette, say hello to everyone."

"Hi." The Princess blurted out the most ordinary greeting imaginable, sounding like she'd been put on the spot. She recovered quickly, too, though. Faster than Avril, actually, probably courtesy of being thrown in the spotlight for so long. "It's only thanks to the efforts of so many brave soldiers that I'm standing here right now. I owe them my life…and my gratitude."

"As you can see, everyone is doing their part," Avril said, like she had a script right in front of her. Slowly she seemed to be getting the hang of it, pausing here and there to rejoin the fight and cover her allies. "Even the Princess of Erusea herself is stepping up to put an end to this senseless violence, after being abused and exploited by those behind the production of these drones. But now, we're going to fix that. Oseans and Eruseans alike have gathered here for one simple purpose."

From there, she did a good job summarizing every conspiracy she could, not holding any punches as she called out exactly who was responsible for the war. Or at least who their current enemy was. An Erusean pilot let out a huff as he downed a Super Hornet. "Jeez…this isn't even a battle between nations anymore, it's a struggle between militias," he said. "Get caught in the middle and you're dead."

"I've been meanin' to ask since they brought it up…are the friendly Eruseans 'rebels' or what?" Húxiān asked as soon as she caught her breath.

"They're rebels but I'm sure it's more complicated than that," Jaeger answered her.

"I dunno, seems pretty straightforward to me," Fencer added.

"To many of us this isn't a rebellion, it's a battle for independence," Wit said, sounding a lot more like the man they'd fought over Shilage over some noble leader. "Even the people in this city want their independence. Trust me, it's all incredibly complicated…and we've got several decades worth of history to prove it."

"Gee, sounds like a real fun story," Count said dryly. "But for another time. We can brush up on current events later, let's just focus on the enemy. Trigger?"

"Yeah, Count's right. That's not important right now," Naomi agreed, catching her breath. She realized she hadn't spoken much the entire mission…she'd been so focused it was like the time had just flown by. "Now let's hurry up and finish this so we don't have to worry about these bastards when the Arsenal Bird shows up."

"That reminds me…how does taking back the space elevator help us fight the Arsenal Bird?" Lanza asked suddenly.

"I'm willing to bet that Avril has an answer for us," Tabloid said.

Naomi smiled a little. It was nice to have people to rely on on the ground again…especially people they were close to. She tried to lighten the mood a bit, exaggerating her tone as she pointedly said, "Uh-huh. Sure would be nice if we had someone to help us out with that."

"In case you're curious…" Avril spoke slowly, abruptly, through gritted teeth for the first half. It actually made Naomi worry that they'd distracted her from the fight, but she figured she wouldn't answer if she didn't have a moment. "I'll get around to explaining the plan in a minute. Right now, we've all got our hands full trying to push our way inside the elevator's main facility, and I'm sure everyone up there is busy with the drones." She paused, taking a breath. "So long as everyone does their job we aren't gonna have to worry too much about that, though."

Another voice spoke up suddenly in the background, a bit harder to hear but still there. It was Georg, from the sound of things. "Avril, it's safe over here. We've taken away their guns…I think we could push through alright."

"Yes, that's great!" the Princess said, not quite as far away as Georg. "We can open up the exit!"

"Okay, everyone let's hurry up and get moving. We're running out of time." Naomi felt herself relax some as soon as she heard her father's voice. He was completely focused on the task at hand, apparently giving orders while Major Grimm wasn't around. "Bandog, you and Sarge take point. Genette, you and the Princess stay in the middle with Avril…you too, pal. Henri, you and I will take up the rear."

"On it. Let's go," Bandog's voice followed.

Naomi was pretty sure that she wasn't the only one relieved to hear everyone have a chance to speak up. For her, specifically, hearing Avril and her father and Bandog was enough to take one burden off her mind. Obviously she was still worried about them, but knowing it was going well on their end was good enough for now. She just hoped they'd be able to make it through the rest of the fight without any incident, and stay unscathed at least until the Arsenal Bird showed up. If they could all make it through that then she actually would start believing they'd make it through anything.

Unfortunately for her, the universe or maybe the Arsenal Bird itself decided that her brief moment of relief was something that had to go, because almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind she heard Long Caster call out, "Warning! Detecting a missile launch from the Arsenal Bird! They're Helios projectiles. All aircraft, stay clear of the blast area!"

"Dammit, we got so far!" Naomi spat, channeling her fury into her flying as she rolled and followed a Flanker into the air, alongside the space elevator. She fired a pair of missiles and a QAAM for good measure, hoping one of them would hit the target as she moved on to the next. Hoping she didn't sound too frustrated, she called out to everyone, "Strider Squadron, Cyclops Squadron, you know the routine. Mage Squadron, Golem Squadron, keep your eyes on your radar and fly like hell whichever way you can if you're within the missile's radius! Just like balancing dogfighting with evading…just…taken up a few levels."

"Ah, isn't that reassuring?" Kathryn grumbled, clearly fed up with the fight. Honestly, considering what they had to face this whole fight was nothing in comparison. If not for the fact her body wouldn't let her calm down Naomi would probably be just as bored and irritated. "Ugh, I'm getting some serious déjà vu…"

"No chance there's a max ceiling on those things, is there?" Hans asked, his voice wavering slightly with both exhaustion and anxiety.

"It's not consistent enough. We can predict roughly the area they'll make impact, not the altitude," Long Caster explained to them quickly and distractedly, probably more focused on monitoring said missiles than explaining them. "Ten seconds to impact!" There was a pause, Naomi eyeballing her radar to make sure she was clear as well as checking for everyone else's locations while also trying to keep fighting. "Five…four…three…two…one…impact!"

Just like over Waiapolo, the sky was filled by a blinding light and a shockwave so severe that Naomi could feel her teeth rattling while she gritted them. Over the radio various pilots cried out, announcing they'd lost control or that they were ejecting. None of them sounded like her allies, which actually scared her more than if they were completely quiet, and her instinct as soon as her eyes readjusted from the glare was to check the radar and her surroundings for them. One by one she checked off each and every one of them, but she didn't want to let herself relax too much.

"How many got caught in that explosion?" Naomi asked quickly. "Long Caster?"

"Four…no, six planes," Long Caster replied. Naomi silently cursed in her head.

"Long Caster, do we have more incoming?" Jaeger asked, sounding far more calm than Naomi felt.

"Unknown. All aircraft, proceed with caution," he replied.

"Wilco." Húxiān's voice was shaky when she answered, but she was keeping it together.

"How much time do we have left?" Fencer asked.

"Ten minutes until the intercept," Long Caster told them, and Naomi felt bad for him. Not only was he getting a million questions thrown at him while he had a million things to do, but he was handling it all in stride. She didn't even know if he'd had a chance to eat since before they left. "Everyone just hang in there."

Skald was the next one to throw a question out. "How are things on the ground?"

"We're having a hard time switching off the security system, but we've got this," Avril answered right away. "Based on what he said, I think this should give us about ten seconds – shit." Before she could elaborate or explain who the 'he' she was talking about was, she was cut off by the sound of an explosion, followed by an alarm, and several gunshots. To the Princess and likely Genette or some other less experienced soldier, she said, "Go. You two get inside now."

It all started to get worse. And just like that, they were given something else to worry about.

---

1545hrs.

Rosa didn't have time to think before she complied with Avril's order, stumbling to her feet and running as soon as she was told. Schroeder was also ushered inside right behind her, only there to help after Georg pleaded with him to take a stand, leaving Ionela and Alma in the care of his assistants while he tried to atone. That and the Oseans weren't about to leave him unsupervised at the support facility, even though Rosa knew he wasn't going to do anything to sabotage their efforts…not after what Ionela had said to him. To all of them. They were all in this fight now. Him included. Two people that had let themselves be used, bearing equal responsibility for the mess going on outside.

The two of them ran from the door as fast as they could, Rosa trying desperately to ignore the alarm blaring overhead and raise her voice enough to be heard as she called out to him, "Where do we need to go?"

"Straight down this hallway," Schroeder told her, glancing over his shoulder to where Avril and the others were making sure no one was going to follow them through. He took a moment, trying to catch his breath before he elaborated. "Remember the blueprints? This hallway will lead us to the lobby outside the maintenance area, and if we unlock that then we'll have access to the main elevator."

Rosa considered asking him if he was certain he could unlock the maintenance area and disarm the security system, but she didn't want to risk seeing any kind of doubt across his face. That would just make her more nervous than she already was, and she did not get along well with her nerves these days. So she just kept her mouth shut and kept running, and hoped and prayed with everything she was that they would be able to pull this off. They had to pull this off. Hundreds of lives depended on it.

They kept running, and Rosa was almost grateful that the alarm drowned out most of the sounds outside. It kept her moving and kept her from being more afraid than she already was. It also helped distract her from the burning in her legs and her lungs as she sprinted alongside Schroeder. And just when she thought that her knees were about to buckle and give out underneath her, she felt Schroeder grab her shoulder and pull her to a stop as they reached their destination.

Schroeder hurried across the lobby towards a control panel by a sealed door, then he searched the room until he found the computer that he was looking for over by a security desk. Rosa paused, leaning forward to place a hand over a stitch in her side as she gasped, trying to catch her breath. She took in her surroundings while she waited for the pain to ease, not sure there was much she'd be able to help Schroeder with. They'd just sent her in here to keep her out of harm's way.

She didn't know exactly which lobby they were in, thrown off by the fact they'd come through one of the back entrances of the space elevator. She assumed it was one of the main ones, but if it was then she had no idea why there wasn't more activity by the supposed front entrance. Especially considering they'd had to push their way through one of the back entrances since it was the only one they could reach. It was a lot like the main lobby at the support facility, she realized. It was big and empty and had doors tucked away in every corner that lead presumably into other rooms or hallways, and then a door right across from the entrance that was the maintenance area, which led to a quarantine room…not the main medical quarantine area. That just made it a bit more likely that it wasn't the main one, but she wasn't too sure. Everything from the night before had been a blur.

One other similarity to the support facility was a mural hung on one of the walls. Not quite as extravagant and massive as the one there, but grand and beautiful in its own right. Rosa ventured further into the lobby, glancing over at Schroeder as he furiously typed away at the computers, and then she let herself be drawn into the painting. It differed from the one before. There were several space elevators, and it appeared to be similar in setting to the previous painting, which told her it was likely a companion piece. That same otherworldly yet calming feel…the angle it took up was out at sea, tilted up slightly to show the elevators reaching up into the sky. Rosa narrowed her eyes, taking in every little detail. At the bottom was a small bronze plaque with the title carved into it. 'Skies Unknown' followed by the artist's name.

Little by little, she was starting to understand the purpose and meaning behind the space elevator. And found that the war she'd encouraged had very little of either of those things, if any at all. Sure, she had realized a more peaceful solution would be better a long time ago, but she also had believed in justice. All along the Oseans and the rest of Usea were the ones in need of said justice. Ionela, Alma, and all of those refugees out there and everyone fighting in this coalition were proof of that. All of that just solidified something she had already known. She had to help in this fight to fix her father and her mistakes.

Rosa was brought out of her thoughts suddenly by someone roughly grabbing her shoulder. Thinking it was Schroeder, and having no reason to believe it was anyone else, she jumped a bit at the urgency and force but still turned to quickly face her presumed ally. And before she could even register who she was turning to face she was abruptly knocked to the floor. She fell to the ground hard, crying out in pain as her brain registered not only landing on a hard floor but the blow across her face she'd received from her assailant. Her eyes watered and her jaw stung. The shock wore off in a matter of seconds, and she grunted as she slowly lifted herself up, propping her weight on one arm while she carefully prodded at the sore spot on her face, the world still spinning around her.

Then an all too familiar voice sounded above her.

"Why is it that every time I'm on the verge of victory a bunch of traitorous dogs are waiting to snatch it from me?" General Parrish demanded, practically seething. Although his voice wasn't raised it still echoed off the walls of the lobby. As soon as she heard his voice she felt like she couldn't breathe. Slowly she turned her head towards him, not able to look up at his face for fear the dizziness would get worse. She saw the gun he was holding clear as day, though, and behind him she spotted Schroeder lying on the floor. He was only just now starting to stir, reaching for his now cracked glasses before silently pushing himself to his feet, creeping over to the computer. Parrish turned to face him, raising the gun and pointing it at the scientist. "Move and you're a dead man, you Belkan piece of shit. I should have killed you both when I had the chance."

Rosa forced herself to sit up, shoving down the anger and fear and trying to sound calm. "This is almost over, Parrish," she said, drawing his attention to her. She lifted herself to her feet, the gun she'd been given sneaking up from the back of her mind. Last resort, she reminded herself. No matter how scared you are. She glanced at Schroeder, who was moving little by little while he had the chance, clearly too nervous to start typing though. They needed an opening. "Even if you kill us we still have allies out there. And they're going to put a stop to this."

"Please, I have half a mind to make you watch them all die," Parrish snapped at her. "You two should know better than anyone what's waiting for them. The Arsenal Bird is only half the battle."

She felt guilty, but she knew Three Strikes could handle things. Both of those drones and the Arsenal Bird if she had to. What mattered now was helping her achieve that and giving everyone a path home. She couldn't let him get to her. "I'm not here to listen to your monologuing," she said slowly, as calmly as she could. "I'm asking you to stand down while you still can. No one else has to die for a pointless war."

"You expect me to sit here and listen to that? I didn't come here to listen to your monologuing either, Your Highness," he said, turning the gun on her once again. He sounded pained, like every word was a struggle, but he kept on. "I'm not going to allow you to give the Oseans free reign over our country. I'm not going to sit by and let them abuse their power and exploit us any longer. They're going to sit here and be destroyed by their own creation, and I'll do whatever I have to to see to that." He moved his finger to the trigger. "I'm sorry that you weren't willing to build a better future for Erusea. If you had more of a spine, you might have actually been a worthy ruler."

Rosa forced herself to move for the gun she'd been given, remembering they had told her to have it ready to fire. Even if it wasn't, the motion was enough to catch him off guard. She was pretty sure she was shaking, but she stood her ground. He faltered, staring at her and blinking. "Luckily for you I grew one recently," she told him, her voice only wavering slightly. Though then she immediately fumbled it, her brain working faster than she wanted it to. "A spine, I mean. So you've got nothing to worry about."

Parrish stared at her for a few seconds, then burst out laughing, something that clearly hurt him judging from the way he winced. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me…now suddenly you're a soldier?" he jeered. Rosa swallowed, shifting slightly, but she didn't expect him not to try and shoot her on the spot and instead close what little distance there was between them and slam his gun against her face. It knocked her off balance, sending her to her knees. She let go of the gun and it slid across the floor, and she tried to get up and run to it only to be harshly hit again as Parrish stopped her efforts. "Let's see you suffer for your people, then, after condemning them to suffer this war."

"Your Highness!" Schroeder left his position from the desk, sprinting a few steps. Enough to draw Parrish's attention to him, prompting the General to step back from her and point the gun at him. He hesitated, but moved to try and do something, fists clenched.

"Dr. Schroeder, don't!" Rosa said through involuntary sobs. She stumbled a bit for the gun, trying to keep either one of them from being killed. But if someone had to die she would prefer it if it was her. "Get the computer…unlock everything for the others!"

"Don't even think about it!" Parrish, no longer considering her a threat on the ground there, moved towards Schroeder. On instinct, Rosa stretched out and slammed her leg against his shin, tripping him up. He stumbled and whirled on her, like a wild animal being provoked from all sides, lashing out at whatever was irritating him the most in that moment. "Shit! Damn bitch!"

As soon as his guard was down, Schroeder swallowed and sprinted forward, slamming against Parrish while he was leaning off balance with every ounce of strength he had. Rosa gasped, startled, and frantically scrambled for the gun while the two men were locked in their tussle. A few punches were exchanged, though Rosa couldn't see it, she could only hear the sounds of a fistfight, the sound of a gun being fumbled, and both of them making grunts of pain. Right as her fingertips brushed against the gun, she heard Schroeder fall to the floor and Parrish's awkward steps as he moved towards her.

Rosa was pretty sure he had lost his gun, but he could easily beat her to death. She wouldn't put it past him. She practically jumped to the floor, getting ahold of the gun and pointing it up at him. Maybe she was bluffing at that moment, maybe he knew it, but some part of her was willing to do it if she must. If that was what it took for this mission to succeed and to end the war, then that's exactly what she'd do. But even with her willingness to do so, she still found herself trembling and crying. It reminded her of their last confrontation on Tyler Island, when he'd shot Henri. Only this time Parrish actually looked scared.

He had picked the gun he dropped back up, but he just let it hang from his hand at his side, apparently not expecting her to have any fight left in her.

She'd seen him desperate and furious, but nothing that she had ever registered as fear. But now that he stood there, no longer faced by someone that was helpless and with no other people on his side, even if he'd managed to overpower the two of them and could easily do so again, he looked genuinely afraid. This wasn't a man that was hungry with power, he was someone that was hungry for power. Because he was otherwise…powerless. It was almost sad.

And this time, she lowered the gun.

There was a pause, met by stunned silence between all of them. For good measure, she dropped it to her side, letting it clatter as she tried not to flinch at the sound. She heard Parrish scoff, apparently happy he had won, but she met his gaze even though her instinct was to shrink away. She took a breath, making sure that she could speak without crying…and to figure out what she was supposed to say to him. "I'm sorry."

Parrish just stared back at her, his expression falling once more as he considered what she'd said. He didn't break eye contact, pausing. It didn't fix anything or somehow make any of this better, but all she could do was apologize. Maybe it would reach him. If it didn't, she could say she tried. His smug smirk returned and he let out a dry laugh before he raised the gun. "But I'm not."

Rosa closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself, keeping her head up. She'd accept her end with whatever peace she could find. It all happened in a few seconds, but to her it was enough to willingly accept her own death. Then a deafening gunshot rang out, and Rosa was stunned to find she wasn't the victim of it. She opened her eyes to the now empty space in front of her right as she heard the sound of a body limply dropping to the floor with a thud. She wasn't dead.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned to find Henri running towards her, gun still in his hands. When she looked back she found Schroeder picking himself up off the floor, bleeding and looking almost sickly pale as he stared down at the floor. She followed his gaze to where Parrish's body was now laying. The shock of seeing him dead and the guilt from feeling relief at the fact was enough to make her sick, and she began to sob just staring at him, not even caring if she'd been trying to train herself out of it. No amount of toughening up was going to make her used to this. Even if he was a madman. Even if he had killed her parents, ruined her country, destroyed hundreds of lives…he was still someone she couldn't save.

Henri appeared at her side, reaching out to check Parrish's pulse on his neck before he lowered his weapon and turned to comfort her. He simply placed a hand on her shoulder at first and gently prompted, "Your Highness? How badly are you hurt?"

Rosa looked over at him, barely able to see him clearly through tears. As blurry as her vision was she could still see the concern on his face though. Desperate for some kind of comfort and safety, she wrapped her arms around him as though he was one of her parents and buried her face in his shoulder as she tried to stop her crying. Henri seemed caught off guard at first, but he awkwardly placed a hand on her head in some attempt at soothing her.

"Is she alright?" Schroeder asked, and if not for the fact he always kept a clinical tone he might have sounded concerned. Maybe he was. He had tried to help her, as foolish as it was.

"I'm not sure yet. I think she should be," Henri answered. He took a breath. "Everyone outside is holding up. You oughta hurry up and get that door opened."

"Right." Rosa heard Schroeder's shoes squeak and clack on the tile of the floor as he raced back to the computer, followed promptly by rapid typing. A few moments later the alarm finally cut off and they were left with just the muffled sounds of the fight going on outside. Schroeder sounded relieved as he informed them, "That takes care of one problem."

Rosa sat up, wiping her tears with her hands and sniffling as she composed herself. She was sure that the others would be along shortly, and she didn't want them to know she'd broken like that. Careful not to look at Parrish's body lying little more than a foot or two away from her, she turned her head in the opposite direction to stare at the floor. She was aware of Henri watching her, concerned. She didn't know what to say to him. Maybe something to reassure him or an apology, anything that might make the situation better somehow. She settled on the latter. "I'm sorry that I troubled you."

It was barely more than a whisper, but she was sure he heard it. He let out a huff and placed his hands on her shoulders, giving them a squeeze. "You have nothing to apologize for, Your Highness. It's my job to keep you safe, and I had a score to settle with that bastard," he said. "You didn't trouble me. And none of what happened was your fault. What matters now is that he can't hurt you or anyone else anymore."

I should have protected myself…right? Rosa questioned herself in her head. But knowing that Henri wouldn't say anything he didn't mean, she didn't want to further burden him. She forced a small smile. "Then thank you."

"You don't really owe me thanks, either. It was my duty, simple as that," Henri told her, but he returned the smile. He grabbed his gun and stood up with only some difficulty, having to steady himself before he offered her a hand. "Come on, Your Highness. Time to put on a brave face again, yeah?"

Rosa nodded and took a deep breath, glancing over at Parrish's body. Although the sight made her sick, and made her want to cry again, she reached over and gently dragged his eyelids close. If nothing else, she hoped he found some kind of peace in death. Wherever he may end up. Silently giving him another apology, she reached up and allowed Henri to help her to her feet, both of them casting one last look at Parrish before they turned their attention elsewhere.

Henri kept his sights on the entrance, keeping an eye out for their allies and also keeping watch in case anyone on the wrong side came through the door. Schroeder meanwhile was messing with the computer, apparently having to go through several verification processes, too focused on anything to pay attention to them. That left Rosa to return to the mural, studying it like she had been before Parrish had decided to interrupt her. It wasn't like there was much for her to do now.

She'd been pondering it ever since she saw the first mural, and then to hear Ionela passionately denounce them all, pointing out how foolish the whole war had been. Even if Rosa hadn't condoned it, she still hadn't accepted her own people as the aggressors…but seeing all of this chaos, and seeing those drones, she knew now that Parrish and every soldier that had served under him so willingly had had it out for Osea for some time. And then seeing Ionela, her own friend, call it out…it made her reevaluate. Maybe she wasn't to blame, but she felt like she could have done a better job. As though she'd failed all of them, or fed into their madness.

The space elevator was meant to help the countries that Erusea hadn't been able to…or had outright ignored. It was meant to help them, too, but they'd refused that help and then acted as though they'd been wronged. Or so she had been told by others, on the outside. But she hadn't been willing to believe it, seeing it as biased. All this time, even as she was being disillusioned by the war, she still hadn't been fully willing to hear out everyone. Now she did. She heard them all. Osea wasn't trying to take over or exploit them, and they also hadn't done things flawlessly either. Those thoughts could coexist. Maybe at the end of the day, all of this was a petty fight brought about by a stubborn lack of communication, and the only ones to blame were the ones that still believed this war was justified.

Although she knew it was frowned upon with how delicate artwork was, Rosa stepped forward to run her hands along the canvas, tracing her fingers along the visible strokes. She traced a path to the base of one of the elevators, and ran her hand along it, briefly thinking back to her conversation with Avril. Maybe it helped her feel connected somehow to Harling, given he was the one that had commissioned it. Or maybe she was looking for anything else to pour her emotions into to justify everything that she was feeling.

Before she could get too caught up or start crying again, the sound of heavy footsteps approaching dragged her out of them. She flinched and spun towards the entrance, pulling herself away from the painting, looking to Henri for some kind of guidance. He lifted his gun up, ready to fire, but instead of an enemy they were greeted instead by Avril and Genette, both lifting their own hands up as best they could with their weapons. Rosa was pretty sure that all three of them breathed sighs of relief once they saw them.

"Okay, easy! Been shot at enough for one day," Avril said as soon as she registered Henri was pointing a gun at her, but he quickly lowered it. She let out a huff, limping along as fast as she could. Once she saw Schroeder and how beat up Rosa probably looked, she noticed the body on the floor and looked around. "Well shit. What the hell happened to you guys? Are you two okay?"

"We're alive, if nothing else," Schroeder replied without tearing his eyes away from his work, reaching up to adjust his severely cracked glasses. One of the lenses looked one more drop away from completely shattering, but he didn't seem fazed by it. "I'm almost through it."

"Is everyone okay outside?" Rosa asked.

"Dogfight is still going on, but Trigger's holding her own…the Arsenal Bird is gonna be here any minute, though," Avril quickly reported. "As for us, Foulke, Bandog, and Georg are keeping us covered, but we have to do something and we have to do it fast."

"And I'm here as backup. Apparently. Not sure how much use I've been," Genette said. Rosa had thought to offer him reassurance, maybe tell him he'd been more valuable than she was. It was his idea to use the space elevator to broadcast to everyone they could, and he was the one that provided them with the means to do it, and she still wasn't sure how that worked. To top it off, no one had needed to come to his rescue. He could use a gun and he could use it well. "When we didn't hear back from you guys, though, we got worried. Guess you handled it, though."

"Guess you could say that," Henri said. He gestured to Parrish's body. "That guy is…was the Erusean Radicals' leader, General Parrish. Without him, they're gonna lose morale and they're gonna lose it fast."

"That is…that's something," Genette said, blinking a few times as he processed the information. "If that much is taken care of, then the only thing we really need to worry about are those drones they're planning to deploy."

"Yeah, and the Arsenal Bird. No biggie or whatever," Avril said, clearly eager to get back to the task at hand. She turned her attention back to Schroeder. "How much longer do you need? I don't think we can get everyone through, but if you can get me up there I can handle things."

"Any second now," Schroeder told her. And he wasn't exaggerating. A few seconds went by, definitely no more than 20 or 30, and then there was a positive tone and Schroeder's eyes lit up. "It's unlocked. You're cleared to go through."

There was only a split second for Rosa to make a decision, and once she made it there wasn't any time to think about it. As soon as Avril started forward, taking a few steps towards the door, Rosa had made up her mind. She grabbed the gun she had dropped on the floor and sprinted across the lobby towards the door, throwing off Henri's hand as he tried to stop her, everyone clearly startled and confused by her sudden, probably frantic looking behavior. But the truth was she had made up her mind long ago. Or that's what she said to make herself feel less like a crazy woman.

Rosa was tired of failing others and herself. She was tired of failing her country. She had stepped out on this battlefield to end this war, and dammit she was going to do it. Maybe it was Three Strikes rubbing off on her, maybe she had always been one for dumb decisions, whichever one it was, if it saved her from burdening others and gave her a chance to fix her mistakes then she would gladly stand by it. She sprinted to the door, practically slammed her fist against it to open it, and she didn't look back.

Behind her, she could hear Avril's voice, confused and concerned as she called out to her, stumbling to try and chase after her. "Cossette! Cossette, what the hell's wrong with you?!" she demanded, voice cracking a little. Rosa immediately began to punch in a few keys, hoping one of them would shut and lock the door, and she succeeded. It shut, sealing, but not before she could hear Avril finish off her attempt to stop her. "Get back here! You can't just run off on your own!"

Rosa took a breath, knowing on some level that Avril was right. She couldn't do it on her own…she wasn't used to doing anything like this, let alone without someone to guide her. But she was going to.

And besides, she wasn't completely on her own in all this.

---

1555hrs.

"Missile launch from the Arsenal Bird!" Long Caster's warning came once again, and the beeping in the cockpit accompanied several rings that appeared on radar, displaying the locations of the impact. "Shit, airburst type! All aircraft, Helios arriving in ten seconds!"

Naomi rolled clear of a missile, trying to divide her attention between evading, attacking, and checking her radar. She was keeping tabs on everyone's location, checking almost constantly to be sure everyone was still flying. Meanwhile, their enemy seemed to be getting more desperate and erratic, like the drones somehow knew what was coming. It wouldn't surprise her if they did, but she was worried enough about that as it was. "Everyone, break! Don't fly so close together!"

"Don't let them bait you into following them into the missile's range either," Count added, taking some amount of the responsibility in looking out for the others. She also wondered if he'd done that on purpose, because one look at her radar told her she'd followed the fighter she was chasing too far. But he didn't sound too…snide. He was genuinely stepping up to share the load. "They'll down their own drones, that's how much they don't care, but you aren't expendable. It's not worth the risk."

"Y'all oughta keep that in mind," Clown said.

"Don't go and do something stupid," Knocker added quickly. His voice actually wavered a little, and it made Naomi wonder if he was remembering the last time he'd gone up against an Arsenal Bird. She knew she was. She was remembering every single time she'd been up against one of those bastards.

"Ten seconds until impact," Long Caster warned them. Naomi desperately tried to chase the enemy fighter out of the range of the missiles, but it wasn't an easy task. She had it on the edge, but she was still in the radius of the impact. She locked on and fired, trashing the shot, then let out a frustrated growl and adjusted the angle her plane was at, firing once more and shooting it down before she throttled up and broke out of the circle. Just in the nick of time as Long Caster said, "Five…four…three…two…Helios arrived!"

Once again, there was a blinding blue light and Naomi had to deal with a worse shockwave than she had before. Her jaw clenched and her muscles all tensed on instinct, though she tried not to let herself panic too much. More pilots lost control of their fighters, forced to bail out if they weren't already killed, but their numbers still weren't dwindling as much as the drones were. And a few of the Radicals' own planes were lost in the explosion as well, which just made things easier on them.

Everyone shook things off and got back into the fight, not really having a choice in the matter. They were all starting to tire out – or at least Naomi knew that she was – but they were still hanging in there. The Arsenal Bird was going to be there any minute and Naomi wasn't about to let that stupid thing get away from her. If she could face its sister, albeit with Stonehenge on her side, then it wasn't going to be any different here…except that now it wasn't just the fate of one battle that depended on shooting it down. No, if they couldn't end things here then who knew how long it was going to be before this war was over.

After having been quiet for the last several minutes, Avril's voice came over the radio once again. "To everyone that missed it, we have a problem," she said with a huff, sounding out of breath and irritated. "The Princess ran into the maintenance area by herself and locked us out. I have no idea what got her going this time…stupid woman. We're all able to communicate with her, though, so…"

"I can guide her through the process, don't worry." Naomi recognized the new voice as the same man that had been in the transport over Anchorhead the night Labarthe had been killed. Schroeder, if that girl that had spoken up was talking to him anyways. The same guy that had warned them about the escort drones being able to just…decide who their enemies were. Although he was only a little suspicious, Naomi had to wonder what he was doing out here, apparently fighting for their side. "You can return to the battle if you need to."

"Right. Genette, stay here and get what footage you can," Avril said quickly. "Schroeder, how about you explain what needs to happen to the Princess and everyone else listening in. Keep everyone informed, remember?" There was a pause, and she sounded like she'd started running as she called out to Schroeder and Genette, "And let us know if you run into any trouble! We'll be listening out for you the whole time."

"Okay…in that case, I suppose I should explain the course of action we're taking," Schroeder said, clearing his throat, clearly not all that used to being the center of attention. But a lot of people were listening to him, so he pulled himself together. "The Arsenal Bird's shield is microwave powered, drawing its energy from the ISEV. Should anything happen to the carrier's power source, the transmission would cease. However, it's not exactly easy to simply destroy the space elevator." He paused to further collect their thoughts. "However, at the top of the windbreak, six location markers have been set in place. Their purpose is to monitor distortions in the space elevator. Should the sensors go bad, be it a malfunction or their destruction, the elevator's observation system will think that the elevator has fallen. It will interrupt the constant power supply. Until its safety can be confirmed, all microwaves will be stopped."

"Oh, I get it!" Count said. He gave a short laugh. "Man, what a party."

"I was gonna do it myself, but…" Avril's voice came over again. She cut herself off, giving a short chuckle. "I work with a bunch of dumbasses…"

"More Helios missiles inbound," Long Caster cut off the conversations on the ground, informing all of the pilots as they started to round up and take down the last of the drones. Had it not been for the Helios missiles, Naomi actually would have said that the operation was going smoothly…but the Helios missiles served as a good reminder that she shouldn't get cocky. As everyone scattered, breaking off chases and formations to get clear of the blast, Long Caster began the countdown, "Five seconds…three…two…impact, now!"

More flashes of blue light filled the sky as the Helios missiles made impact, but from the sound of things everyone had gotten clear of it that time. As Naomi took a look at her radar and did a headcount of everyone that she could see, she couldn't help but smile a little and allow some relief to wash over her. The less casualties they had out here the better…even not counting the people she was used to fighting with she didn't want to lose anyone else if they could manage it, but she knew that could be a pretty tall order.

Naomi turned to go for another Erusean fighter she'd spotted, distracted only momentarily by the familiar beeping warning that she was in the impact zone of one of the Helios missiles. She glanced down at the radar, and sure enough there were a pair of overlapping red rings. That was overkill in her opinion. "Shit, it's already able to fire again?" she sputtered before Long Caster could call out the warning. "Long Caster, how close is that thing?"

"Too close. Cross that bridge when you come to it, though, you've got more immediate concerns," Long Caster replied quickly, leaving it at that as he focused on their main threat at that moment. He was getting a lot shorter with his callouts and countdowns, but if anything that made it feel more urgent. "Helios arriving in ten seconds…five seconds to arrival. Two. Inbound!"

Naomi wasn't nearly as close to the explosion as she had been with the previous attacks, so the impact and shockwave wasn't as severe. She could feel it in her chest, but it didn't make it feel like her plane was about to break apart around her so she considered that an improvement. Without the added distraction of having to pull herself together and let her eyes readjust, she was able to keep her focus and bearings as she took down one of the last remaining fighters, a good chunk of the drones that had remained being wiped out in the Helios explosion. The ones that did remain were still putting up a fight, though, but they were easy enough to take care of.

One thing she noticed was that the fighters that remained looked like they were retreating, judging from how they started to break off one by one, and they became a lot less persistent in their pursuit. Until only a few were actively putting up a fight, the rest of them turning tail to run. And Naomi had a pretty good feeling she knew why that was.

"How are we looking on time, Long Caster?" Knocker asked suddenly through a grunt, going quiet as he rolled and fired a pair of missiles into an Erusean Hornet.

"Thirty seconds remaining," Long Caster replied.

Those thirty seconds were the first and last moments of peace they'd gotten that entire afternoon. While some of the allied Eruseans kept a perimeter, most of them started to return to their flight leads. Cyclops, Mage, and Golem all regrouped one by one, Strider already having formed up on Naomi long ago. Count had hardly left her wing through the fight, and Jaeger and Húxiān found their way back once they'd had their fun dogfighting. Very few of the Osean pilots were interested in taking down the retreating drones, the Eruseans having more interest in that than any of them.

But as soon as HQ said the word, everyone was at ready, rallying and adjusting their course as the commander said, "The monster bird is in our trap. Everyone prepare for the saturation attack and wait for the signal." Naomi felt like she was holding her breath as an invisible timer ticked down. Finally, the commander spoke again. "Inform all coalition units that we're nearing zero hour. Ten seconds until the united attack on the Arsenal Bird!"

"Hey! Incoming!" Count called out a few seconds later, drawing everyone's attention to a familiar silhouette in the distance.

In the distance, moving at a slow and steady pace, the Arsenal Bird Justice broke through the clouds. It was just as monstrous as its sister was, and Naomi couldn't wait to finally blow it to pieces. To finally have that damn thing out of the sky once and for all. To finally end the war. She tensed, almost wishing that thing had more developed AI so it could feel the same kind of fear everyone else felt, though if that kind of technology existed then there was no way in hell she wanted it anywhere near her. Let alone have it built into a monster like the Arsenal Bird. It was menacing enough on its own, not breaking off its approach as everyone closed in.

The coalition surrounded it on all sides. A mismatched formation of Osean and Erusean aircraft flying in to face it head on, with Naomi at the lead of it, waiting eagerly for the signal to fire as they waited for it to be perfectly within range. A do-over wasn't an ideal option, just like how it was with the Liberty Stonehenge. On the other side was a fleet of Osean cruisers and destroyers that Naomi hadn't realized was there. It didn't matter to her where they came from, though, as long as they were there to help. As they got into position, another countdown began, and the commander spoke over it.

"Everybody, give this attack everything you've got!" he told them, though everyone was already ready and willing to do just that. As soon as the countdown hit zero, and the Arsenal Bird flew right into their trap, the commander gave the order everyone was waiting for. "Open fire!"

"Firing!" was the chorus that followed as they all let loose a volley of missiles. At least two from every aircraft, and five from every ship. Several dozen missiles streaked through the sky, honing in on their target, filling the air with contrails as they shot past. Naomi shouldn't have let herself feel like they might have stood a chance, but she felt her heart pounding and allowed herself to get her hopes up, muttering some kind of prayer or encouragement like that was going to make a difference. Come on, come on, come on…

Right before the missiles reached their target, a short flash appeared as the Arsenal Bird's shield went up at the last possible second. That stupid glowing blue barrier was thrown up in an instant. Like it was nothing. Every last one of the missiles that had been fired at it made contact with the barrier, doing exactly what they were designed to do and igniting the second they hit something solid. Puffs of smoke filled the air where they'd made contact, and the Arsenal Bird dropped its shield once the threat was gone. Like it was mocking them.

As if they weren't all shocked enough as it is, one of the coalition members reported their failure. "All missiles were shot out of the sky!"

"Attack failed! Cruise missiles did not reach their target!" cried another one.

Naomi couldn't believe her eyes, but the shock was quickly replaced by a sinking feeling of dread. And then anger as she reminded herself she didn't come all this way just to give up that easily. She tensed and gritted her teeth, practically growling as she narrowed her eyes on the massive target in front of her. "Dammit! Stupid monster…"

"Shit! I thought we had it!" Fencer spat out his own frustration next, followed quickly by everyone else voicing their own frustration.

"Should've known it wasn't gonna be that easy," Tabloid said through gritted teeth, not taking the failure any better than anyone else.

He was right. They should have known it wasn't going to be that easy. They'd needed Stonehenge just to take down the last one. What was it going to take this time? Especially since she knew once it was able to get that shield up for longer than a few seconds it was game over for them. Naomi could feel herself starting to tense, growing more and more frustrated and feeling her nerves start to get the better of her, but she tried to keep herself together and think of some way that they could still pull this off.

In the few seconds that everyone had essentially sat there stunned, the Arsenal Bird promptly released its swarm of UAVs from the holds under its wings. In less than five seconds their radars and HUDs were crawling with their new enemies. Long Caster quickly warned them of the new arrivals. "Long Caster warning all aircraft. I have multiple blips on my scope…looks like you guys have got more company."

"Here they come…" Count said with the same kind of bitterness he'd had when he first pointed out Sol Squadron's arrival to the battlefield. "Just great."

"Not like it's any surprise," Húxiān said with a tired huff.

Jaeger was the next one to speak up, his tone serious as he asked, "What's the plan, Trigger?"

"Until we hear back from HQ?" Naomi asked, not that she really needed to know. She took his silence as a 'yes'. It wasn't like she had to take orders from the guys on the ground anyways, and she wasn't going to tell her men to just fly around and hope they didn't get shot just to wait around for the coalition HQ. She throttled up, heading straight for the Arsenal Bird and the swarm of drones. Although she wasn't sure if it was going to be a waste of missiles or not, she couldn't see any better options. "Weaken what defenses you can. Take on the drones, weapons, propellers, anything. Whatever you can lock on to."

"Guess it ain't like we've got any alternatives…" Clown grumbled, but he didn't protest. In fact, he was the first to throw in his support for her. "We'll follow your lead, kiddo."

"We're with you, Trig. Let's do this," Count said right after him without missing a beat.

"Golem Squadron, take on the drones and weaken their air support," Knocker said to his own wingman, the first squadron leader other than Naomi to take charge and start delegating tasks. "Faun, you're with me. Footpad, Boggard, try and keep them contained if you can. For now leave the Arsenal Bird to Trigger."

"Mage Squadron, we're with Golem Squadron. Cover Strider and Cyclops Squadrons and keep the drones off them," Clown was the next, his F-16 breaking off from the formation that had been holding position around the Arsenal Bird. Kathryn, Hans, and Tailor were quick to follow. "Blaze, you gonna be okay with me?"

"Been with you this long," Kathryn replied a second later.

"Tailor, you're with me," Hans said. He paused, then quickly added with a tone of concern, "Don't push your luck with these things. That goes for all of you."

"I guess that leaves the Arsenal Bird to the rest of us. Cyclops Squadron, let's back up Trigger," Fencer said, dodging the swarm of drones alongside his wingmen as Cyclops Squadron moved to catch up with Naomi and Strider Squadron. "No one go dying on us, got that?"

"Well, damn, that kills my plans," Lanza joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Boggard let out a dry laugh. "Mine too," he said. Then he chuckled and put on a cocky air as he rolled clear of a missile fired from a drone that was flying at him head on. As he was mid roll he fired a pair of missiles, the drone missing the first one but not being able to counter the second. It slammed right into it while the first missile struck a second drone by chance. He let out another chuckle. "Guess we'll just have to try something else."

"I won't complain as long as you get the job done," Naomi said with a slight smile and a shake of her head, before she pitched her Raptor up into a climb, keeping her aircraft at an angle so she could at least keep an eye on what the Arsenal Bird was doing below her.

No sooner had she climbed over it, she noticed a bright beam of light and energy suddenly burst from under the Arsenal Bird's nose with a sound so loud she could hear it from her cockpit. Evidently, in addition to the drones and their AI, the Radicals had made a few upgrades to the Arsenal Bird…because if both of them had had lasers like that the whole time the Osean military would have been toast.

"Oh, what the hell –" Footpad was the first one to speak up, beating Naomi to it, his voice going up a pitch or two thanks to his fear and confusion.

"Hey, watch it! All of you, look at the Arsenal Bird!" Faun said, though by now all of them could see what was going on.

"Lasers?!" Húxiān managed to blurt out, her own surprise and exhaustion coming through. "Just how many tricks do these guys have?"

"Somehow…this isn't the worst thing we've had to deal with," Kathryn muttered, though Naomi didn't know if the 'we' referred to her and Clown and Hans or everyone in the LRSSG. She had a pretty good feeling it applied to both, though, and she wasn't exactly off.

"Everyone stay away from that thing if you can!" Naomi said, ignoring the missile alerts going off in her cockpit as the drones decided to jump on her. She kept her sights set on the propellers, diving and dropping flares to escape a volley of missiles coming at her while Count and Jaeger rushed alongside Lanza and Tabloid to cover her.

Although they could easily fly out of the way of the lasers, the fleet below wasn't so lucky. The radio was filled with the sounds of the crew shouting back and forth, both to soldiers on the other ship and to report the damage as it happened. "Missile destroyers Drake and Lark are sunk!"

"Flagship Starling has been heavily damaged by laser weaponry!" another cried out. "The warship's bridge and aircraft control are melting!"

"Deploy lifeboats!" came a panicked order.

By now, Naomi had no choice but to break off her initial course, forgetting all about the Arsenal Bird and instead focusing on the drones that were relentlessly hounding every aircraft. They were latching off and making themselves impossible to shake. Even if all of their allies kept them off of her, she wasn't going to just leave them to fend for themselves. She managed to take out quite a few of them alongside Count and the other. It was frustrating, with all the back and forth and it barely making a difference. At least it wasn't anything they hadn't done before.

While they did what they could to get rid of the drones, Long Caster got to his own job. "HQ, we have a problem. The damage to the allied fleet is extensive," he said. "Half of the fleet is out of commission. The Arsenal Bird has been equipped with more advanced laser weaponry."

"Damn…that report we received from that analyst back in the capital said that intel was…" the commander seemed to be talking to himself, and Naomi wondered if that analyst was the one they'd worked with. David North was a hard guy to forget, and good at his job…she doubted he'd make a mistake about something like this. The HQ commander seemed to realize this. "No, he said it was a 50/50 chance, didn't he…I thought for sure they wouldn't have had time to equip it."

"Gotta say, that was some pretty impressive firepower. I, for one, did not see that coming," Count said quickly, almost distractedly.

"A bit of warning about that would've been nice," Naomi remarked, trying not to sound too irritated. Whether it was likely they had given the thing a laser or not it would have been nice to know before it burnt their fleet to pieces. Or any of them. It was bad enough it had pulse lasers along its wings, now it had that thing under its nose, too. They couldn't worry about what they should have been told now, though. "Are you guys gonna be okay with us shooting at that thing or do you have a better plan?"

"The Active Protection System operated as expected…arguably better than expected, actually. But I still think we should launch another saturation attack," the commander replied, speaking quickly. "We'll need our air power to slow the Arsenal Bird, Major."

"On it," Naomi said, immediately breaking off from the drones and making a run for the Arsenal Bird. She eyed her weapon reserves, praying she had enough to actually take down this thing…she'd gone sparingly, so if her math and memory was right there wasn't any reason she wouldn't have enough. She didn't want any excuse to have to hold back. Throttling up, she switched her target from the drones to the various targets along the Arsenal Bird, firing on the smaller targets with a pair of regular missiles before switching over to her pulse lasers to target one of the sub propellers. "Count, help me with the propellers. Jaeger, Húxiān, take care of its defenses. If anything gets a lock on you, break off and blow it to hell."

"The rest of us will try and keep that from happening in the first place," Wit replied, him and Seymour already moving to help the rest of the squadrons with the drones. "Seymour, we're covering Strider 1."

"Got it, Wit," Seymour replied with a bit of a huff. "I haven't gone deaf yet, you know."

"Sorry, I'm not used to giving the orders. Cut me some slack," Wit said apologetically, sounding both embarrassed and maybe a bit hurt.

"Well you better get used to it if you don't wanna die," Footpad commented, though he almost cut himself off as he turned to engage a drone going after Boggard.

"If you get lost just follow Trigger," Count told them. "She'll lead the way. Copy?"

Everyone sounded off that they understood and jumped into the game. Naomi and Strider Squadron had made some progress. Jaeger and Húxiān had managed to take out a couple of the pulse lasers, but had to break off once what Naomi guessed was now its main laser lit up and tried to take out anything caught in its path. Meanwhile, Naomi had managed to take out one of the sub propellers, doing what she'd done when they'd tried to slow it over Stonehenge. Bobbing and weaving, trying to brake to keep from running into it while also keeping from stalling. Her hands were a lot steadier than they'd been the first time even though she was sure her nerves were going to be shot after this. Her own pulse lasers had no problem tearing through the thing.

Count had similar luck, managing to take down one of them himself before he broke off to handle the drones still flocking around Naomi. She had to admit, the constant missile alerts were starting to frustrate her, but knowing the others had her back made it a lot easier to not panic. She still had to pull up and evade, trying not to use the last of her flares, but she didn't have to spend as much time chasing down targets. She did still have to worry about the drones throwing themselves in front of the missiles, but she could remember Liberty's drones doing the exact same thing. It wasn't totally unexpected.

Around her, all of her allies were easily taking on the drones. A few of the Osean and Erusean fighters had taken light damage, but pulling out of the fight wasn't an option, though she was worried they were all going to get themselves killed if they kept fighting after taking hit after hit. Their teamwork was becoming a work of art, though. More than it had been before the Arsenal Bird had shown up. So far they hadn't lost anyone else, but she wasn't about to jinx it for them, just appreciating the fact no one else was dead yet. At least as far as their pilots went.

As Naomi was trying to get a hit on another sub propeller, getting more and more frustrated as the drones kept taking the hit from them, she could hear a familiar sound outside her cockpit. The unmistakable pulsing sound from the APS, and sure enough when she took her eyes off the targets right in front of her the Justice had the glowing halo above it. Naomi gritted her teeth, pulling up and rolling to dodge a missile fired at her before she braked to try and get at least one more hit in before the shield went up. No, no, no, dammit!

"It's readying its APS!" Long Caster warned as soon as Naomi spotted it. The sound was getting louder and sharper, telling Naomi it was almost ready to deploy. "All aircraft, break off!" Jaeger and Húxiān complied with the order as soon as they finished their run attacking the AAM, not turning back around for another run. Naomi however, was stubbornly trying to keep firing, quickly looking between her radar, HUD, and the Arsenal Bird so much it was making her eyes hurt. Long Caster sounded both annoyed and worried as he snapped, "Trigger, that means you too! Break now!"

"Shit!" Naomi spat, knowing very well that if she didn't want to die she had to move fast. She banked, pulling a high-G turn and then throttling up as soon as she could to try and get clear. She barely managed to get clear of the shield as it deployed with a loud zapping sound from the burst of energy. Her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat, causing her to swallow hard as she relaxed a little, muscles trembling slightly. "Dammit, that was close!"

"You're the one that stayed on it like that," Tabloid reminded her, sounding a bit nervous himself. "Though you're not the only one…pretty sure half of us would've been a goner without the AWACS."

"Now isn't the time for your stupid stunts, Trigger," Count almost snapped, taking a deep breath. She knew he was just worried. "God, that was too close…"

"I thought I had it, sorry," Naomi said, almost sheepishly. Although she felt bad for all the times she'd probably scared him half to death, she wasn't exactly as sorry as she probably should have been at that moment. "I wasn't thinking, I just…this stupid son of a bitch is about to get on my last nerve."

On the ground, the transmission from their allies below managed to break through again. Dr. Schroeder's voice came over the radio as he spoke, almost apologetically. "We're about halfway there. If all of you fighting can hold out until then, we'll be able to follow through, I swear it," he said. Then to the Princess he quickly told her, "That's not the control room, Your Highness. Go through the airlock and get on the maintenance elevator. Head for the top of the windbreak."

"Right, apologies," the Princess spoke next, her voice a bit harder to hear compared to the others. "This place is…like a different world."

"You'll need to put on that pressurized suit. You can manage by yourself, correct?" Schroeder asked her, though he didn't sound especially concerned about it.

"You're lucky you had the sense to change out of that dress at the base," Avril remarked, out of breath. "You'd have never been able to get it on over all those frills."

"The jacket could pose an issue, but…" Schroeder didn't seem to know what else to say, likely leaving it open for the Princess to jump in.

"I can manage. I'll have to," the Princess responded, sounding unusually determined for how soft spoken she was. "Please don't worry."

None of them had any time to worry about her for any longer, as the Arsenal Bird once again dropped its shield, allowing them an opening to attack. It was like it was mocking them. It would lower its defenses, give them an opening, then as soon as it could the shield was back up again. Everyone else seemed to think so, and Count let out a frustrated growl. "I'm getting sick of that arrogant bastard, seriously," he spat. "It's like it's doing this on purpose!"

Naomi pulled up into a vertical climb and then banked, rolling to avoid a volley of missiles coming at her as she tried to make a run on the Arsenal Bird. She switched to her QAAM's as soon as she leveled out, pulling her nose around to face it and firing as soon as she got a lock on one of the other sub propellers. For good measure she switched to the pulse lasers and pulled the trigger, but the only thing that caught at that range was a few of the UAVs. But once she tried to get closer, the halo appeared again as it fired the laser cannon. "Shit! It's already got the shield ready?!"

Below, the rest of the fleet was suffering. "No good, the engine control room is gone!"

"They've hit our radar room and CIC!" another crew member reported.

"Dammit, we're losing people down there!" Kathryn spat, taking down a pair of drones simultaneously after she damaged one and it went crashing into another. She wasn't celebrating that victory, though.

"Nothing fazes this thing!" Tailor cried out, a mix of frustration and fear in his voice as the shield went up once again. "Where are we supposed to hit it?!"

"HQ are we doing this or not?" Knocker demanded through gritted teeth. "We need to do something!"

"We can no longer commence with the second saturation attack," the HQ commander reported, almost sounding like he was ready to throw in the towel. "All aircraft separately engage in direct attacks."

"Yeah, because that's working great so far," Húxiān snapped, raising her voice a little.

"HQ, it won't be easy to take down the Arsenal Bird with conventional weaponry. It took Stonehenge to wipe out the last one," Long Caster explained to them, a lot more calm than Húxiān and definitely calmer than Naomi would have been if she had gotten ahold of them. "We may have Three Strikes and the rest of the coalition, but all the ace pilots in the world won't save us unless we have a plan."

There was a pause, and the commander spoke again. "I'm sorry," he said. "Give us time. We'll see what we can do."

Count let out a scoff, probably unable to believe anyone was that stupid or careless. "You're just thinking about it now?!"

"Dammit, if we lose anymore people it's on you morons," Naomi snapped, no longer keeping her own temper reined in. Sure, she came up with a lot of her plans on the fly, but that was because she had to because no one else in charge was going to. They weren't even trying to pretend they had a contingency. "Guess we're just shooting at whatever and hoping for the best…let's go."

"Cover any friendlies that are hit," Fencer said quickly. "Don't let them go down."

"I guess we're just going to have to count on Trigger and the Princess to take this thing down," Skald observed. He sounded exhausted, but like he was trying not to let that show.

"Damn, I'm already exhausted," Lanza added, not caring as much as Skald did about how tired he may or may not have sounded. "Are we even making a dent in the UAVs?"

"Doesn't matter, just keep shooting them down," Seymour said, though even he was starting to sound a little hopeless. "Even the Arsenal Birds don't have an endless supply."

Tabloid let out a sound of agreement and then added, "So long as it doesn't go and call for more allies then we all have a chance against them. I'm sure of it."

Naomi had kept her eye on the Arsenal Bird on her radar even after she joined in the drone fights, managing to down at least five of them in a few seconds. She noticed Justice's shield finally dropped and she was on it in an instant, aggressively turning and rolling no matter how badly it made her body feel. She wasn't going to pass up the chance to take out what she could. Count was right behind her, followed by Húxiān who started to target its remaining AAMs and pulse lasers while Jaeger joined their other allies in keeping the drones out of the way. By the time they reached it, it was already readying the APS again, but Naomi didn't break off.

She targeted one of the sub propellers on the other wing, firing off a pair of QAAMs and managing to destroy it, while Count fired at the one next to it, managing to damage it a little. By now it had lost three sub propellers, and now another was beginning to slow even if it wasn't gone. Naomi couldn't help but let out a cheer to herself as she, Count, and Húxiān broke off. They made it out of the way just in time as the shield went up in another flash of bright blue and white light.

Over the radio, the Princess' voice came once again. "I've reached the control room. I think so, at least," she informed Schroeder. Any kind of overly formal language had been dropped after her introduction to their listeners, apparently. Maybe she'd spent too much time with Naomi and the others. "It's kind of empty. I mean, I can see…a lightbulb shaped thing, but…it isn't lit up."

"That's the location marker. Nice work," Schroeder told her, and although he was praising her he wasn't so much energetic as he was relieved. "You'll be able to disable it from there, right?"

The Princess hesitated only a moment before she replied, "I've got it. I'll figure it out."

"You better figure it out fast, Princess," Naomi said with a sigh, not really knowing or caring if she had said that for the others to hear. Maybe it would offer some motivation. All she knew was that she was starting to get antsy.

The shield had gone down again, but the Arsenal Bird had been moving through the clouds and Naomi couldn't get a solid lock, definitely not before her plane started icing up. She managed to fire with her gun, but she wasn't sure if she actually hit anything, and by the time it emerged from the clouds it had already deployed the APS again. Naomi had slammed her fist harmlessly against the side of her cockpit out of frustration, sick and tired of not being able to do anything.

"Dammit, this is getting old fast." She gritted her teeth, speaking up for the others to hear. She was only trying to be somewhat dramatic as she growled, "If something doesn't give, I swear I'm ready to kamikaze into that damn bird."

"You aren't good to anyone if you're dead, knock it off," Clown scolded her, sounding more irritated by the comment than she would have expected from him. "Besides, you die and you're just lettin' 'em win."

"Trust me, with as many stupid ideas as she has, a strategy like that ain't one of them," Count said with a dry laugh. "Giving up like that isn't in her blood." There was a pause, and he let out a huff. "I'm with her on one thing, though. I'm getting sick of this. When's that shield gonna lose power?"

It was Wit that spoke up, one of the few people that didn't sound like he was losing his mind. "Never. The orbital elevator is continuously supplying it with power," he explained. "Until the supply is cut off, that shield isn't going anywhere."

"Then what should we do?!" Húxiān demanded, sounding more desperate than Naomi had ever heard her.

"If we keep evading like this it's going to get us all killed," Jaeger added, though he didn't sound nearly as panicky.

There was a pause, during which Naomi focused on taking down the UAVs swarming the elevator, and she was completely thrown off when Count finally broke the brief silence. "Calm down, I'll do something."

Naomi watched as he appeared on her wing, moving in sync with her to take out the drones before he made a move for the ones closest to the shield. She blinked a few times, not sure if she should be worried or confused. It was enough to take her out of the fight for a few seconds, trying not to sound too concerned as she asked, "What are you about to do?"

Avril's voice came over the radio again, apparently having lost her patience as the Princess took too long. "Cossette, just smash it! Smash all six of the bastards! It'll lose power!" she called, more aggressive and urgent than Schroeder probably would have been. "Take the gun and shoot it if you have to, just do it!"

The only response from the Princess was her drawing in a sharp breath, then the harsh sound of glass breaking as she did just what Avril had told her and smashed the location marker with the gun. She paused to catch her breath, and a second crashing sound came that caused the radio to turn choppy.

Meanwhile Count made good on his promise to 'do something' as he started to…yell. He had started to yell at the shield. "Damned shield! Just go away!"

The transmission from the Princess was still cutting in and out, a garbled, actually painful mess of breaking and panting.

"Be gone!" Count ordered again.

Another beat.

"Disappear!"

Another. Naomi was holding her breath at this point.

"Gone cuckoo, Count?" Húxiān asked in a mocking tone.

"I think that happened ages ago," Naomi replied. She rolled her eyes with a small smile and a shake of her head, not even sure what she was feeling about this anymore as she tried to focus on the drones. "If this actually works he'll be my new hero. Or I'll just kill him, full stop."

Count completely ignored the two of them making jokes at his expense. "Away with you!"

The static ceased and the transmission came through clear as day as the Princess cut out the last of the location markers. It was like time had stopped and slowed down as the sound of the glass shattering faded. There was a break in the drones numbers, and Naomi was left watching the Arsenal Bird in front of her like her life depended on it. Only a few seconds passed but it felt like forever, and then finally the shield flickered and began to scatter apart.

"Look!" Jaeger said as the shield began to fade away.

"Haha!" Naomi felt the laugh come out before she could stop it, feeling butterflies in her stomach as soon as she started breathing again. Had it not been for what she could hear over the radio, she might have actually believed that he'd done it. But even if he hadn't, all she could do was grin at how stupid the whole thing was. Through her laughing, caused both by what he'd just done and the excitement from the Arsenal Bird's shield breaking, she managed to say, "Holy shit, Count!"

"Ha! The hell kind of magic did you work there, you asshole?" Húxiān asked him through a laugh of her own.

"It wasn't magic, it's a scam and you all know it," Count said with a short laugh of his own. "Damn, I can't believe I actually pulled that off." He was quick to recover, breaking off to chase down the drones as Naomi throttled up. His encouragement was all she needed. "Now's our chance! Do it, Trigger!"

"Trigger, I think that man'll be the death of us," Tabloid remarked as he downed a drone, then another, sounding like he was barely managing to keep from smiling. "God, I can't believe what just happened."

"Hey, Trigger, if you don't kiss him after that then I will," Knocker said through a laugh of his own. And she nearly choked. Had she not had better things to focus on, she might have actually had a good comeback.

Naomi was in lock on range of the last of the sub propellers in an instant, getting a solid tone on it before the shield had fully broken away. It completely vanished just as her Raptor shot through one of the larger gaps in her path, and she fired a pair of missiles and a QAAM in an instant. The missiles were shot down by Justice's pulse lasers, but Naomi switched to her own and braked hard, lining up her shot and firing. It lost its fourth sub propeller, and the last one along the left wing, causing it to slow ever so slightly and tilt down to one side. It didn't stand a chance this time.

Count, Tabloid, and Wit swooped in out of nowhere to destroy the last two remaining sub propellers while Húxiān and Jaeger wiped out the last of its defenses other than its gun. Almost like it was making a desperate attempt to fight back, it fired the laser cannon again, moving it along any range to try and catch something in it. Jaeger barely managed to get clear of it. The drones also started to try and protectively swarm it, but they weren't moving like they should. They were unsteady and unable to keep up their altitude, making them easy targets for everyone else. The only threat they had were the few still firing missiles and shooting off their guns desperately trying to take down anyone and anything with them, managing to strafe a few of their allies.

Naomi put her focus entirely on the main propellers, though, reducing her speed and doing the same thing she'd done before. She fired everything she could at it, switching between her regular missiles, what remained of her QAAMs, and her pulse lasers. Between that, gritting her teeth, and trying to fight gravity itself to keep flying like she was, she actually managed to destroy one of them. It stalled, smoking, and came to a stop. All she had to do was finish off the second one and it was done for. She hoped, anyway.

"Main propeller 1 confirmed stalled. Good work, Trigger, keep up the attack!" Long Caster encouraged her.

"The light…yes, it's switched to the backup power supply. That means the main supply has been cut off," Schroeder announced, confirming everything he was monitoring on his end. "Excellent work!"

"Hey, hey, hey, the UAVs are dropping altitude fast," Hans said suddenly, informing the others of the new development with them. He paused, and took on a completely different tone as he cheerfully announced, "Wait, no, they're just falling down!"

"The drones are acting crazy! Genette, are you seeing this?" Avril asked from the ground. "The drones are falling one after another! They've completely lost control. That's another threat down!"

"There are still UAVs that are combat capable," Long Caster informed everyone. "Don't let up on them just because they're less of a threat, they can still fight."

"Not to mention take hits for that stupid bird," Faun pointed out.

"We'll take them down, don't worry," Kathryn said, keeping her cool. "Just let Trigger focus."

Naomi broke off from the Arsenal Bird following a missile she couldn't manage to shake, causing her to pull off and go for the drone that had been behind it. It managed to strafe her with some gunfire as it made a dive for her head on, but thanks to its sluggish response Naomi had no problems taking it out. She knew she shouldn't be worried about the UAVs, but they were getting on her nerves and Count and her wingmen were already busy chasing down the others that were bothering her.

She circled around, lining her plane up with the other propeller as she gave it the same treatment as the others. By now her weapon reserves were getting low, with only about four QAAMs left. The missiles were still hanging in there, and her pulse lasers and gun as well, but they could only do so much. She ignored that and decided to use a pair of the QAAMs, firing them and switching to her pulse laser to fire on the propeller in case the QAAM didn't do it. The two missiles did a good amount of damage, causing it to start smoking, but it was still moving. The pulse lasers quickly took care of that for her. In a few seconds, the Arsenal Bird's main propeller stalled just like the one before and came to a halt, still trailing smoke.

"Hell yeah, finally!" Naomi couldn't help but let out a small victory laugh, the relief almost instant. There was still a pit in her stomach, though. "It's gonna go down now, right?"

"Second propeller confirmed stalled," Long Caster confirmed, trying to assess things on his end now. There was a pause, and he started to sound the all clear before he cut himself off. "If it loses enough altitude, then…wait –"

And Naomi saw exactly what the problem was as both propellers slowly began to spin again. "Oh, son of a bitch! C'mon!"

"Shit! The main propeller is moving again!" Count let out a frustrated shout. "Just how hard is that thing?!"

There wasn't an answer right away, but once again it was Wit that answered his question. "I'm…thinking it might boil down to destroying the rectenna's base."

"Say what?" Count asked him.

"If we destroy the docking modules, then the supply unit will break off from the Arsenal Bird," Wit explained to him quickly. "That'll leave the rectenna base vulnerable. Taking out that would essentially be like gutting it."

"Light it on fire and we can cook that bird whole," Seymour chuckled, sounding like he was talking through a smirk.

"Theoretically." Wit took a breath, trying not to sound too optimistic. "But that may prove impossible even for an experienced pilot."

"That won't be a problem, Wit," Seymour said after a brief pause.

"Well, yeah, but you should know by now that our girl's more than just an experienced pilot," Count said, almost fondly. Enough to make Naomi feel flushed, though that might have actually been because she was working up a sweat out there…that was the excuse she was going with. Count didn't seem to think anything of it, though. "Trigger, let's do this."

"I'm right with you, Count, just watch my back," Naomi said, taking a deep breath. More than a little exasperated, she decided to call out Wit and Seymour while she tried to prepare herself. "Next time you guys have any fun facts about the Arsenal Bird, maybe share it with the rest of us a little sooner." She heard some scattered laughter from the others, which helped calm her a bit. "Alright. Guess I'm going for it."

The new targets appeared on her HUD, displaying the joints she needed to destroy on the Arsenal Bird's belly. As she dove towards the ocean so she could get underneath Justice and take the shot, Wit seemed a bit taken aback.

"Is she really that good of a pilot?" he asked, almost hesitantly.

"I'd bet my life on it," Seymour said, having more obvious faith in her than she'd have expected from either one of them. He scoffed. "Besides, if you thought it was impossible you wouldn't've said anything."

"Are you sure about this?" Tailor asked hesitantly, though not out of doubt as much as fear. "That thing is too huge!"

"Don't let its sheer size freak you out," Count snapped at him. "If anyone can handle it, it's Trigger. Have a little faith."

"First thing's first, I'm taking out that damn laser," Naomi said with a huff, mostly to herself. If she was going to get up underneath the Arsenal Bird, she had to make sure she wasn't going to get fried the second that she tried. She dove and shot underneath the Arsenal Bird, keeping a good distance between her plane and the ocean. Once she was clear of the Arsenal Bird above her, she pulled up and pulled her nose around so she was facing it head on. She could already see flashes of light as it readied to fire at her. "C'mon, fire away…"

If not for the fact her plane was faster than the Arsenal Bird's reaction time, she was pretty sure she would have been dead. She made it within range just before the laser fired, managing to fire a set of missiles at it and fly clear of it right as a flash of light emitted from it. The laser slammed straight into the water below instead of Naomi's tail, and a few cheers sounded from her allies.

"Confirmed hit on the laser cannon!" Jaeger called out. "Trigger's hammering it!"

As Naomi pulled around to make another run and take it out for good, Avril's voice cut over the radio. "Hey, all of you watch out! The drones are falling!" she shouted, her voice more shrill than Naomi had ever heard from her. She was shouting at everyone around her, it seemed, not at any of them. "Shit, are you all looking to get yourselves killed?! You're soldiers, calm down!" There was a heartbeat, and suddenly she called out, "H-Hey! Foulke, Bandog! Both of you get back here! Gah, Genette!"

"We can't just leave our allies to die!" Genette called out to her, sounding like he was running.

"Fine, fine! Get them but be quick about it!" Avril snapped at them.

Naomi felt like she'd been throat punched out of nowhere as she realized what was going on down below. Her friends and her father were already out of her reach, but now…she tried to shake off the feeling, but Avril practically screaming over the radio made it impossible.

Shit.

---

1640hrs.

Pixy had acted entirely on instinct the second he saw Georg hit the ground. Georg had gone back for a pair of coalition soldiers that had gone down, only for a drone to crash several yards away and send debris flying. By the time the smoke cleared, Georg and several people were lying on the ground, Georg one of the lucky few that was still moving. But he'd been pinned down, and the drones were still falling around them.

He hadn't expected Bandog and Genette to follow him when he took off running, but considering how many people probably needed help he wasn't about to complain. He sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him, managing to narrowly avoid getting shot or crushed himself. He launched himself forward once he was a few feet from Georg, landing on his knees on the ground beside him.

Georg had managed to shove the other two soldiers out of the way, and they were starting to pull themselves together. But Georg was struggling against the weight of the rubble that had one of his legs pinned down, fighting like a trapped animal to get out, even trying to push himself out with his other foot. When Pixy reached him, it startled him. Then he looked almost furious. "I'm fine! Help the others get back to safety!"

"You don't think I'm just gonna leave you here to die, do you?" Pixy asked him, forcing a chuckle as he tried to find a spot he could get leverage on. Genette helped the other soldiers to their feet, supporting the ones that couldn't walk on their own, while Bandog took up a spot on Georg's other side to help Pixy. Behind them, still tethered to Bandog, Avril was holding on to Sarge's collar with a death grip while the MWD anxiously barked at them. Pixy tried to ignore her and the other sounds around them, bracing himself as Bandog did the same. To Bandog, he said, "On three, we're gonna lift. Georg, I need you to push with your good leg once we get this weight off."

"If the others are safe just leave me here!" Georg protested instead of agreeing. "You've got family to go back to!"

"So do you, dumbass, now shut up," Bandog snapped at him, trying to catch his breath.

"You're not gonna be able to atone if you're dead. I'm getting you back to your wife and kids," Pixy told him, not so much of a promise as it was a declaration. He wasn't going to take anything other than a 'yes sir' for an answer, but he figured Georg's hesitant nod was close enough. He wasn't going to let Georg just die on his family. People like them didn't get an easy way out, Pixy wasn't going to let Georg be one of the 'lucky ones'. "Alright…one. Two. Three!"

The two of them lifted up with all of their might against the main chunk of the drone that was holding Georg down, and Georg desperately scrambled loose from it on his back. As Pixy could feel their hold on it slipping, he reached for Georg's shoulder and grabbed his shirt and jacket in his fist, roughly pulling him while free while still trying to keep the debris from falling back on top of it. Georg's foot just managed to clear it before both Pixy and Bandog's arms gave out on them, sending the debris back to the ground with a faint clanging sound.

Pixy grunted, feeling more stiff than he had in ages, even after flying when they took back Tyler Island, but he pushed through the pain and exhaustion to haul Georg to his feet. Georg stumbled unsteadily as he tried to place weight on the leg that had been trapped. Pixy caught and steadied him, and once they were sure everyone else was getting free they started to head back towards Avril as fast as their legs could carry them.

Around them, more and more drones were starting to fall around them, the explosions as they hit the ground and even a few of the buildings around the space elevator deafening. And they were barely clear of the debris and smoke that went flying every time that one hit the ground. As they stumbled along, Sarge's barking became more frantic and so did Avril's shouts as she called out to them. "Run! RUN!"

Pixy glanced up as he heard the familiar buzzing of those drones, and he realized they'd barely be clear of it when it finally hit the ground. At least if he didn't do something they wouldn't be. Pixy stumbled forward, still supporting Georg, and then he pulled up Georg's entire upper body with his jacket and called out to Bandog, since he managed to get a bit further than them. "Bandog, take Georg and get your heads down!"

"What?!" Bandog asked, like it was some ridiculous request. One look up at the falling drones silenced him, though. He didn't have time to protest or ask any more questions before Pixy practically threw Georg against his chest, sending the latter stumbling into Bandog's grasp. It was all he could do to keep both of them upright, but he managed to catch Georg before he hit the ground and sprinted forward as best as he could with Pixy right behind them.

There was a shrill sound and a sudden, painful explosion that Pixy could feel all the way in his bones. Bandog, Georg, and Pixy were all knocked to the ground, Bandog landing with one hand shielding Georg's head and one hand shielding his own as he tried to crawl further out of range of the blast. Pixy could barely see through the dust and smoke, but he tried to do the same, managing an army crawl before he risked getting to his feet to run. They were a good ways from him, but he could reach them.

But as he got to his feet, another explosion went off. The last thing he could clearly see was Bandog leaving Georg and running towards him, shouting something that he couldn't hear over all of the explosions going off around them. His eyes were burning from the smoke and dirt and his muscles burned from everything else, but in an instant all of that was gone. Everything around him, every sound, every feeling, every sight vanished. He felt a sharp, sudden pain, and then it was all gone.

The world around him just disappeared.

---

1655hrs.

Naomi's missile connected with the laser cannon and the last of the Arsenal Bird's defenses were destroyed, leaving only a handful of the drones trying desperately to protect it. As soon as the target was destroyed, Long Caster proudly announced, "Laser cannon has been destroyed! That eliminates one major threat!"

"Phew, thanks," Jaeger said with a sigh. "That thing almost cooked my tail."

"Not a problem," Naomi said, but for a split second she was distracted from her main goal. Although she knew she should have been focused on the Arsenal Bird, she couldn't get rid of the feeling something was wrong. It just felt off. So she let herself be distracted. "Avril, how are things on the ground?"

"I…don't worry about it, Trigger," Avril said, for the first time directly answering something they had said. And that just worried Naomi even more. She took a breath. "A few soldiers were crushed, but…"

"My dad, Avril. My dad. And Bandog and Genette. Georg. Are any of them dead?" Naomi asked her slowly, letting herself get angry to keep her voice from shaking. There wasn't any silence, and Naomi was barely managing to keep things together. She raised her voice a little as she repeated the question, "Avril, goddammit, are any of them dead? Is my dad dead?!"

"I said don't worry about it! He's alive, okay?" Avril responded, sounding more exasperated and worried than she did angry. "I'm not going to let him die, dumbass. He's alive. Everyone's…safe." She paused and let out a huff. "Now shut up and take down that Arsenal Bird, or all of us are gonna be dead!"

Naomi took a moment, her hands shaking, trying to build up the strength to take out the next targets. What if Avril was lying? What if Naomi was about to screw everything up? Or what if she succeeded and it didn't even matter because she just went and lost someone else? She knew she was obsessive over some impossible goal to keep everyone she cared about alive, but the thought she had failed at it was still enough to make her angry. And scared. Even if she knew she shouldn't fall apart.

"Trigger? C'mon, kiddo, pull yourself together," Clown tried, clearly hesitant to say anything but obviously aware she was on the edge of a breakdown. Or that's what it felt like at least.

"Trigger, don't let yourself be distracted. Just focus on what you need to do," Count told her, his voice breaking her out of her thoughts. He sounded firm but calm, and it was enough to bring her back around. "We still need you. I still need you, so snap out of it!"

That made her pause. Naomi tried to shove her shock and anxiety down, Count's comment getting her out of her head enough to pull herself together. She couldn't fall apart. Not yet, and not here. Not like this. Not when the others were still here and she still had a job to do. She wasn't going to let herself just give in like that when she had come all this way.

With newfound frustration and energy, Naomi pulled her plane around and dove again, looking up only to pick out her target. Once she was underneath the Arsenal Bird, she pulled up until she was sure her missile was going to hit, making it a balancing act between braking and avoiding stalling at the same time. She fired a pair of missiles, breaking off as soon as they hit so she could come around for the second one.

"One docking module destroyed!" Long Caster called out.

"Great work!" Húxiān praised.

"Strider 1, I knew you could do it," Long Caster encouraged her. "Now stay strong. Move on and destroy the rest!" Naomi didn't need to be told twice. She did the same thing she'd done with the first one, firing a missile and quickly taking it out, only this time she didn't just break off. She dove and flew under it, pretty sure she'd have to take it head on again. Long Caster cheered as he set out the new targets. "Yes! Docking module destroyed! That's two of 'em! Destroy the hooks and it'll be ready to serve!"

Naomi circled back around, facing the Arsenal Bird head on, and switched to the last of her QAAMs. By now, she only had enough missiles to last maybe one screw up, but in spite of that she didn't want to have to screw up at all. She wanted it over. She was finishing this one way or another. She angled her nose up so the target was in clear range, then locked on to one of the hooks and fired, immediately switching to the next one and firing the last QAAM before she rolled and dove to avoid colliding with the Arsenal Bird.

Judging from the cheers that erupted over the radio, she'd managed to destroy them. Long Caster was quick to join in and announce it. "All targets have been destroyed! The supply unit is ready to fall off!" Another round of cheers sounded and Naomi managed a small, relieved laugh of her own. Long Caster kept her in the game, though. "You should be able to see the rectenna where the supply unit was. Destroy that, and even the mighty Arsenal Bird is sure to feel it!"

"Good luck!" an Erusean pilot told her.

"Leave it to Trigger," Jaeger said.

"Don't let us down, Strider 1," Knocker practically ordered her.

"Leave the big fish to Trigger, we'll take down the rest of the UAVs!" Count told the others. "Go get 'em, Trig!"

Naomi flew under the Arsenal Bird, leaning her neck back as far as she could to get a view on the rectenna's base. It was…a mess, to say the least, but it was still hanging on. She pulled up and fired a set of missiles, only for one to miss and the other barely even hit it, and she realized it wasn't going to be that easy. And she had an incredibly stupid idea. Or maybe a genius one. It would depend on whether or not she died trying to pull it off.

"Whooh boy, this is gonna be fun…" Naomi said, mostly to herself, and she circled back around to get on the right approach. She steeled herself, knowing that this time she really did have only one chance to pull it off. At least if she died it might still go down, she'd just go down with it. But she wasn't planning on that. She nervously cleared her throat. "Hey, uh…if I die, maybe you guys can keep what happened out of the history books?"

There was a pause. Then Count asked her, in the same tone she had used when he'd started yelling at the Arsenal Bird, "What the hell are you about to do?"

"I have no idea, but we're about to find out," Naomi said, trying to sound upbeat. But she was well aware that she wasn't exactly instilling confidence in any of them. It definitely wasn't making her feel any better, that was for sure. But she'd done crazier things before. She circled back around, slowing her speed and trusting her wingmen to keep the drones off of her, and she waited until she was directly underneath the APS unit. Then, with everything she had in her, she pulled a high-G turn until she was in a straight vertical climb in line with her target, firing two missiles and immediately switching to the pulse lasers.

It was all she could do to keep herself from crashing or passing out, already feeling the strain on her body, but she pushed through and pulled the trigger on her pulse lasers like her life depended on it. Technically, it pretty much did. She didn't break off, keeping up the climb and firing it. There was an explosion from the center of the Arsenal Bird and Naomi closed her eyes and throttled up, flying through the smoke and praying she wasn't about to crash straight into it. When she heard a symphony of startled and victorious cheers, however, she opened her eyes as her plane cleared the smoke. And above her she could see the sky.

She'd done it. She had flown through the Arsenal Bird.

"Yes! Rectenna base confirmed destroyed!" Long Caster said, breaking his usual professionalism to join in on the cheering. Naomi managed a smile, everyone else's joy at the victory contagious…they did it.

Naomi broke off her climb, leveling her plane out and turning just in time to see the Arsenal Bird burst into flames. It broke apart at the center, which started a chain reaction until every propeller was on fire and it began to fall towards the ocean. Jaeger was the first one drawn out of the celebration by the sight. "Long Caster…oh my God, the Arsenal Bird is on fire!"

"All aircraft, break off! Arsenal Bird is losing altitude rapidly!" Long Caster informed them all, though most of them were still caught up in the celebration. By now, though, no one was attacking anymore. "Confirmed, the Arsenal Bird is going down! I knew you wouldn't let us down, Strider 1!"

"Do you know where that thing's gonna land?" Naomi asked as she tried to catch her breath again, the muscles in her arms and legs trembling as the adrenaline started to fade off. Although she was pretty sure she'd cut a few years off her life the way things were going, she wasn't crashing too hard. Yet. Once she landed that would probably be a different story. For now, she was more worried about the people in the city, even though it didn't look like it would be crashing over any solid ground.

Long Caster confirmed this a moment later. "Don't worry, it looks like it'll be open water," he told them all. "All aircraft, avoid the target's path. It isn't a good look if you die after the battle."

All of them formed up on Naomi as she banked, bringing her plane towards the space elevator. She wasn't in a hurry to get there, though, keeping a slow and steady pace so she could watch the Arsenal Bird go down. It stayed in mostly one piece, crumbling bit by bit, then it hit the water and the wings split in two as it began to sink. Jaeger let out a short whistle. "There go the last of the Rocs."

"Even in death, that thing is intimidating," Count said. He took a moment, then let out a breathy laugh. "I can't believe you pulled a dumbass stunt like that…flying through it. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"I nearly gave myself one," Naomi said with a laugh of her own, pretty sure her heart rate was only just starting to go back to normal.

"Is everything okay on the ground?" Tabloid asked suddenly, almost sounding a bit hopeful. He also sounded nervous.

Things were quiet for maybe a minute before Avril's voice came over the radio, a lot more subdued than usual, like she was fighting to keep it together. "The fighting's stopped down here, now that the Arsenal Bird and their General is gone. They've lost. I think they realize that," she said, though she was mainly talking to the public watching and listening in as she continued. "Can you see this? Do you see how many people we lost? This is just one of the many sides of war and what it does. Some of these people weren't even soldiers, they just wanted their homes back. All of this over a glorified radio tower."

"That's oversimplifyin' it a bit," Clown muttered with a sigh.

"Maybe, but we know as well as anyone that she's right," Kathryn answered him.

Hans let out a sigh. "We should also know as well as anyone that this isn't just going to go away."

Naomi kept quiet, but she had a nagging feeling that they weren't done yet. Actually, she pretty much knew that they weren't. Even if the Radicals themselves surrendered, they still hadn't worked out that mess with those drones they supposedly had ready, which was also apparently a decades old problem with Gründer Industries they needed to solve. Forget about just settling this war, there was way more to it than just the Lighthouse and the Arsenal Birds and General Shilage.

She also started to wonder again if her father was one of the ones killed. Avril wasn't the kind of person to sugarcoat things to make anyone feel better, and she'd always been brutally honest with Naomi, but a lot of things had changed. She was softer at times. And she knew a delicate situation when she saw one, though how could she not? Maybe she just didn't want to tell her over the radio, for the whole world to hear. Naomi was pretty sure she wouldn't have taken it well. But if she got all that way just to find out he had died…well, she wasn't going to take that well, either.

Swallowing the knot in her throat, though, she tried to shove it away again. If he was dead she would know. Avril wouldn't have lied about that. If he was alive, though, she started to wonder what condition he was in. If she hadn't lost him, then how close to losing him was she? She really didn't do well when she was left to her own thoughts.

Down below, Major Grimm's voice sounded over the radio as the coalition's ground troops confronted the remaining Radicals. "All Erusean forces around the space elevator! If you surrender now, we will not attack!"

There was a minute or two of silence, then an Erusean officer responded to them. "Our unit surrenders. Without the General and the Arsenal Bird…we know when we're beat," he said, and he sounded as exhausted and defeated as all of them felt after that fight. Even if they were the winners here and he wasn't. "The rest of you guys better not throw away your lives either. We're done."

Another pause, then Major Grimm's voice came over the radio as Naomi and the coalition fighters reached the elevator. He sounded more relieved than he did when they'd found them at Anchorhead. "We've won. The space elevator is ours."

"Hey, Cossette, is everything okay up there?" Avril asked the Princess now that the fight was finally over.

"I'm still breathing. That fight looked…it was terrifying," the Princess replied. "Is everyone alright?"

"Not everyone, but most of us are still hanging in there," Avril told her slowly, sounding a bit distracted. Likely by the fact she still had a role to play in disarming the Radical soldiers. "But it's over now, so I think we're doing okay. If you can hang out up there a bit longer we'll send someone to get you down."

"No. Don't worry about me. Please, just look after everyone and take care of your people," the Princess told her, like her own safety was an afterthought. "I'll just parachute down. It's not a problem."

"Huh? Have you ever even done that before…?" Avril asked her, clearly taken aback. Naomi couldn't blame her, really.

Before anything else could be said, their victory went sour.

"Warning! I'm picking up two incoming bogeys!" Long Caster warned right before two new contacts appeared on radar. Naomi looked towards them and squinted, managing to pick out two dark specks making a dive from high altitude, drawing closer. Long Caster, trying to stay on top of everything, seemed a bit taken aback by them. "Hang on, are these…"

"Wait, are those the drones that…" Avril also trailed off, shocked even though she could probably barely see it.

It was Wit that confirmed what everyone was thinking, being the closest to the aircraft as they swooped in. "They actually deployed them…" he muttered, then in an instant he raised his voice. "It's the ADF-11! The Ravens! Three Strikes, everyone, get out of the way now!"

The Princess sounded a little more urgent as she spoke next, but still calm as she declared, "I'm coming down. I'll see you all on the ground."

"No, wait!" Avril called out, probably worried another dogfight was about to break out. And she wasn't wrong. "Cossette, you idiot!"

As the Princess jumped from one of the platforms, something Naomi only noticed from the parachute that appeared a few seconds later, the drones reached the space elevator and time seemed to slow for a split second. They were massive, dark, sharp looking aircraft that fit their namesake well, and Naomi realized from the way they ignored the Sol Squadron pilots and the Princess and flew right past them and the elevator that she was their target. Like they'd been sent there just to fight her. The sudden warning in her ear indicating they were tracking her was another giveaway.

Just as Naomi was about to turn and fight them, ready to throw whatever she had left at them, Count abruptly broke from Strider Squadron's formation and throttled up, splitting off from her wing before she even realized what he was doing. He flew past her like a bullet, and once the drones picked up his plane they both made a sharp turn to follow him as he pulled up and tried to shake them.

"Enemy on my six!" Count called out as he kept the climb, the drones closing the distance between themselves and him in a matter of a few seconds. Naomi immediately banked and moved to follow, refusing to let up on the throttle until she reached them, feeling adrenaline and fear rush through her again as she did. She had to reach them in time. Count had gotten himself into that mess, apparently to get them off her, and as angry as she was at him and their new enemies it hurt when she heard him speak again. Like he was trying not to panic. "Shit, those guys are bad news! Trigger! Boss! I got you the opening, now do something!"

"Shit! Count! Hang in there, I'm coming!" Naomi called out, like that was somehow going to help make the situation any better. She switched over to the last of her missiles, which probably wouldn't be enough even if she did manage to hit one of them, but she had to try. She still wasn't within range to fire though. And it was driving her crazy. "C'mon, c'mon, lock on dammit!"

The Ravens followed him, firing a pair of missiles each that Count could barely dodge. He made a sharp dive as soon as they fired, grunting from the effort and strain of it, and the missiles immediately changed course to follow him straight down along with the drones. Naomi had to match their reaction time, changing course and managing to jump on them. But they'd already fired. If he evaded that…it would be a miracle. Either way, she wasn't going to let them get away.

"Strider 2, missile inbound!" Húxiān called out to him.

"Dammit, Trigger, get the bastards already!" Clown snapped as he and the others all started to form a perimeter, readying themselves to engage if they had to.

"Goddammit, I'm trying! I can't get a damn lock on them! Shit!" Naomi gritted her teeth as she kept spitting out swears to vent her growing fear and frustration, trying to match the drones as they evaded her attempt to get a lock on them. And Count was struggling to outrun their missile. "Dammit, Count, if these drones don't kill you I will! What were you thinking?!"

"This isn't the time for that!" Count snapped at her, sounding just as scared and frustrated as she was. "Just take these guys out!"

Naomi finally got radar lock on one of them, but only for a second. She didn't hesitate. She fired the last of her missiles as soon as she heard the tone, and they trashed both of them but they had to break off their pursuit of Count in order to evade. She switched to her pulse lasers, ready to chase them down, but before she could she saw Count take the hit from one of the missiles. The first three harmlessly slammed into the windbreak, but as Count had moved to evade the other it managed to clip his wing.

"Count!" Naomi called out for him before she could stop herself, immediately checking her radar. He wasn't dead. He hadn't gone down yet.

The missile exploded into a puff of smoke and Count grunted in pain, leveling out and breaking away from the elevator while their allies all scattered and moved to engage the drones. Naomi knew she probably should have engaged as well, but with an injured wingman and her pulse lasers she didn't think twice about who she was backing up. She turned her plane to follow Count's, ready to fight off the drones off of him again if she had to while the rest of the coalition all covered the two of them.

Everything was chaos again.

"Don't let them slip away!" Fencer's voice was the rallying call, taking charge now that Naomi and Count weren't in the fight.

"Shit, they're gonna be heading this way," Major Grimm spoke over the radio. "Avril! Genette! Let's get the injured to safety now!"

Long Caster's voice quickly followed, "Strider 2, you're hit. Are you alright?"

"Still breathing." Count grunted a little, still trying to catch his breath. "I don't think I'll be flying much longer, though."

"Where are we supposed to go?" Naomi asked, knowing full well that there wasn't any chance they were making it back to Tyler Island. Even without damaged planes they wouldn't have the fuel. And a civilian airport wouldn't have anything they needed to resupply, definitely not as far as ammunition went. But Count was barely managing to keep his plane steady, and they couldn't hold out here forever.

There was a pause, and then Long Caster apparently found a solution. Or had one sent his way, from the sound of things. "Ah. There's hope after all…there's an Osean carrier a few kilometers to the west," he told them, keeping as calm as he could. "Apparently it ran aground and was abandoned. It won't be easy, but it's the only place you got. Beggars can't be choosers and all that, right?"

Although Naomi didn't want to leave him, she didn't want to bail on the others either. She took a breath. "I'm going to escort Count back, then I'll get back in the air."

"No, Trigger. Forget about that, you're a prime target for them. Just escort your wingman," Jaeger told her quickly, almost startling her. "We'll hold them off as long as we can, for now you two just get to that carrier. That's all we can do."

"We'll be right behind you, promise," Skald said, trying to reassure her.

Naomi hesitated a moment, but finally took a breath as she relaxed her hold on her controls. Trying not to let them hear how tired she was, and even though she was failing miserably at that, she put on a small, halfhearted smile. "Roger that. You all better come back," she said. Then she took a breath. She banked back towards Count's aircraft so she was flying just behind his wing as they headed for the coordinates Long Caster gave them. "Hang in there, Count."

"Like I've got a choice," he said with a sigh. "Sorry, Trig."

The two of them left the battle behind, the sounds of explosions and engines behind them starting to fade little by little. As worried as she was for their allies, at that moment Count was her priority, and the whole flight she couldn't keep her eyes off his plane. His wing was trailing a long line of smoke and wavered in the air as he fought to keep it steady. They hadn't gotten out of it as unscathed or victorious as Naomi would have hoped, but at least they were all alive.

At least he was alive.