errow was very dissatisfied. Despite getting the aurora stone back, their methods had been called cowardly and dishonorable. And now, instead of staying and defending the terra from the coming attack, they were being sent away to get help from other squadrons.
"Like…we got Carver. The guy, no. The terra's hero was caught with the Aurora stone red-handed. And we are being punished?!" Finn complains as he paces in front of the couch every team member, minus Stork is sitting on, watching the loose cannon play out.
"It's because you shot him in the back while the duel he and Aerrow were having was still going," Stork informs from the controls as he pilots the Condor.
"The duel ended!" Finn points out. "He was walking away and about to get away on his skimmer. I say that counts as Carver won. No offense man," he quickly apologizes to Aerrow.
"Not to how the people watching perceived it," Aerrow informs. It was obvious they were expecting him to whip out something at the last moment and win as every sky knight should, but he didn't. He had no secret move ready to turn it around. He was partially disarmed and was beaten and he knew it.
"There should be a rule of 'exiting the ring'," Finn complains, doing some air quotes.
"Besides that, what's our first stop?" Piper asks, leaning around and looking past Finn at Stork.
"Closest terra is terra Amazon…hello. What is going on there," Stork says, slowing the ship as he notices some activity at some of the farmlands on Atmosia.
The others get up from their seats and go over to the windows to see what Stork is looking at. "What…is that?" Finn starts to ask.
"Looks like a death trap," Aerrow thinks.
"Looks very spiky," Junko comments.
"Looks powerful so maybe a new turret system?" Piper suggests.
Stork frowns as he looks over every part of the new machine sitting near the fields and a crowd surrounding it with someone sitting on top of the middle area facing the people coming up to it. "It's…a new farming machine," he concludes, observing what every part could do, especially if the machine is near a ready-to-harvest field and not in a public square or shop.
"No way. It has to be some sort of defense system. It's way too big," Finn dismisses.
Stork simply points back at it as the machine starts up and they watch as it moves forward in the field. At that point, they see it as if it erases the crops of the field it moves over. Even they see a container on the backend slowly filling up with fresh clean grain while the ground it leaves behind is scraped and sprayed on with something. "Harvester, it seems like. And one that does almost ten jobs in one go," Stork observes.
"Got to be another product from the Ravens…would also explain why there are so many of them on Atmosia and none leaving," Piper says.
"Yeah. That was super weird seeing those flat airships just hanging out near the port and not doing anything," Finn remembers.
"Must have cargo or maybe more of those that they are selling," Piper points out.
"Okay…do we have to worry about any invention that might be…you know, made for war rather than farming again and turned on us?" Junko asks, putting everyone into thought as Stork slowly speeds up as he sees the crowd going to a table with paperwork on it and figures they must be getting contracts for the machine now.
"The Ravens, if they did, wouldn't sell to both sides because of their stance, Junko. Remember what the old man told us? Dustin believes in a concept called free trade," Piper reminds.
"But that means they go where profit is to be had…and I would imagine the Cyclonians have a lot in their vault to pay immediately on the spot," Aerrow points out.
"That's business Aerrow. They have a lot of people who need to pay for many things. Even with just the six of us and the Condor, it can get costly," Stork informs, being the unofficial treasurer of the squadron. The issue is even amplified when one of the pipes near him bursts open with steam and he knocks a fist on it to block up the leak again. "Case in point," he mentions, nodding his head to what just happened. "Now combine that with food supplies, weapons, crystals, armor, tools, medical supplies, spare parts for a ship, and all their members. They can't exactly afford to be picky," Stork adds as Finn, Junko, Aerrow, and Radar's heads start to spin when he brought out all the math.
"I should have gone into building stuff," Finn voices after a while as he can only imagine the money that the Ravens must be rolling in.
"Basically Aerrow, the expenses could be equivalent to most squadrons combined. Without being funded by all the terras," Piper explains.
"Maybe we can get a few terras to sponsor us? I can do some headshots," Finn suggests, giving some poses.
"Even that's an issue. The Rex Guardians, the oldest, famous, and very rule-following team are having money issues and are trying to cut back on things. Though that's hard enough with still trying to look good," Piper explains, rolling her eyes.
"Also to do that, every terra basically requires them to stay and defend only their terra," Stork reminds.
"I think rolling squadron for a few terras might be good publicity. Imagine the Storm Hawks who can fight for many terras at once and still come out on top, even by the skin of their teeth," Finn dramatizes.
"They will never go for it. The raiders a few years back show that most are just in it for their terras," Stork informs.
"We can try…especially if we are flat broke," Finn suggests. "In fact…how much do we have to our name right now?"
Stork hums as he taps his chin, muttering some random numbers and calculations. "After what regular expense for today, three thousand sounds good?"
"We need more," Finn drones out with a flat tone.
"I'm sure we can figure something out. Heck, if we end up in battle and can take some parts of skimmers from the Cyclonians alone, it should net us something or at least parts for ourselves," Junko comes up, smiling at the idea.
"Plus, since we have been officially recognized, the council will pay us annually as well," Piper adds.
"So stirring back to the Ravens. I doubt that all the terras could afford to be their sole customers and keep on all their sky knights," Stork informs.
"But then it's a toss-up between protection and whatever they are selling. How can they choose when we have a war coming?" Junko adds, gesturing in the direction of Cyclonian territory.
"Junko. Let me put it this way, the Ravens basically represent the economy and all the stuff we take for granted which now includes our food. How can you fight a war without food and money to pay our defenders and buy everything they need to fight it?" Stork asks.
"In the end, money doesn't discriminate between terras. Gold's value for example doesn't change if it comes from either Cyclonia or terra Atmosia," Piper adds.
"You get why now?" Stork asks.
"…I think so…?" Junko asks, unsure.
"Alright, Junko. Let me put it this way. No money means no snack, none of Finn's guitars, no parts for the skimmers, no crystals, and no fuel for the Condor," Piper explains as Junko gets a horrible look at the no snacks part.
"He got it," Finn mentions dryly, seeing the expression.
"Without money, we can't be the Storm Hawks, and someone who casts as big of a shadow as the Ravens they need so much more," Stork says, starting to get back to piloting the ship as Aerrow mules over what was said.
"You think we can even afford a giant harpoon like theirs?" Finn suddenly asks.
"They don't use that anymore. Magazine in the drawer of the table the record player is on. Page six," Stork instructs.
Finn blinks and walks over to the desk before opening it up to find the magazine of 'Soaring Airships'. He then opens to page six and reads through an article titled 'New Weapon to Replace Harpoon?' He then starts reading through it before reading aloud to all of them. "While the harpoon can, in the end, prove effective against enemies so far, whether they be cruisers or giant sky sharks. In the end, the harpoon cannon was always a temporary main weapon. They have had a storied history of success in early airships and hunting skiffs, but the expense of making the harpoons to replace ones lost after firing them makes them not viable even if you can sometimes fire the same harpoon multiple times. Plus they might break on impact." Finn frowns after a while and groans. "Dang it. It would have been cool to have a harpoon."
"Don't think about it buddy. Besides, we wouldn't have anywhere to put it. The Condor wasn't designed for that big of a weapon anyways," Junko assures.
"But we can try. And fire more things out of it if we don't have a harpoon," Finn argues.
"Moving we should head to terra Amazonia to get reinforcements first," Piper suggests.
"Okay," Finn starts. "Amazonia first, then harpoon idea," he suggests, making everyone shake their head.
Before they can do anything the sensor alert goes off and Stork uses the viewfinder to locate a cyclonian fleet flying in their direction. "Well, we got pain and suffering incoming," Stork mentions, giving Aerrow the viewfinder to look through.
"Cyclonians. Everyone! Man your skimmers," Aerrow instructs.
Finn starts to freak out and grabs a weapon before heading to his skimmer to attach it. Piper meanwhile rambles about a plan they can do before changing to another one as she runs through the supplies in her head. All the while, Finn is still attaching more things to his skimmer. And Stork…is creating a last will that he promptly throws away since they might be all destroyed by the end anyway.
"Dark Ace, the Condor is moving to engage us," a talon says walking over to him. "It appears to have been in transit when spotting us. We are keeping our eyes peeled for any other airships and skimmers. The two Thunder Strike cruisers on the terra are not yet launched. We also spotted several more cruisers but they are all in Raven's port. So they are most likely noncombatants."
Dark Ace frowns, hearing the fact that the Condor is back. It was one thing to get rid of it back then, it's another to hear that it is back with an even fresher crew of people. All young ones too. "Engage the Condor. Split off a group to keep them busy. The rest of us go for the terra," he orders.
"We confirm only five so far. We will be sending our cruisers ahead to engage the other enemies," the attache informs.
"Do it then. Make sure any other sky knights stay scattered and don't form up. We don't want an army to form up as we go for the prime target," Dark Ace orders, checking his skimmer.
"Roger," the attache informs, going off to inform the rest of the groups.
Dark Ace hums as he watches the attache leave before climbing onto his skimmer. "At least I am not dealing with idiots anymore," he mutters before revving his skimmer and riding off with another squad of riders.
Snipe and Ravess squads followed him. In total, they were eighteen flying in tight formation, and coming out of the Condor to face them are three skimmers, one so loaded down it would be easy to take out with a single pass. "Attack!" Dark Ace gives the order as the destroyer moves in to engage the Condor itself.
The three squads, hearing that, broke off on three attack vectors to pincer the skimmers. Dark Ace nearly laughs when one of the storm hawks flew right at him to fight him in a sky duel. This must be the sky knight of the squadron, but he did seem familiar to the Dark Ace for some reason. Giving a hand signal, Dark Ace's squad split off going to join either Ravess or Snipe's attack while he dueled.
As the two sky knights and former sky knight fly at each other, Dark Ace jumps up and stands on his skimmer, energy blade at the ready. Aerrow also takes out his blade, lighting it up with energy. Dark Ace chuckles before jumping over the young sky knight's swing, missing him entirely. Dark Ace smirks even as he lands on the wing, watching the newbie look back at his skimmer flying away.
"What a young…not so promising sky knight," Dark Ace speaks up, surprising Aerrow, and makes him turn around to see Dark Ace walking so calmly across his wing. "Since you seem still green, allow me to give you a few lessons and rules," he starts before lurching forward so fast, Aerrow barely has time to react as he grabs his neck. "There are none. You only live and stay flying if you win. And I never lose," Dark Ace seethes before chuckling and throwing Aerrow back into the cockpit. He keeps laughing before jumping and landing back in his skimmer as it rolls around and flies off.
Finn tries desperately to hit the Talon's skimmers that he is tailing, but they seem to be taunting him as they easily evade his shots. Finn's weighed-down skimmer is not only slowing him down a lot but also throwing off his aim. The talons are doing their job well as they are to lure skimmers into tailing them to set up to be flanked easier. Finn never realizes this as Ravess closes in a bit cocky seeing Finn's skimmer and correctly judging him as being very new to combat or this is his first engagement before she fired her arrow. The arrow hit Finn's left wing joints, blowing the entire wing off, making the young sharpshooter scream a very girly scream as he lost his skimmer.
Meanwhile, the destroyer bore down on the Condor, unloading cannon shot after shot onto it. The Condor returned fire but it isn't about to do much against the enhanced shields of the Destroyer as its own shields start to buckle.
"Shields are down," Stork yells, looking at all the gauges red lining. "We are getting clobbered," he warns as he tries to steer and sideswipe a wing of the destroyer. "If we don't get away from the destroyer's cannon range now, the Condor will go down," Stork exclaims, looking at Piper as she tries to keep watch.
"Stork," Piper complains, looking at him indigently. "What about the others?"
"Oh," Stork starts. "They should run too," he whispers before driving the Condor away as it starts to smoke with whatever shields struggling to recover from the onslaught of cannon fire.
"Should we pursue?" a talon asks on the bridge of the destroyer to the Attache.
The Attache pauses as she gives it some thought before replying. "No. Proceed to Atmosia to aid our cruisers in securing the airspace."
"Yes ma'am," the talon agrees, driving the destroyer towards the capital.
"Wait…they aren't chasing," Piper notices, watching the destroyer flying away. "They are…heading towards Atmosia. We have to radio ahead," she yells afraid as she turns towards Stork.
"No need. The other squadrons are engaging Talons as we speak," Stork says, looking at Atmosia with binoculars and seeing one of the sky knights', Thunder Strike, cruisers damaged and on fire, in some parts, as it battles the same class of ship that Cyclonia had brought.
"Can we still provide support?" Piper asks, trying to see if their airship is still viable.
"Unless you want to lose the Condor, then no," Stork states with a finality in his tone.
"We have to do something," Piper protests.
"Piper, there is nothing we can do," Stork says as Junko's skimmer crashes into the Condor's runway after Snipe had gotten a direct hit on its engine.
"Uhhh…" Junko starts, getting out of his skimmer wreckage. "We're losing out there! Any ideas?!" he calls out, looking at the bad state of his ride.
"Stork, there must be something at least?" Piper asks, trying to find Aerrow in this mess of a battle.
Stork murmurs as he looks around at whatever isn't shaking or blowing steam. "Well…we could just pick up Aerrow and give a breather?" he suggests.
"Running away?" Piper asks, surprised.
"Tactical retreat," Stork corrects. "Where is he anyway?" he asks, looking out the window to find his skimmer.
"Flying towards Dark Ace again," Piper informs, finding the two going at each other.
"On our last working Air Skimmer III Ultra?" Stork asks, knowing this is going to hurt them.
Aerrow grits his teeth as he angles his skimmer towards Dark Ace's. The man even keeps smirking at him like easy prey to a predator. Aerrow looks at the readouts on his skimmer with a glance, finding that one of them is enough. He then breaks hard, spinning his skimmer around and aiming up into the sky. Dark Ace looks intrigued and gives a scoff as he follows to give an amusing effort. Aerrow, finding that Dark Ace is following, activates the afterburners. He grips the handles and leg holders hard as he is shot up into the air much quicker, that Dark Ace looks impressed the kid is holding on with that much force coming down on him.
The engines start to burn up but remain stable enough for these quick few seconds. Though, all the damage from the battle has ramshackle the rest of the ride and the surrounding areas around the intakes. A piece suddenly comes loose and jams into the intake line, choking the engine for a quick moment. Aerrow hears the engine sputter from one side only and immediately jumps off. The heavy imbalance of air and high fuel intake causes the crystal fuel to suddenly ignite as the skimmer explodes into pieces.
Dark Ace looks surprised at the sudden turn of events before noticing the boy coming at him. Aerrow, using this last chance, takes out his blades and aims toward Dark Ace. Dark Ace, huffs and holds up his sword before swiping away toward Aerrow. Aerrow barely has time to move away but tries to spin himself out, holding his blades toward the leader. But Dark Ace's quick swipe and pure strength easily catch the whirlwind strike and send the man away effortlessly.
Aerrow grunts, finding himself being thrown away from the attack. He grunts before trying to catch the handles at his sides and opening his glider wings. Aerrow cries out at the sudden wind catch as he glides through the air, trying to find Dark Ace. Only for a sudden crystal bolt to hit one of his wings and send him spinning to the ground. Aerrow, seeing the ground coming up too quickly, braces himself and curls up as he crashes into the ground and in a deep roll on the capital square.
Dark Ace laughs as he lands his switchblade and rides up to the injured Aerrow. "That is the problem with the discontinued III Ultras. The engines tend to explode around every dozen and a half sorties," Dark Ace says, walking up to the down sky knight as the remaining airborne sky knight Thunder Strike cruiser crashes on the terra a bit away.
Aerrow grunts, trying to look up at the man as the rest of the cyclonian forces fly above them towards the tower. "I will say this…it kept up with yours at least. And I gave you a run," he says proudly.
"Kept up?" Dark Ace asks before chuckling. "I didn't even push my ride into third gear. The standard Switchblade is superior to the Ultra in all things but maneuverability and fuel efficiency. You weren't even close. You can only say that because you're so inexperienced," Dark Ace informs as the prison is attacked by Snipe and his group from the looks of the front gate flying a bit away from the direction of the prison.
Aerrow frowns before grunting in pain as his adrenaline is slowly wearing off. Dark Ace huffs dismissively as he walks back to the skimmer. "And for the record, if you try to fight me again, I am now one to zero with you. Stew in that for a while," he points out, getting on his skimmer as others ride up with the aurora stone in hand. "An even better prize than dealing with a recruit," he announces, making sure everyone in the square sees the stone in his hand. "Remember this day, all of you. This is our response to your unwarranted recent attacks on our terras," Dark Ace proclaims.
"Unwarranted attacks?" Aerrow whispers in pain.
"No longer will we just take your squadrons sneaking into our territory and attempt to start uprisings and running over our people. We are once again at war!" Dark Ace proclaims as Snipe and his squad rides up with Carver riding on the back of one of the skimmers before they all take off, returning to their ships, leaving the defenders beat badly and all, but the Condor crashed on the terra.
Aerrow keeps frowning as he watches the army leave in the sky. But he soon hears footsteps running towards him and looms over to see the rest of his team approach. "Hey, guys. Everyone okay?" he asks, being helped up by Finn and Piper.
"Still assessing, but no one has turned up dead yet," Stork answers before looking at the cruiser still partially on fire from the battle it had been in.
"That's a good sign," Aerrow sighs, looking where the Cyclonian army has left in the distance. "Dark Ace mentioned something about unwarranted attacks. And about running over people. I remember that one, but the attacks…is there a scuffle we don't know about?" he asks, turning to Stork.
"Could be a squadron attacked, but we haven't heard about it. The one thing I know is, the council won't let this lie," Stork says ominously.
"I see. No stray shots or damage to our facilities or cruisers on Atmosia then?" Dustin asks over the radio to the manager of the Atmosia headquarters of his team.
"None thankfully. I will say, they made an effort to stay their shots," the manager replies.
"Get everything unloaded on the double then get our cruisers to move ours ASAP. Don't want them to try and press our ships into service for the revenge attack," Dustin instructs.
"You got it, sir. Empty warehouses and making it look like a ghost terra," the manager almost jokes.
"No need for that. Just get the cruisers out of there. We are selling the harvesters to them at the moment," Dustin informs. "I have to go. I have another communication coming in," Dustin lies before he stops responding and turns to his special radio attuned to Cyclonis's private one. "Come in Storm Front. I got news for you," Dustin says speaking in code.
The radio crackles before a low hissing voice comes through. "What is it?" Cyclonis asks.
"Just got word. Seems your errand boys got the package and left with no collateral damage," Dustin informs, knowing this would be the first she hears of it.
Cyclonis hums. "Good. At least that is done. No damage anywhere on your part I imagine?"
"Correct, but I have a quote from one of your errand boys who said, 'Remember this day, all of you. This is our response to your unwarranted recent attacks on our terras,'" Dustin reads off what he wrote down.
"…" Silence follows as Dustin raises an eyebrow at the radio. "What?" she asks, hissing heavily as Dustin guesses that her body is messing up her voice a little still.
"Yeah, thought that might have been off script so…giving you a heads up so you can head this off before it becomes a bigger issue," Dustin informs.
"I will…he has no idea what cataclysm he has started," Cyclonis seems to whisper and seeth out in such a heavy angry tone, but also a disappointing tone.
Dustin hums, giving a heavy sigh. "I can imagine. But then it's all doom and gloom so it gets in my way of working. But I am sure you will be able to salvage whatever it is you are doing," he mentions reassuringly as he picks up his pet and strokes it on top of its…head. "I will be coming in three to four weeks for a meeting and to share with you some of the things we have discovered over the last year. I think that will be a good distraction for you. As I recall, you like learning about all the new animals we discovered," Dustin says.
There is more silence on the other end, but Dustin can faintly hear some soft breathing slowing down as he leans his head around. "Yes. I do like to see what new creatures you have found. Is there a dragon among them?"
"Nothing like that, unfortunately. I would have loved to find one though," Dustin says.
"Don't we all," she laments. "Make sure you have time free and don't forget all the information on the new animals."
"It's going to be a bit harder with the war going hot again," Dustin informs.
"I can make it clean for you," she states simply.
"Well, with that, I will let you get back to work cleaning up after your subordinates," Dustin says, scratching his pet.
"Good luck with yours," she only says before hanging up.
"You are going to meet some new people soon little guy," Dustin says to his pet.
"Uhhh…" he hears and Dustin turns to the doorway, seeing Salv there with a small piece of meat in her hands. "You two need alone time?" she asks, raising an eyebrow as she walks over and tosses the meat into the air. The little pet only jumps out of his hands and snaps its jaws around the slab in one big gulp before landing on the desk with a burp. "Or should I just come back tomorrow?" she asks, sitting on the desk and crossing her legs.
"No, just got off the radio. Dark Ace is causing issues already with the war turning hot again. But, good news, no damages to our facilities or airships on Atmosia," Dustin informs.
"And how does your date fit in with that?" Salv asks, crossing her arms and smirking at her mate.
"Sickle isn't a date," Dustin says looking at his pet.
Salv hisses lowly as she keeps smirking. "You know who I mean," she reiterates, eyeing the radio for a second. "She is a healthy person to be with. I mean, you must be getting a little bored," the raptor mentions playfully.
"How do you know Sickle is a female?" Dustin asks, a bit oblivious.
Salv sighs, rolling her eyes and leaning back. "No wonder Starling and Suzy told me to watch over you," she whispers to herself. She does notice Dustin hearing that by how interested he is looking though. "Look, you got a date with Cyclonis. Don't mess it up. Plus, we need funding. A secret doesn't pay for itself…not unless we place shops on top as a front," she says out loud, looking to the side.
"Cyclon…" Dustin pauses before laughing. "A good joke. There is no way she is looking for someone yet," Dustin says smiling.
'Ok…it's going to be hard for you to catch his eye, dear,' Salv thinks sweatdropping. "Well, in any case. Free kiss," she announces, leaning forward so fast, that he hardly has time to react as she grabs his shirt and pulls him in for a quick kiss before pushing him back in his seat. "Happy?" she asks teasingly.
"A bit," Dustin says as Carbon starts to run around, playing with the metal ball in the office.
"Good," Salv giggles, leaning over and kissing him again.