Penny kept making sharp banks to keep the Petrels from getting a clear bead on the Bullhead. But it was a losing battle. Each passing moment the two fighter-bombers crept closer on the radar display.
'Can we outrun them? Head back the way we came?' Emerald asked from her seat behind Penny.
'No. This airship isn't able to travel at supersonic speeds let alone sustain that kind of flight,' Penny replied, her hands moving rapidly to tune the Bullheads performance to the best she could.
'What about shooting back? This thing still has a chin gun,' Mercury offered.
'The turret faces forwards. We'd need to be flying at them to bring it to bear,' Watts growled, 'And we're up against the technological equivalent of an apex predator in its element. They'd just fly away from us and circle back.'
'I thought you said something about this thing being built to enter denied airspace?' Emerald asked Penny.
'I did. But that is only against Grimm or Bandits. Those craft were not a factor when this airship was being built,' Penny replied.
'She's right. As much as Atlas likes to push the limits they've never had a craft solely intended for shooting down other flying vehicles. So much as it pains me to say at least the COG at large didn't start making those things,' Watts grumbled.
'If they don't make them, why the hell do they exist?' Mercury asked.
'I think they were what was being built back in Drake Bay. These must be from the first production run from the airframe and munitions programs that Miss Ramos was trying to investigate,' Penny answered.
'Wait… If that's true then they can't have pilots… The training flights alone would have risked exposing the base,' Watts said, his mind racing, 'Penny. Can you let them get in close then pull a hard manoeuvre? Something that would make them have to react with a move of their own. One even an aura user wouldn't be able to last through.'
'I… I could do that… But what about you all?'
'If it helps us ditch those things I'm up for whatever the hell we're planning here,' Mercury called.
'Agreed,' Emerald seconded.
'Alright… Please brace yourselves. I won't be able to warn you before I do the manoeuvre,' Penny said, gripping the controls as hard as she dared.
She'd already picked the place, a small pair of islands with a lot of jagged rocks rising out of the water ahead. Recusing speed outright wasn't an option, the Petrels might notice and opt to try and back off to get another shot with a missile. So she weaved them between a few islandlets, bleeding off the speed as if she was trying to lose them.
The Petrels closed more, creeping into gun range. Whoever had planned their equipment had assumed they'd knock out their targets with radar guided missiles meaning they lacked any shorter range options beyond their cannons. Just as they were about to come into range to fire the Bullhead reached the islands she'd been heading for.
The manoeuvre was something the Petrels just weren't able to do, the Bullhead struggled even with Penny and the controls. All at once she applied the airbakes, set the engines in the main body to reverse thrust and switched the two tilt jets into vertical flight mode. The aircraft protested but held as she suddenly dropped speed and jinked to the left, letting the Petrels tear past, the bursts from their own guns passing just in front of the cockpit.
Emerald, Mercury and Watts each felt the air be driven from their lungs as their forward motion was suddenly arrested by their seatbelts. Their auras each flared before reaching the point of failure, breaking as Penny moved the airship sideways. Even a person with the protection given wasn't able to resist blacking out with a move like that.
Penny however was fine, her body lacked blood and her processor wasn't affected by the move. But with them all out she opted to stop flying with the controls. Quickly opening the connection at the end of her finger and slotting it into the port on the Bullhead's controls.
At once she was moving the craft directly and with far greater control than any pilot could. The two enemy craft had pulled up and were making a sharp turn to come about, a very sharp turn. By her estimate the pilots would have been killed by the amount of force before they were even halfway through a move like that aura or not.
So they were uncrewed. That made this part much easier. Penny mapped out their flight path and then moved the Bullhead so as to offer an appetising target by making out she was trying to land in a small inlet.
As she'd hoped they took the bait. One forming up behind the other as they came in. She waited and waited, till the last moment, with a little time aside for safety. Then spun the Bullhead around aiming the chin turret at the lead Petrel.
'Salutations!' Penny shouted, triggering the guns.
To its credit the Petrel did roll out of the way, but the rounds clipped the one following is shredding its right side. The wing, the missiles under it, the intake and its tail were all riddled with holes.
Moving out of the way Penny watched the wreckage as it tumbled past them. No sign of anyone in the cockpit which was a relief. The ruined airframe crashed into the water, one down.
She was still tracking the other one. It was flying more conservatively now, not angling in for a direct attack. Perhaps shooting one down had made it switch to a more cautious attack pattern.
It loosed another missile so she reduced altitude and broke the lock. The missile lost them and slammed into the water blowing a column of water into the air. Meanwhile the remaining Petrel started a dive, ripple firing a pair of missiles before breaking off.
They weren't in a good position anymore. The Petrel could keep letting off missiles with impunity and they couldn't move or they'd just end up in another chase. Interrupting her thoughts the others were waking up.
'Ohhh. Tell me they're dead,' Mercury groaned.
'I'm afraid I was only able to get one. The other is refusing to come close enough for me to try and attack it,' Penny said, moving to keep the rockface between them at the Petrel.
'Great. At least that's half the problems gone,' Emerald grunted, 'Could you have turned any harder?'
'Sorry. It was necessary,' Penny said looking at Watts, 'Your guess was right, they don't have pilots. But this one seems to have changed its behaviour.'
'So I see. I'll have to make a note to look into an unmanned airship when I get the chance. But it's going to run out of missiles sooner or later.' Watts noted.
'It's currently holding back. Likely waiting till we're forced to land or crash due to our fuel situation. We topped up back at Drake Bay but we were approaching our limit before now.'
'Great so it's just waiting for us to bolt or fall out of the air,' Mercury muttered, before he noticed Penny's finger plugged in, 'Wait… Since when did you have a prosthetic?'
'I… Er… Well…' Penny looked at Watts begging for him to help her.
'She's always been that way,' Watts said without admitting anything.
'Oh uh great,' Mercury suggested before looking over at Emerald as an idea hit him, 'Em why don't you just use your semblance on it?' Mercury suggested.
'It's too far away and I can't just hack into it. I do people's senses, not whatever that thing uses.' Emerald snapped.
'So do something to those missiles. When one comes close just make it flip over and send it the other way.
Emerald grit her teeth, 'Grrr. I just sa-'
'Wait… That could work,' Watts said, interrupting her.'
'What do you mean that could work? I can't mess with those things!'
'Why not? You can interfere with cameras. Those missiles will see the world differently but they've got some kind of brain right?' Mercury pointed out.
'Even if I could, they're going too fast. I can't focus on them,' Emerald protested.
'Change seats with me. Next time it lets off a shot and try and get a feel for it,' Watts said, undoing his seat belts and getting up, 'Even if you can't flip it around like he suggested, just try and make it lose track of us.'
'Fine! You know what! Why not!' Emerald shouted, taking the co-pilot's seat, 'We've already gone well past common sense. What's a little more insanity!'
'Emerald,' Penny said quietly.
'What!' Emerald snapped glaring at the girl.
'You can do this. I have confidence in you,' Penny said, looking over at Emerald whilst still keeping the airship hidden from their attacker..
'I… Eh…' Emerald blinked for a moment before shaking her head, 'Whatever, just let it take a shot at us.'
'Alright one moment,' Penny said, moving so they were visible again.
Above the Petrel saw its opportunity and locked on again before firing another missile. The muntion shot off its rail and angled in on its target. Its guidance system tracks its movements precisely.
Emerald saw it and grit her teeth as she focused on it. The ranging was hard but she didn't need to worry about anything else confusing her. With scant seconds she made the connection and saw a snapshot of how the missile saw the world.
It was a strange kaleidoscope of solid shapes and blurred zones. The Bullhead appeared near exactly how it outwardly looked, but it was as if there were only the parts facing the weapon, it couldn't see anything that wasn't in front of it. She pushed the image of the Bullhead rising into the link.
Outside in the real world the other three watched as the missile arced over them and tore off into the distance before detonating. Emerald slumped forwards in her seat. Seeing her ration Penny started moving back into hiding behind another island keeping it between them and the Petral.
'Ha! I told you it would work,' Mercury called from his seat.
'Shut it. Uh. That sucked. But yeah, it turns out they're not that good at telling what I'm showing them from what's real,' Emerald said, taking a few breaths.
'Likely any countermeasures are meant to be filtered out but the COG never counted on someone able to mislead them like this,' Watts noted.
'Penny. Line us up again. Time to see if I really can make one return to sender,' Emerald said bracing herself.
Aboard the Petrel its computer was struggling to devise a response. The last missile had proven faulty, something it had logged for assessment already. That left it with questionable munitions and no supporting aircraft.
With the odds tilting further and further away from it the craft was shifting more and more towards the defensive. It wasn't able to retreat, nor could it allow the target to escape, which left it trying to remain beyond the enemy's ability to return fire. It evaluated the option of closing in again and trying to use its cannon but disregarded it, the enemy was more manoeuvrable at low speed and the odds were unacceptable.
Then the enemy craft broke from its cover. Was it trying to break contact, build up speed to try and match the Petrel? Those and a hundred other scenarios played out inside its artificial mind. But its course of action was clear, it locked another missile and fired.
It should have been a perfect shot. The angle, speed difference and signature were all perfect. But about two thirds of the way to the airship the missile started to turn and then kept turning.
Soon enough it was nearly pointing back at the Petrel. The Bullhead had also stopped running and was coming back, its course parallel with the now out of control missile. The Petrel started to try and evade, its systems concluding the weapon had been hacked somehow.
It let off its countermeasures, clouds of flares, chaff and smoke bursting from its dispensers. Yet still the missile came on, it dove and tried to break the lock the same way the airship had by putting terrain between it and the projectile. It didn't work, the missile simply levelled out above the islands and kept closing as if it could still see the Petrel.
Then with suddenness it began to shake as if unable to keep track of its target. The missile began to weave and corkscrew before exploding as its safety system kicked in. Still unsure of how the Bullhead had achieved such a level of control over its weapons the Petrel was about to try and resume its long range attacks, when a blast of green light clipped its tail.
Something small was approaching. It wasn't very fast, but with how the Petrel had been flying low it had been forced to reduce speed. Where the unknown had come from was unclear, but it was clearly hostile.
The Petrel tried to rise and increase speed but more beams were raining down on it. They pelted its airframe taking out control surfaces and damaging its engine. It fell out of the air and exploded as it hit a rock face.
Penny sighed with relief and headed back to the Bullhead. That had been close, if the COG aircraft hadn't been distracted by Emerald turning its weapon against it then it wouldn't have worked. She came up beside the airship and rolled into the open side door landing softly on the floor.
'Remind me again why you didn't just do that to start with?' Mercury shouted as he pulled the door shut.
'I'm the only one who could pilot the Bullhead in combat. Uncle Watts is fine with flying but isn't trained to perform complex manoeuvres and you and Emerald are not trained at all,' Penny said tilting her head.
'I more meant why you didn't just bolt when the fight started. I mean those things were good but you could have avoided them if they were chasing us right?'
'Oh,' Penny said blinking, 'I must admit the thought had never crossed my mind. I wouldn't leave my friends behind.'
Mercury chuckled, 'Huh… I think that is one of the few times someone has put their life on the line for me. Kind of weird having a friend.'
Penny gasped, 'So you think of me as a friend also?'
'Well uh… I guess so- AH! Too tight!' Mercury shouted as he was embraced in a crushing hug.
'Oh I'm sorry. I was a bit enthusiastic,' Penny said, letting go and stepping back.
'Yeah… I can feel that… Uh… Little warning if you do that again please,' Mercury grunted as he checked his spine hadn't been crushed to powder.
'When you two are quite done you'll want to get up here!' Watts shouted from the cockpit.
They both headed through and looked out through the cockpit window as the Bullhead approached the island. It was mostly darkstone with small plateaus of trees and grass dotting the outside. From a distance it was totally barren of any sign of civilization, some clouds rising from the middle looked natural.
But as they flew over it they realised it was hollow at the centre. Inside what must have once been a volcano was a city made out of the same dark rocks. A whole lost Kingdom hidden in such a way it could only be seen if you were right on top of it.
It was also inhabited, COG structures were sprouting out of the place like some geometric fungus. Lines of track ran along streets and many of the tallest buildings were now hosts to masts and arrays of communication equipment. They'd found what could only be a hidden base crouching in the remains of a dead city.
'Damn it we found them. And we've no way to warn Ironwood or anybody for that matter,' Watts snarled.
'We're almost out of fuel we need to land before we crash,' Penny noted looking at the gauge.
'Agreed. Let's find somewhere we can put down,' Watts said, moving them out from above the city.
They circled around part way before they spotted it. A large plateau with a cabin on it. It was almost comical, all the energy spent hiding the base and there was a building on the outer face. It was however their best hope to land with the clearing around it.
'Alright, once we're down we check that cabin. There might be a way to communicate with the Kingdoms inside,' Watts said as they set down.
'You really think they'd be dumb enough to leave something like that laying around?' Mercury asked with a snort.
'The odds are slim. But that building is clearly special with how it is by itself. Could be it's some sort of officer's residence or guest house. Regardless, it's our best option.'
'Got it. Break into someone's house, hoping they're not home since there's no way they didn't see us coming if they were and ask to use the phone. Loving the deep strategy at play here,' Mercury said with sarcasm.
'If we find a network point. I could try to see if the local network has a link back to the mainland,' Penny suggested.
'Let's try that if we get a chance. For now we just need to get insi…' Watt's words trailed off as the door to the cottage opened.
Standing in the doorway was Pyrrha Nikos. Former champion of Mistral. Wearing casual clothes and holding a pair of wooden swords.
'H… Hello,' She said looking at each of them, 'Are you lost?'
The three trespassers blinked and shared a look of confusion. They'd been bracing themselves for a lot. But this was not the person any of them could have guessed would have been here.
'You could say that,' Mercury said, trying to act casual.
The sound of a dozen rifles having their bolts racked behind them made it quite hard. They all looked back to see three squads of Gears aiming at them. With Jaune Arc looking very pissed off in the middle of their firing line.