Idk know about C-130s then what i've seen on NCIS or Wikipedia so if you haven't to have flown in a cockpit of one, please forgive my "Jodie" ignorance.
When Tony awoke, his head was absolutely killing him. The world around him was still shaking. He realized he wasn't trapped under rubble in another plane crash. He wasn't back on the Venezuelan beach or back in his prison cell. He was still in the air. But it was not a pleasant flight. They were under attack. His double vision began to set aside as he looked out of the cockpit window. They were still flying but the Venezuelans were doing their damnedest to take them down. Not a second went by without a burst of anti-aircraft fire exploding everywhere around, desperate for blood. The entire plane was shaking from the near-miss explosions and Chuey's evasive maneuvers. The puffs of black smoke continued to pop in the sky outside the cockpit, as if the Venezuelans below were throwing giant fire-crackers up into the air.
Tony could not move his head. His brain commanded his body to sit up, but his body failed to obey. A blow to the head will rattle the brain, even if the force from the blow is the explosive energy of nearby exploding anti-aircraft shells. It will shake the brain enough that the electrical connections, momentarily, are not working. It could be anywhere from a complete irretrievable loss of consciousness or a something as simple as a stun. If Tony were to describe his situation, it was a period of time where he was somewhat aware of what was going on but was unable to respond to it. The lights were on, but there was nobody home. Thank Christ he was surrounded by friends, or he'd be toast.
An escapee was slightly slapping Tony in the cheeks to wake him, who slumped back. His ears were still ringing as his vision stabilized and the three men in front of him was just one man. The man's lips moved but no sound besides the ringing could be heard. Tony just gave a blank stare out the window, his brain refusing to put Tony in action. That was until Chuey slapped on the back of his head. That trip down memory lane brought some weirdly nostalgic memories flashing back into Tony's mind. Yeah, a head slap inspired nostalgia in Tony.
Gibbs.
Gibbs told him to get home safely. And I'll be damned if I get shot down again.
"I said WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO NOW, SENOR?!" the boy, couldn't be older than twenty-one, screamed as Tony's hearing returned. Tony nodded for the boy to strap in. The boy returned Tony's stare but eventually relented. The radio was going crazy from the other escapees' panicked screaming. Tony's fluency in Spanish returned at that moment to hear the fear of God in their voices.
"We got flak everywhere!"
"We're getting overwhelmed!"
"Orale! I can't see through all this fucking smoke!"
"FUCK, we're hit!"
Tony shook his head clear of all the mental clouds. Reaching forward, his head still splitting, he grabbed the radio and flipped on the transmitter button.
"I WANT EVERYONE TO SEPARATE! JOSE YOU'RE WITH ME! BREAK NOW!" Tony finally screamed in his harshest Spanish. The other pilots apparently heard them as the group split into groups of twos. Tony grabbed the controls and joined Chuey in piloting the aircraft. The flak kept on barraging the escapees. There was never a moment where the plane was not shaking. Even though the flak wasn't hitting them, the concussive forces from the explosions rocked the giant behemoth.
"JESUS!" Tony cried. "What the -?!"
A second explosion felt like someone had punched the plane from its belly and made the plane jump. The shock wave caused Tony to bump his head on the ceiling, further disorientating him. As he tried to regain his senses, he smelled the telltale scent of ozone burning. Something was on fire. He looked back to see the panels on the starboard wall.
"WE GOT A FIRE!" Tony cried out. He tried to get out of his seat for the fire extinguisher but the original blow and weakened him to where he couldn't stand. He became disoriented and immediately fell back into his seat. "Somebody get that electric fire out! We got a fire back there!"
The prison chaplain unbuckled his seat belt and rushed to the cockpit.
"Where is the extinguisher?" he yelled. Chuey pointed with his thumb and the chaplain reached under the seat and withdrew the extinguisher. The man pulled the pin and let loose. The room smelled of foam as the chaplain sprayed the cockpit with aluminum hydroxide. Tony choked on the fumes of the foam, waving his hand to give himself some breathing room. If this level of heat kept up, or somehow got worse, they wouldn't be jailbirds for long.
"Jose, everyone, get up into those clouds right now!" Tony ordered on the radio. "If we stay in this shit storm, we're dead men!"
"We're with you, Italiano!"
Even before Tony realized he forgot to say his instructions in Spanish, he saw the far away escapee planes pulling up into the clouds. The VeeZees on the ground adjusted their fire. As Tony pulled the yoke back, his radar screen indicated they had company incoming.
"We got a fighter incoming!" Chuey called.
Tony grabbed the intercom, looking outside the cockpit window. This wasn't a jet fighter with a bubble canopy with an almost unlimited line of sight. This was a fat and slow transport aircraft. Military version of an airliner. "Anyone see anything?"
"We got a Su-30 incoming on our tail!" the response came. The image of a Soviet-invented Sukhoi Su-30 fighter came into Tony's head.
A quick look over before takeover imprinted on Tony that he was flying the least armed C-310 one could imagine. A double .50 caliber Browning machine gun turret jerry-rigged in the rear. Tony's place was first to take off, but the other planes were more armed. Tony crossed himself and prayed his plane made it home.
God help us. Kate, can you hear me? Lend me your wings, baby girl. For you are my angel. Let God's will be done. Be with me.
AMERICAN AIRSPACE
Gibbs called in a favor from Fornell and got him, Kate and McGee express travel to Gitmo. Got Presidential approval to have traffic cleared for them. The entire flight took only a few hours. But Kate was the most visibly upset the entire time. Gibbs figured it would be the same amount of time as Tony would fly to Guantanamo Bay. Gibbs knew Tony wouldn't risk being over all that open water any more than he could.
"Gibbs, I can almost feel him calling out to me," Kate confessed. "We almost died together and now he's risking his life to come home."
"He's relying on you to get him home," Gibbs advised, sipping on his coffee. "And we'll be there with you. We're bringing him home today. Is that understood, McGee?"
"Huh? Uh, yes, sir. We're bring DiNozzo home today."
Kate reached out with her feelings and tried to pour out her feelings to reach out to Tony. She poured all her hopes, anxiety and dreams. Even her love. Kate could no longer deny her feelings. When Tony was here, she could
VENEZUELAN SKY
Tony reached for the radio again. "Anyone got eyes on him?"
"He's on us!"
"PULL UP INTO CLOUDS, NOW!" Tony screamed.
The plane at the farthest back, called "tail-end Charlie" by Vietnam-era fighter pilots, was not so lucky as the rest.
Escapee pilot Hajo Placencia fought to survive. Immediately after a burst of flak hit the plane dead center, it started into a dive. Placencia was using rudder, yoke... Anything. Anything he could possibly do to fly the airplane. But it was useless. The Hercules was unresponsive. Tony looked mournfully in the mirrors as the plane continued a slow outside loop, its nose pointing closer to the ground. The movement was creating extensive negative gravity forces. If not for the seat belts, the pilots would've bumped their heads on the ceiling. They were reaching out as much as their arms could for the yokes. As the airplane totally nosed over, almost completely on its back pulling negative gravity forces, the huge motions started tearing the airplane apart violently.
With the entire plane almost entirely flipped over, the outer-most part of the wings began shuttering before ripping off just a few inches away from the engines. Almost simultaneously, the rest of the right-wing snapped off. The propellers on the outermost right engine separated, still spinning towards the ground like a fidget spinner. A second later, the fuselage snapped in two, also finally dislodging the left-wing. The tail spiraled the rest of its journey to the ground. The nose briefly went up, throwing out Hajo Placencia and his co-pilot.
The Escapees were shocked by what had occurred, but they were too far in to turn back. They continued their flight to freedom.
"We're too deep into this to turn back now," Jose called over the radio. "But pray for our comrades. I doubt it but pray God may influence Comrade Chavez to be merciful."
The Su fighter of course decided to target Tony's plane. Because why not? Tony groaned. The Su-30 dropped from the sky to attack. Streaking in full throttle, weapons blazing. But he built up too much speed in the dive. The pilot chopped power and pulled up with right rudder. The move put him abreast of Tony's right wing, maybe 25 feet away from each other, almost in formation. Tony could not maneuver his slow plane away. This was it. If he got hit, then he got hit. He was so close to the clouds, and he was determined to get into the clouds. The engines howled as Tony clawed for altitude. The Su-30 inched closer and closer to Tony, its weapons inching closer to its mark. Tony and the enemy pilot could see each other clearly. They both shook their heads at each other.
A moment's silence acknowledgement between two warriors and the fight continued. The Su-30 was hanging on a stall just as Tony was, but he started to come back just a bit so he could get an angle on the American escapee. Tony teetered on the edge of stalling as the giant C-130 pulled towards safety. After eighteen agonizing minutes after takeoff, the remaining planes finally broke into the clouds, Tony's plane closely flanked by the Su-130. The enemy pilot shook his head at Tony, rocked his wings in salute, and broke off.
Tony crossed himself as his co-pilot, well the main pilot, entered coordinates towards America.
To freedom.
To Kate.
I am high as fuck and I'm now gonna watch DnD memes while cuddling with my wife.